A Polish priest finds his way home -- to Israel

A Polish Priest’s Dream of Aliyah Adopted To Survive Shoah, Jewish-Born Catholic Struggles - Donald Snyder (The Forward):

When Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel applied to immigrate to Israel as a Jew under the Law of Return last October, Israeli authorities delayed responding to his request for months.

Perhaps it was the priest’s white-band collar around his neck that had something to do with this.

Yet ultimately, Israel’s Interior Ministry did issue the 66-year-old Polish cleric, scholar and professor at Catholic University of Lublin a two-year residency visa. It was, it seems, an imperfect compromise with a priest who insists: “I am Jewish. And my mother and father were Jewish. I feel Jewish.”

Speaking through an interpreter during a phone interview, he said, “Going to Israel would be the return of the Jewish child who took the long way home.”

Read the rest.

Related

• For a Priest and for Poland, a Tangled Identity, by Roger Cohen. New York Times October 10, 1999.

Israeli Ambassador Mordechai Lewy on Catholic-Jewish relations

Mordechay Lewy, a longtime Israeli diplomat who serves as Israel's ambassador to the Holy See, was recently interviewed by the Boston Globe's Michael Paulson. Topics included the administrative powers of the Pope ("From the books you can see that it is an absolute monarchy, but it is not. Far, far from that") to Israel's interest in preserving its Christian population ("It's not a question. We are obliged to") to the thorny matter of visas and the Pope's remarks on the Holocaust ("What he contributed at Yad Vashem was a completely different approach which was an enrichment to the culture of memory, ... a wake-up from an unexpected corner for people to think a little bit differently") to the controversy involving Pope Pius XI ("It is wrong to look for any affinity between him and the Nazis. It is also wrong to say that he didn’t save Jews").

On a humorous note, there is also this:

Q: What do you actually do on a day to day basis?

A: (laughs) Try to convince Jews that the menorah is not any more in the cellar of the Vatican Museum. I'm not joking. I've had very many requests of that kind. To intervene, to find it, and to bring it back in a diplomatic pouch. There is a legend that says the menorah from the Second Temple, after the destruction, was the war booty of Titus, brought to Rome, was shown where war victories were shown, in a temple of peace. It's shown in the Arch of Titus.

Read the whole thing.

Debunking the Casualty Statistics of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights

A blogger by the name of Elder of Ziyon has been investigating the list of Palestinian dead from the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza in December '08-January '09, discovering the hundreds of those who were reported as "civilians" were, in fact, armed militants:

Our team cross-checked the names listed by PCHR with lists of "resisters" compiled by the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, lists of "martyrs" published by Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and other militant groups in Gaza, as well as from the Ma'an News Agency, Palestinian Arabic discussion groups and other sources.

Our preliminary results show that at least 287 of the people killed, that PCHR classifies as "civilians," were, in fact, militants.

PCHR's criteria to determine exactly who is a "militant" is unclear. They seem to claim that they are only counting those whom they had direct evidence were engaging in hostilities at the moment of their deaths, but this is far from clear. At any rate, the term "militant" is not a legal term, and in common usage it refers to anyone who belongs to a military or paramilitary group. The PCHR's statistics are deceptive and slanted towards creating a false impression of IDF brutality.

Read the rest.

Janina Klein Dylag - Polish "Righteous Among the Nations", dies at 87

From Zenit News (5-22-09), a report that Janina "Juana" Klein Dylag, a Polish Catholic woman who served with the underground Polish army and saved a Jewish family from the Holocaust, has died in Argentina at age 87:

Klein Dylag, along with her husband, was a member of the underground Polish army with the rank of sergeant major. Thanks to her actions, the lives of Felicia Erlich and her daughters, Danuta and Irena, were saved from Nazi persecution.

Klein Dylag learned of the plight of the Erlichs during her work in the resistance. Her own narration of their story explained how she saved them: "Felicia, together with her daughters [...] had escaped from a ghetto, where her husband was and where he ended up dying. I asked permission from my mother and we gave them refuge.

"They moved into a room in my house and did not go out until the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, because it was noticeable that they were Jewish and it was dangerous for them to be seen. The Nazis could have taken them prisoners or shot them if they were found."

See also

• Janina Klein Dylag: Polish savior was honoured The Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. April 29, 2003.
• Janina Kelin Dylag is numbered among the 5,400 Poles recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" title bestowed by Yad Vashem of the State of Israel (as of Dec. 31, 1999). (SavingJews.org)

"Never to be forgotten or denied" - Fr. Desbois' "Holocaust of Bullets"

Holocaust toll will rise even higher, says priest on trail of Nazi mass-killers - Motivated by the memory of his own father, a French soldier deported to the Ukraine by the Nazis, Father Patrick Desbois is investigating accounts of World War II massacres (and unearthing mass graves). From The Times' Roger Boyes:

At present, Paul Shapiro, of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum — which has been co-operating in Father Desbois’s body hunt — reckons that 1.5 million Jews were murdered by the Germans, their allies and collaborators in the towns and villages of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other former Soviet republics.

As Hitler’s armies pressed into Russia, the Einsatzgruppen — Operational Groups — rounded up the Jews, forced them to dig pits, strip and lie in the mud until they were shot.

Hundreds and thousands were killed even before German bureaucrats met in 1942 at the Wannsee Conference to work out the logistics of systematically murdering European Jewry and before the concentration camps were slaughtering their inmates. Father Desbois calls it “the Holocaust by bullets”.

Time is of the essence. According to Fr. Desbois, “The witnesses who I am talking to were children at the time and are now very old indeed. So far I have talked to 950.” The eyewitness accounts are harrowing:

One of his interviewees was Petrivna, a Ukrainian woman, in the village of Ternivka. The Jews, she said, were gathered in the centre of the village and taken to a large pit on the fringes of the community.

They were told to lie down, 20 at a time, and shot in the back of the head. “It’s not easy to walk on bodies,” Petrivna told the priest.

“Very calmly I asked her: ‘You had to walk on the bodies of the people who were shot?’ She replied: ‘Yes, I had to pack them down . . . after every volley of shots. We were three Ukrainian girls who, in our bare feet, had to pack them down, the bodies of the Jews, and throw a fine layer of sand on top of them so that other Jews could lay down’.”

Fr. Desbois' published his efforts in the book The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews (MacMillan, 2008).

In this heart-wrenching book, Father Patrick Desbois documents the daunting task of identifying and examining all the sites where Jews were exterminated by Nazi mobile units in the Ukraine in WWII. Using innovative methodology, interviews, and ballistic evidence, he has determined the location of many mass gravesites with the goal of providing proper burials for the victims of the forgotten Ukrainian Holocaust. Compiling new archival material and many eye-witness accounts, Desbois has put together the first definitive account of one of history's bloodiest chapters.

See also:

• How Father Desbois Became a Holocaust Memory Keeper (Wall Street Journal January 23, 2009)
• Interview with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

* * *

Meanwhile, an annual poll of Jewish-Arab relations, conducted by Haifa University's Professor Sami Samuha, revealed that "some 40.5 percent of Israeli Arabs believe the Holocaust never occurred," and denial of the Holocaust has become more prevalent in recent years.

* * *

Departing from Ben Gurion airport in Israel last week, Pope Benedict XVI reflected on his visit of Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial:

The ceremony at the Presidential Palace was followed by one of the most solemn moments of my stay in Israel – my visit to the Holocaust Memorial at Yad Vashem, where I paid my respects to the victims of the Shoah. There also I met some of the survivors. Those deeply moving encounters brought back memories of my visit three years ago to the death camp at Auschwitz, where so many Jews - mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, friends - were brutally exterminated under a godless regime that propagated an ideology of anti-Semitism and hatred. That appalling chapter of history must never be forgotten or denied. On the contrary, those dark memories should strengthen our determination to draw closer to one another as branches of the same olive tree, nourished from the same roots and united in brotherly love.

Assessing Pope Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to Israel and the Holy Land

Note -- as we receive or come across further substantial assessments of the Pope's pilgrimage to Israel, we will append them to this post.

Before praying of the midday Regina Caeli with those gathered in St. Peter's Square, the Pope reflected on his recent eight-day tour of Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories (Zenit News):

"The Holy Land, symbol of God’s love for his people and for the whole of humanity, is also a symbol of the freedom and the peace that God wants for all his children," the Holy Father said. "In fact, however, the history of yesterday and today shows that precisely that Land has become the symbol of the opposite, that is, of divisions and interminable conflicts between brothers."

The Pontiff explained that the Holy Land "has been called a 'fifth Gospel,' because here we see, indeed touch, the reality of the history that God realized together with men -- beginning with the places of Abraham’s life to the places of Jesus’ life, from the incarnation to the empty tomb, sign of his resurrection."

"Yes, God came to this land, he acted with us in this world," he continued. "But here we can say still more: The Holy Land, because of its very history, can be considered a microcosm that recapitulates in itself God’s arduous journey with humanity.

"A journey that implicates even the cross with sin, but -- with the abundance of divine love -- the joy of the Holy Spirit too, the resurrection already begun, and it is the journey, through the valley of our suffering, to the Kingdom of God, the kingdom that is not of this world, but that lives in this world and must penetrate it with its power of justice and peace."

"Salvation history begins with the election of one man, Abraham, and of people, Israel, but its aim is universality, the salvation of all nations," Benedict XVI added. "Salvation history is always marked by this intersection of particularity and universality."

You can retrace Pope Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to the Holy Land in day-by-day detail here; what follows is a roundup up reflections and wrap-ups of this momentous trip.

• In Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Where the Foundations of the Faith Can Be "Touched" - Sandro Magister provides his own selection of excerpts from the Pope's remarks, commenting:

  it would be simplistic and misguided to give a purely political interpretation to the overall message that Benedict XVI wanted to address to the Christians of the Holy Land.

  In the pope's judgment, the Church will be influential – on the political terrain as well – if it is able to do something different: if it helps above all to "remove the walls that we build around our hearts, the barriers that we raise against our neighbor."

  Benedict XVI's main goal is to convert hearts and minds to God. He has said and written this repeatedly.

  And he has remained absolutely faithful to this "priority" even on a trip so loaded with political significance as the one he is making to the Holy Land.

• The Pope, Arabic Islam and the West, by Samir Khalil Samir (Asia News May 14, 2009). According to Samir, it is in Jordan that the Pope "laid the basis for collaboration between Muslims and Christians, East and West." While the Arab press focused on past resentments toward the Regensburg address, Fr. Samir encountered an atmosphere that "was serene, welcoming and of shared trust." He offers an analysis of the Pope's remarks at the University of Madaba, for him "the key point of the pilgrimage":

  It’s very important that in a Muslim (and Christian) world, often theocratic, the pope, before speaking of religion, speaks of culture and science. And the aim of science is to love and discover truth. He insists that this intellectual formation “will sharpen their critical skills, dispel ignorance and prejudice, and assist in breaking the spell cast by ideologies old and new”.

  “Critical skills” are important in the Arab world: without criticism faith can become fanaticism, superstition or even manipulation. The pope touched on a point that is vital for the growth of the region: the absence of the critical eye, results in people following one or other political leader, without ever questioning the need for democracy, freedom, human rights, coexistence. People religiously follow, without ever questioning the principals of their own faith; holding onto traditions for fear of drowning in freedom of conscience. This is true of all religions not just Islam. Ignorance or prejudice, for the pope, threatens peace and dialogue.

  And when he speaks of the “enchantment of ideologies” he alludes to the easy way people let themselves become consumed by fanaticism and violence.

  He says: “Religion, of course, like science and technology, philosophy and all expressions of our search for truth, can be corrupted. Religion is disfigured when pressed into the service of ignorance or prejudice, contempt, violence and abuse”.

  Benedict XVI puts all of these realities into the same boat because everything can be disfigured – even science. For him, what is important is that religion is not abused or disfigured.

  Read the rest of Fr. Samir's analysis.

• Three great ironies about Benedict's Holy Land visit, by John Allen Jr. (National Catholic Reporter May 15, 2009):

  After the most demanding high-wire act of his papacy, a grueling week that saw the 82-year-old pontiff deliver 28 speeches while shuttling among Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, it seems terribly simplistic to offer a report card, but here we go nonetheless: Give Benedict XVI an A for effort, and a B for execution.

  John Allen offers comprehensive analysis with some good insights. For example, on the sometimes harsh and abrasive criticism by Israelis of the Pope's words at Yad Vashem:

  "In effect, they argued, the very fact that Israelis weren't content just to see a pope at Yad Vashem, or at the Western Wall, is itself a sign of progress. It means that a pope coming to Israel is no longer a revolution or a cause célèbre, but rather an expression of a basically normal relationship.

  Historically inclined Israelis see a progression from Paul VI's visit in 1964, when the pontiff refused to utter the words "state of Israel" or to refer to the country's president as anything other than "mister"; to John Paul in 2000, a trip that transformed relations; to Benedict in 2009, a visit reflecting a now-routine friendship, with its ups and downs, but fundamentally there's no turning back.

  As far as the "three great ironies" of the Pope's trip, Allen notes first that the "wordsmith pope, whose métier is generally ideas rather than images, often seemed to have more success at the level of symbolism"; secondly, that for one "notoriously resistant to attempts to turn the Catholic church into a political action committee, or the message of the Gospels into a revolutionary manifesto," Pope Benedict's "strongest moments came in the political arena"; and finally, that while Pope Benedict "is arguably the pope most inclined to be sympathetic to Israel since the Jewish state was founded six decades ago, yet the Israelis in some ways were his toughest crowd":

  Benedict XVI thus arrived in Israel not only as a pope committed to theological and spiritual fraternity with Judaism, but also one less instinctively hostile to concrete Israeli policies than many other Catholic leaders.

  

  Perhaps the point was invisible to most of the Israeli public, but local Palestinian Christians actually complained before, and during, the trip that the pope was caving in to Israeli sensitivities at every turn -- not travelling to Gaza, not protesting when the Israelis refused to allow the residents at Aida to erect the stage immediately below the wall, and not protesting when the Israelis closed down a Palestinian press center in East Jerusalem. Even his schedule reflected deference to Israeli sensibilities. Benedict made sure to fly out of Tel Aviv well before sundown on Friday, so as not to disrupt the Sabbath.

  Most Israeli leaders seemed to recognize this, which is probably why they rushed to Benedict's defense when the criticism began. At the inter-faith event in Nazareth, for example, Bahij Masour, who heads the religious affairs division of Israel's Foreign Ministry, made a point of saying during his introduction that the pope "has clearly condemned anti-Semitism and denial of the Holocaust." Certainly Israel's President, Shimon Peres, went out of his way to be gracious to the pope, including hosting a lavish gala in his honor at the presidential palace in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

  As Israelis sort through the images left behind by the pope's trip, perhaps more of this will become clear.

  Read the rest.

• Commenting on the Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Holy Land, the president of Israel, Shimon Peres, said on Wednesday: "The entire message of the Pope is positive and could spark important reflection" (Catholic News Agency):

  In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, Peres said, in order to "have a clear idea of the message left by Benedict XVI," it is "necessary to combine his discourse at the airport" in which he deplored anti-Semitism and encouraged Christians to promote peace, with "the one at Yad Vashem," in which he reiterated the commitment to the Church to denounce all hatred.

  Peres told the Vatican newspaper that there was no one better than the Pope to express rejection for any religion that justifies violence. He said the Holy Father’s strongest message was "perhaps his arrival speech. More than once the Pope has spoken of the role of the three monotheistic religions in the building of a lasting peace."

  Referring to the search for peace, Peres noted that a new trend is emerging in the Middle East. People are no longer "satisfied with bilateral agreements, but rather seek regional agreements for peace and peaceful coexistence with the understanding that modern democracy does not consist of the right to be equal, but in the equality of rights to be different; in which all prayers can reach heaven without interference or censure."

• In Holy Land, pilgrim pope delivers religious, political challenges - A decent recap by John Thavis (Catholic News Service):

  Pope Benedict XVI's eight-day visit to the Holy Land was a biblical pilgrimage, an interfaith mission and a political balancing act all rolled into one.

  It was also a gamble. In a region hardened by decades of conflict and simmering social and religious tensions, there was no guarantee of success.

  The long-range verdict is yet to come on this "pilgrimage of peace," but the pope certainly delivered a clear and challenging message to his diverse audiences in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories May 8-15. That alone was an achievement. ...

• "Singing away theological differences in Nazareth" - Tom Heneghan comments on poignant-if-curious moment for the former Prefect of the CDF:

  This sing-along started at an interfaith meeting when a rabbi began singing a song with the lyrics “Shalom, Salaam, Lord grant us peace.” At some point, the 11 clerics on the stage stood up and held hands to sing the simple tune together. Never very spontaneous, Benedict looked a little hesitant but then joined in. It was something of a “kumbaya session” — a “religious version of We Are The World,” one colleague quipped — but it was good-natured and well meant. The pope has been preaching interfaith cooperation at every stop on his tour and it seemed appropriate that it culminate in a show of unity among the religions in Galilee.

  But wait a minute. This is the same Joseph Ratzinger who, when he was a cardinal heading the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, frowned on Pope John Paul’s pray-in with other religions at Assisi in 1986. He even declined to attend what became one of the landmark events of his predecessor’s papacy. [More]

• Papal Pilgrimage Ends With a Bang: Benedict XVI Sums Up Message in Packed Address, by Father Thomas D. Williams, LC (Zenit News):

  Benedict took advantage of his last meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres to reiterate the key messages of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This Pope -- whom many consider incapable of uttering a sound bite -- managed to condense his week’s message into an 859-word address that lasted no more than three minutes. Somehow in this brief interval he was able to encapsulate the gist of the 29 different encounters that he had throughout this action-packed week. It seemed as if he were back in the university classroom once again, summing up his day’s lecture to keep his more distracted students on track. ...

• Pope in Holy Land where fear breeds criticism, by Franco Pisano (AsiaNews):

  In Lebanon As Safir, a pro-Syrian newspaper close to the extremists of Hizbollah and Hamas, wrote that the moral authority of the Pope “has no influence on the Arab East that it can leave a trace to shape change.” A Hamas leader accused the Pontiff of not saying things which he had actually said, whilst an imam in Nazareth, who wanted to build a mosque close to the Church of the Nativity, said he “was not welcome.” Israeli closer to the opposition and the ultra-orthodox right attacked him, also forgetting what he said the same day. Part of the Western media echoed such views. If extremists and others, those who are against him on principle, attack him, then Benedict XVI has achieved some results for one does not attack someone who is irrelevant.

• Fr. Raymond J. de Souza: Pope Benedict XVI's visit "a reason to give thanks" (National Post May 16, 2009):

  Pope Benedict returned to Rome likely content with the workmanlike success of his trip. A spectacular triumph it wasn't. Yet the principal task was accomplished just by coming, lest it be said that the German pope declined to visit Israel. To get here was a struggle, with the Vatican having to overrule local Catholics who were lukewarm to the visit, and the more determined opposition of other Christian leaders. The Christian Arabs here thought the visit would be an undeserved propaganda triumph for an Israeli government they deeply mistrust. They asked the Pope not to come. He came anyway.

• Commonweal's Paul Moses on Benedict’s effort to reach Arab world:

  Benedict made a strong effort to speak to the Arab world on this trip. I haven’t made a line-for-line comparison of their remarks, but my sense is that Benedict was more pointed than John Paul was in his defense of the Palestinian people. ...

  This may turn out to be the most significant aspect of the trip - more so than the debate on whether the pope should have spoken more personally about the Holocaust. One must suspect that at least some of the negative reaction in Israel was driven by the pope’s take on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Or, as an editorial in the Jerusalem Post put it, “The past week showed that on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Pope Benedict XVI just doesn’t get it. ” But maybe he does.

• Photographer Stefano Spaziani has some amazing footage of the Pope's visit to Israel

• Yechiel Eckstein, founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, believes the Pope's trip to Israel was a success and laments those Jewish critics declining to attend the papal events, and says "there is no question that this pope deeply respects Judaism and stands solidly for the security of the state of Israel" (Wall Street Journal):

  As someone who has dedicated the past 35 years to fostering respect between Jews and Christians, I was deeply encouraged by the pope's visit and believe that it has contributed significantly toward supplanting the dark and violent history between Jews and the church.

  The world desperately needs this model of reconciliation. I pray that it extends to our Muslim cousins too, so that all the children of Abraham might find peace with one another.

• Benedict XVI's visit to the Holy Land brought with it a "renaissance" in relations between Jews, Muslims and Christians, says Father Caesar Atuire, delegate administrator of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican institution whose mission is to evangelize through pastoral tourism and the ministry of pilgrimage. (Zenit News)

• Leading rabbis in interfaith relations applauded Pope Benedict XVI’s speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, countering criticism from Israeli politicians and journalists (MetroCatholic):

  “I really think it is purposeless to parse every word of the pope, and to read into [his remarks] nuances that were not intended,” said Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal, Executive Director of the National Council of Synagogues.

  Rabbi Rosenthal made his comments at a press conference with Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York following the spring meeting of the consultation of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) with the National Council of Synagogues (NCS) of America, May 12, in Manhattan.

  Rosenthal added that “the Holy Father went to Yad Vashem; he prayed at the Wall; he reiterated the fact that the Shoah must never be forgotten and that the names of the six million victims must never be erased from historic memory.”

  Rabbi Alvin Berkun, President of the (Conservative) Rabbinical Assembly, stood with Rabbi Rosenthal, and said the pope’s visits to both the memorial and the Western Wall, where he placed a prayer for peace among the religions and states of the region, build on the successes of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who visited the Holy Land in 2000.

• "My encounter with the Pope", by Rabbi Benjamin Blech. Aish.com. An eyewitness to the Pope's encounter at Yad Vashem responds to the inquiry, "how does a rabbi feel when he meets the pope?"

Pope Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to Israel and the Holy Land

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Israel and the Holy Land will begin tomorrow, May 8-15, 2009.

I've set up a special blog devoted to the Papal Pilgrimage as a vehicle for rounding up news, coverage and commentary, and where I'll be posting from now until the duration of the Holy Father's journey.

I would ask our readers to please join in prayer -- for the Pope's safety on his pilgrimage, as well as the success of his intentions.

No, Michael Ben Ari, the Pope is most definitely NOT a Nazi

National Union MK Michael Ben Ari declared Tuesday that next week's visit by Pope Benedict XVI, whom he referred to as a former member of the Nazis' youth movement, would be an insult to the memory of Holocaust victims, Haaretz reports:

"A state welcome for the pope would be turning our backs on the millions of Jews who were killed in the shadow of the Christian religion of grace and mercy," Ben Ari was quoted as saying by Israeli media. "This pope was a member of the Hitler Youth."

He made the comments at a Knesset session in which he called on lawmakers to rethink the pope's visit.

Ben Ari, a former member of the outlawed Kach movement [curiously, "barred from participating in the next election in 1988 under the revised Knesset Elections Law banning parties that incited racism" - Wikipedia], further said the Catholic Church is, and has always been, driven by anti-Semitic motivations.

The claim that Pope Benedict XVI harbors Nazi sympathies and is anti-semitic is born of complete ignorance about the life of the Holy Father. That he was an obligatory and unwilling "member" of the Hitler Youth is true, as far as it goes. And from the way this fact has been presented, one might assume this is one of those dirty little skeletons the Pope kept tucked away in his closet (next to his Inquisitor's sword and the token heads of renegade theologians).

Actually, the then-Cardinal Ratzinger freely mentions this himself in his memoirs (Milestones: Memoirs: 1927 - 1977), indicating that he and his brother George were both enrolled in the Hitler Youth -- at a time when membership was compulsory. He discusses family life under the Third Reich in chapters 2-4 of his autobiography.

Likewise, John Allen Jr., journalist for the National Catholic Reporter and author of 2002's biography Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith, provides the historical context sorely lacking in most exposes of this nature ("The Vatican's Enforcer", National Catholic Reporter, April 16, 1999):

As a seminarian, he was briefly enrolled in the Hitler Youth in the early 1940s, though he was never a member of the Nazi party. In 1943 he was conscripted into an antiaircraft unit guarding a BMW plant outside Munich. Later Ratzinger was sent to Austria's border with Hungary to erect tank traps. After being shipped back to Bavaria, he deserted. When the war ended, he was an American prisoner of war.

Under Hitler, Ratzinger says he watched the Nazis twist and distort the truth. Their lies about Jews, about genetics, were more than academic exercises. People died by the millions because of them. The church's service to society, Ratzinger concluded, is to stand for absolute truths that function as boundary markers: Move about within these limits, but outside them lies disaster.

Later reflection on the Nazi experience also left Ratzinger with a conviction that theology must either bind itself to the church, with its creed and teaching authority, or it becomes the plaything of outside forces -- the state in a totalitarian system or secular culture in Western liberal democracies. In a widely noted 1986 lecture in Toronto, Ratzinger put it this way: "A church without theology impoverishes and blinds, while a churchless theology melts away into caprice."

See also:

• Ratzinger a Nazi? Don't Believe It! by Sam Ser. Jerusalem Post April 18, 2005 - written in response to an article that appeared in the Sunday Times (London) on April 17, 2005.

• New Pope Defied Nazis As Teen During WWII, by the Assoc. Press. New York Times April 23, 2005.
• Jewish leaders say pope's past cause for optimism, not concern, by Cindy Wooden. Catholic News Service. June 13, 2005.
• Pope Benedict, the Jews and the State of Israel Catholic Friends of Israel May 6, 2009.

Pope Benedict, The Jews and The State of Israel

In "Pope Benedict and the Jews" (Jerusalem Post March 29, 2009), Rabbi David Rosen seeks to alleviate concerns resulting from the lifting of the excommunications of Bishop Richard Williamson and his fellow bishops of the SSPX:

The Vatican and the pope have made it clear that the lifting of the excommunication ban is not a reinstatement of these bishops, who will not be accepted back into the church until they affirm the teachings of the Second Vatican Council which include the positive teachings on Jews and Judaism. But above all the pope has not only reaffirmed the Church's unqualified repudiation of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, he has reiterated the importance of Holocaust education and he has especially repeated his own profound commitment to continuing the path of his predecessor in advancing Catholic-Jewish relations.

Those who are familiar with Pope Benedict XVI's record will not at all be surprised by this.

Rosen then runs through a list of notable facts concerning Pope Benedict and his relationshiop to the Jewish people:

• Benedict was the first pope to invite Jewish leaders both to the funeral of Pope John Paul II and, above all, to the celebration of his own ascension to the throne of St. Peter in 2005.
• Less than a month into his pontificate, he received a delegation of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, reaffirming his intent to continue upon "improved relations and friendship with the Jewish people" in the steps of his beloved predecessor, John Paul II.
• Visiting the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 2006, Benedict characterized anti-Semitism as an assault against the very roots of Christianity, implying that "a Christian to harbor such sentiment is to attack and betray his or her own faith":

  "those vicious criminals, by wiping out this people, wanted to kill the God who called Abraham, who spoke on Sinai and laid down the principles to serve as a guide for mankind ... By destroying Israel, by the Shoah, they ultimately wanted to tear out the taproot of the Christian faith and to replace it with a faith of their own invention."

• As Cardinal Ratzinger, he was on the Special Committee of the Holy See that reviewed and authorized the establishment of full relations between Israel and the Vatican -- upon which he phoned Prof. Zwi Werblowsky, one of the Jewish Israeli pioneers of interfaith dialogue, "to express his joy over this development, describing it as the fruit of the work of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council."

Pope Benedict XVI greets Jewish delegation leader Rabbi David Rosen (C) at the Vatican October 30, 2008. Source: Reuters

In Benedict XVI and the State of Israel (First Things), David P. Goldman (who writes under the pseudonymn "Spengler") examines the Pope's theological perspectives on Israel's founding. According to Goldman, it is notable (though largely unmentioned in the press) that the Pope's visit will overlap with Israel's Independence Day (celebrated on May 14, 2009, according to the Jewish rather than the Gregorian calendar), recalling the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948 -- and that on May 15, designated by Palestinians as a day of mourning ("Disaster (Naqba) Day"), he will share a podium in Israel's capital Jerusalem with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Simply a coincidence? -- consider:

Well before the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel in 1993, then Cardinal Ratzinger repeatedly explained to Jewish representatives that the delay in diplomatic recognition solely reflected the concern of the Holy See for the vulnerable Arab Christian communities. His pilgrimage this May devotes considerable time to pastoral meetings with the Arab Christian community. Nonetheless, Benedict has made clear that his concern for Arab Christians is embedded within an unwavering commitment to the Jewish community in the Holy Land.

It is hard not to see an evolution in Vatican policy towards Israel, from a pragmatic approach to the problems of religious constituencies, to explicit theological sympathy for the Jewish State. Benedict XVI is first of all a theologian, and he views the Jewish presence in the Holy Land as a theological matter.

In 2008, on the fiftieth anniversary of Israel's independence, Benedict XVI told Israel's ambassador to the Holy See, "The Holy See is united with you and thanks God for the full realization of the Jewish people's aspirations to live in its homeland, the land of its forefathers." Meeting with the Israeli rabbinate on March 12, the Pope affirmed the election of the Jewish people "to communicate to the whole human family knowledge of and fidelity to the one, true and unique God."

Goldman concedes that "The Magisterium of the Church does not take an explicit position on the question of Jewish statehood"; in fact, the "Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church" (1985) specifically states:

"The existence of the State of Israel and its political options should be envisaged not in a perspective which is in itself religious, but in their reference to the common principles of international law."

Yet, as Goldman notes, this assertion stands almost in tension with the very next sentence, which draws from Pope John Paul II's recognition of the theological significance of Jewish survival:

"The permanence of Israel (while so many ancient peoples have disappeared without trace) is a historic fact and a sign to be interpreted within God's design. . . . It remains a chosen people, "the pure olive on which were grafted the branches of the wild olive which are the gentiles."

Indeed, in 1994, explaining the establishment of diplomatic relations with the State of Israel, Pope John Paul II asserted:

It must be understood that Jews, who for 2,000 years were dispersed among the nations of the world, had decided to return to the land of their ancestors. This is their right."

As Goldman remarks:

Theologically it is difficult to separate the election of the people from the promise of the land, and Benedict's commitment to Israel seems strongly grounded in theology.

Not to characterize Benedict as a card-carrying Zionist (a loaded term), but at the very least I think one could acknowledge that this pope is cognisant of the place of Israel in the hearts of the contemporary Jewish people -- and, like his predecessor, supportive of their right of return.

* * * See also:

• Pope Benedict XVI and the Jews - an exploration of "what does Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, actually think about the Jewish people?" (The Benedict Blog April 26, 2005)
• Pope Benedict XVI, Auschwitz, and the Nature of Anti-Semitism Against The Grain May 30, 2006.
• Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Park East Synagogue (New York City) Benedict in America April 18, 2008.

Notable Statements by Pope Benedict XVI to the Jewish People

• "On the Shoah" - General Audience Rome, January 28, 2009
• Address to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Rome, February 12, 2009.
• Meeting with representatives of the Jewish community at Park East Synagogue in New York (April 18, 2008)
• Prayer to commemorate the victims of the Concentration Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau (May 28, 2006)
• Visit to the Synagogue of Cologne, Germany (August 19, 2005)

On John Paul II and the Jews

As indicated, Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Israel and the Holy Land will retrace the steps taken by his predecessor. In 2001, SIDIC - Service International de Documentation Judéo-Chrétienne (International Service of Jewish-Christian Documentation -- published a series of reflections on Pope John Paul II's pilgramage, including Pope John Paul II: A Retrospective, by George L. Spectre and Catholics, Jews and the Papal Pilgrimage -- a dialogue between two friends, Msgr. Robert I, Stern and the late Rabbi Leon Klenicki.

Foreign Ministry launches website dedicated to Pope Benedict's pilgrimage to Israel

The Foreign Ministry of Israel inaugurated on Sunday a website dedicated to the upcoming pilgrimage of Pope Benedict XVI to Israel, set to take place between May 11-15.

The website, accessible at http://popeinisrael.org.il, is presented in eight languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Italian, German and Hebrew). It contains textual and audio-visual information on the Papal pilgrimage, Israel-Vatican relations, Christian communities in Israel and Christian holy sites throughout the country.

The site will also provide regular updates throughout the course of the visit, as well as live broadcasts of events during the Pope's pilgrimage, such as the visit to Yad Vashem, masses at the Garden of Gethsemane and at the Mount of the Precipice, and visits to the site of the Last Supper and to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Source: Jerusalem Post.

Rabbi Jacob Neusner weighs on on Pope Benedict's upcoming pilgrimage to Israel

In an interview for a major European periodical next week, Rabbi Jacob Neusner commented on Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming visit to Israel -- Tzvee's Talmudic Blog has the complete details. Here's just a snippet:

What is your main expectation?

Pope Benedict XVI has shown the capacity to speak bluntly to the world at large, as his address at Regensburg last year showed. He does not dissimulate or mince words. I expect that he will speak truth to all parties and preserve a balanced and just position for all concerned. That is his record, At the same time the Roman Catholic Church has its interests in the Middle East, which will be on the Pope's mind. The Moslem countries do not accord to Christianity the rights of free expression that they demand and get from the Christian countries. The Pope is likely to pursue that matter too.

In what sense would this trip be a failure?

If one party claims to have been vindicated and the other party claims to have been dismissed unfairly, the imbalance would mark a disaster, because that moral authority that is the Pope's strength will have been wasted,

In what sense would this trip be a success?

If both parties are helped to find steps toward the path to peace in response to the Pope's presence, that will mark success.

* * *

Above all this trip is a pilgrimage. How do you see it, as rabbi and Jewish intellectual?

When a century ago Theodor Herzl, founder of Zionism, turned to the Pope for support for a Jewish state, he was told that until the Jewish people converted to Christianity, the Church would do nothing to establish a Jewish state. Papal visits to the state of Israel - this is not the first and will not be the last - repudiate that original decision and affirm the legitimacy of Israel as the Jewish state. It is always important to recognize the implicit statement represented by the Pope's pilgrimage.

What is the main stake from an inter-religious perspective?

The relationship between Judaism and Christianity in the aftermath of Vatican II has defined the task of reconciliation and this visit represents a step toward the realization of amity between the two religions.

Click here to read the rest of Rabbi Neusner's interview on the papal pilgrimage.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because Rabbi Neusner's biblical commentary featured prominently in Pope Benedict's bestselling Jesus of Nazareth (2007).

Also, as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, he heralded Neusner's book A Rabbi Talks With Jesus (1994) as "by far the most important book for the Jewish-Christian dialogue in the last decade" -- probably one of the few Jewish books that could boast a blurb by Fr. Andrew Greeley AND the Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith on its cover! (Jesus of Nazareth, in fact, could be read in part as a response to the arguments made by Professor Neusner in his own book).

More recently, in contrast to a largely negative outcry from Jewish critics, Rabbi Neusner distinguished himself by defending the Pope's editorial revisions to the Good Friday "Prayer for the Jews" in 2008.

More about Rabbi Jacob Neusner

• A Rabbi Debates with the Pope. And What Divides Them Is Still Jesus, by Sandro Magister. Chiesa November 6, 2007.
• The Pope's favorite Rabbi, by David Biema. Time May 10, 2007.
• "My argument with the Pope" (Jerusalem Post May 29, 2007)

An Israeli boy visits the graves of his great grandparents, killed in Israel's 1948 war of independence, at the military cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem April 28, 2009. Israel on Tuesday marks Memorial Day to commemorates its fallen soldiers. (Reuters)

The Pope dons a Keffiyeh.

In his latest column, John Allen Jr. points to a curious incident that befell the Pope this week:

... for Israelis suspicious of a pro-Palestinian bias in the Vatican, a photograph out of Benedict XVI's General Audience on Wednesday probably won't help. At the end of the audience, the pope stopped to chat briefly with a group of young Palestinian Christians from Bethlehem, representing a parish the pope plans to visit. One young woman put a keffiyeh, the classic Palestinian headdress, around the pope's shoulders. Fairly quickly, the pope's private secretary, Msgr. Georg Gänswein, removed it -- but the keffiyeh was on Benedict long enough for a photographer to get the shot. One imagines it will make the rounds.

The keffiyeh is a traditional headdress for Arab men, "made of a square of cloth (“scarf”), usually cotton, folded and wrapped in various styles around the head" (Wikipedia); however, since at least the 1930's, it has become a trademark for Palestinian nationalism -- initially as a symbol of insurrection against the British and later popularized by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. Since then it has been appropriated -- consciously in some cases, ignorantly in others -- by Westerners.

Chronicling its transition from political to fashion statement, see Kibum Kim's Where Some See Fashion, Others See Politics New York Times February 11, 2007.

Understandably, when donned by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church at the invitation of two Palestinian Christians, it was going to provoke a reaction.

Personally, I think this amounts to the public relations equivalent of John Paul II's infamous "kissing of the Koran" -- a case where the Pope accepts a gift and follows protocol suitable for the time, but in turn is taken entirely out of context.

In the case of John Paul II, upon receiving a delegation of Muslims he was presented with a gift of the Muslim Koran, which he kissed as a sign of respect (this is traditional practice in the Middle East). Images, however, can speak louder than words, and the photograph of John Paul II is quite compelling. As expected, his actions were imbued with greater meaning than they actually possess: many Catholic 'traditionalists' and anti-Catholic apologists found John Paul II's "bowing before the false god of Allah" good fodder for their screeds.

In like manner, Benedict's donning the kafiyeh, if even for a few seconds, may provoke a similar reaction -- not a few sympathizers to the Palestinian cause will relish the image as a sign of papal solidarity with their cause; conservative critics will beg to differ.

Some of the latter, I think, tend to go a bit overboard -- writing for Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller fulminates:

The keffiyeh was Yaser Arafat's swastika and became a powerful symbol of jihad. In the ensuing years, the keffiyeh as an icon of anti-Americanism, anti-semitism and anti-westernism took on a life of its own ...

Just because the Pope pretends not to recognize the uniform does not mean it is not a uniform. The keffiyeh was the signature of Yaser Arafat and is the signature of Hamas and Hezbollah and the homicide bomber. Pretending it's just a scarf is like pretending the klan's white robe is a toga. Symbols mean something. Attempting to mainstream it, in effect softening its barbaric message, is an affront to every victim of Islamic jihad and the war we are engaged in.

The bigoted anti-Catholic remarks issuing from Gellar's readers speak volumes ("Once a Nazi, always a Nazi"?!?) -- thanks to fellow Catholic Friend of Israel reader Carlos Echevarria for attempting to inject a little reason and sanity into the discussion.

Pope Benedict's 2006 Regensburg Address - A Refresher Course

Since the topic is bound to come up (and has in fact already), a refresher course on Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg Address appears to be in order. The Boston College Center for Jewish-Christian Learning provides a helpful compilation of links and commentary on the Regensburg lecture, including the following summary:

On Sept. 12, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI gave an academic lecture in Regensburg, Germany that argued for both the reasonableness of faith and that faith divorced from reason can produce behaviors contrary to God's will. In this context, Benedict cited the opinion of a fourteenth-century Byzatine emperor that "not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature." The emperor had illustrated his claim about unreasonable religious behavior by discussing the use of violence to coerce conversion, ascribing such practices in polemical terms to Islam, and this language was quoted by Pope Benedict.

The lecture sparked international protests in many Islamic countries. The protestors had apparently concluded or were advised that Benedict himself believed Islam to be, in the quoted words from the fourteenth-century, "only evil and inhuman." Since the papal lecture did not include any examples of unreasonable Christian behavior or reiterate formal Catholic teaching from the Second Vatican Council that the Church regards Muslims with esteem, the likelihood of unintended negative interpretations of the speech was increased. On the other hand, some of the protests in the Muslim world themselves bordered on violence or used symbolic violence, thereby reinforcing the caricature of Islam as inherently violent that the Pope was being accused of purveying. On Octber 12, Islamica magazine published a response to the papal lecture from 38 Muslims scholars and leaders.

• Excerpts from the papal lecture, "Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections," Sept. 12, 2006
• Statement from the Director of the Vatican Press Office, Sept. 15, 2006
• Statement from the Holy See's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Sept. 16, 2006
• Pope Benedict's statement during Sunday prayers, Sept. 17, 2006
• Pope Benedict's general audience remarks, Sept. 20, 2006
• Pope Benedict's Meeting with Muslim Envoys, Sept. 25, 2006

Those accustomed to reading about the address only in the context of the ensuing "Regensburg Rage" -- a rash of violent Muslim protests, culminating in the murder of a nun in Somalia and the kidnapping and beheading of an Assyrian priest in Iraq -- will be suprised to discover that only a small portion of it actually touched on Islamic-Christian relations (approximately 3 paragraphs).

Rather, Pope Benedict's focus was not so much on Islam but rather an even greater indictment of the program of dehellenization that played out in Western academia following the Reformation and the liberal theology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and which led to the "modern self-limitation of reason," -- confining itself to that which is scientifically (mathematically and emperically) verifiable, and dismissing as irrelevant "the specifically human questions about our origin and destiny, the questions raised by religion and ethics."

For helpful analysis of the more substantial portion of Benedict's address, see:

• The Regensburg Lecture: Thinking Rightly About God and Man by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. (Ignatius Insight September 15, 2006).
• Benedict, Islam, Faith, and Reason by Ryan T. Anderson. First Things September 20, 2006.

Rift in Jewish-Vatican relations over Durban II

Reuters reports that Pope Benedict's decision to send a Vatican delegation to a United Nations conference on racism has opened a new rift in relations with Jewish groups:

"By participating, the Vatican has given its endorsement to what is being prepared there (against Israel)," Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

The United States and some of its allies, including Italy -- a country which often sees eye-to-eye with the Vatican at international conferences -- are boycotting the meeting.

Shimon Samuels, head of the European office of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said the Vatican "is giving a seal of approval in the hate campaign" against Israel.

"This is not a position on which one can hedge," Samuels said. "You can't have it both ways. The Vatican is a powerful voice and (a boycott) could have had a strong demonstrative effect."

As if on cue, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel the "most cruel and repressive racist regime", prompting the walkout of European diplomats (Wall Street Journal April 21, 2009):

Mr. Ahmadinejad, in his rambling speech Monday, castigated the U.S. and Europe for acting after World War II to make "an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering," according to an English translation of the speech released by the AP. He said the West used Jewish suffering as a pretext for hostility against Palestinians.

Protesters in clown wigs interrupted his speech with shouts of "Shame! Shame!" and "Racist! Racist!" and threw red clown noses at the Iranian president, the AP reported.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is expected to run for a second term in elections this summer, may have been playing more to his audience back home, in a region where Israeli policies toward the Palestinians are widely condemned.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the chief Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, told Catholic News Service by telephone April 20 it was important for people not to be distracted by the remarks of the Iranian president:

Archbishop Tomasi said much more significant than Ahmadinejad's speech were the real advances made in the draft conference document, which recognizes the Holocaust as something not to be forgotten and condemns anti-Semitism as well as intolerance against other religions. The text under consideration in Geneva has been revised in recent months, and the latest draft does not include references to Israel or Zionism.

The archbishop said it was also essential for the international community to give attention to the new forms of racism and discrimination that are emerging, especially against immigrants, the indigenous and the economically marginalized.

The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, told Vatican Radio April 20 that "statements like those of the Iranian president do not go in the right direction, because even if he did not deny the Holocaust or the right of Israel to exist, he expressed extremist and unacceptable positions."

"For this reason it is important to continue to affirm with clarity the respect for human dignity against every form of racism or intolerance. We hope the conference can still serve this purpose," he said.

Deal Hudson on Israel and Palestinian Christians, Revisited

In his latest article for InsideCatholic.com, Deal Hudson presents Ten Hard Facts Confronting Benedict XVI in the Holy Land concerning the plight of Palestinian Christians.

One would expect that -- when presenting a list of "hard facts", particularly a topic as provocative as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- elementary journalistic standards would require the citation of a source.

Furthermore, one might expect the placement of such statistics in context to further enable a moral evaluation.

That Hudson completely neglects to do this is frustrating, to say the least.

Consequently, we have such indictments as

"Palestinians have been the subject of frequent attack [by Israel] -- often with civilians and their homes in the direct line of fire"

Such a statement, on its face, leaves out notable mitigating factors. Taking the most recent case of Gaza, for instance, Hudson could have mentioned Hamas' penchant for deliberately locating its troops and rocket positions in close proximity to civilians, even so far as housing weapons in schools and within its own mosques.

Other factors which might be brought to bear in the evaluation of Israel's targeting of Palestinians in civilian-populated areas is that Israel sought to warn civilians prior to impending attacks via Arabic-language voice mails on their cell phones, urging them to vacate homes where militants had stashed weapons. (Conversely, Hamas displayed complete disregard for civilian welfare, to the point of hijacking ambulances).

Again, Hudson states that:

"Israel's 21-day incursion into Gaza left an immense humanitarian crisis: More than 50,800 Gazans were left homeless; 80 percent of the population are now dependent on assistance"

But certainly at this point, might our appraisal of this fact be influenced by the knowledge that, even while Israel was fighting to protect their own cities against Hamas' rockets, they were bringing assistance to citizens of Gaza impacted by the conflict?

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for example, provides regular weekly reports on humanitarian aid to Gaza during the IDF operation and increased humanitarian aid to Gaza following the IDF operation as well.

In a February 2009 post ("Dispatch from the border of Gaza"), Michael Totten wrote about his tour of a temporary field hospital set up by the State of Israel at the Erez Crossing at the northern end of Gaza:

Palestinian civilians who needed medical attention were invited to come to Erez for treatment by Israeli doctors.

Humanitarian goods facilitated by the IDF also went through Erez into Gaza throughout the conflict, and the crossing was open to Palestinians with dual nationality who wanted out.

“We were asked by the government and the Ministry of Health to operate this regional medical clinic,” an Israeli doctor told me. “We've put everything here we can provide in a first-line clinic. It's not a hospital. We won't be able to operate here. But we need a humanitarian clinic to treat patients who need medical assistance.” [According to the Jerusalem Post, the clinic "offered not only medical specialists but also x-ray facilities, a lab and a pharmacy, meant to treat about 50 patients at once - both wounded Palestinians and those suffering from physical ailments"]. [...]

The Israelis had to close the place down. Only a handful of patients ever came through, which didn’t surprise me. I didn’t see any Palestinian patients there when I visited. Hamas didn’t allow their wounded to be treated by Jews.

Consider also, for instance, that the blog Elder of Zion together with PTWatch have documented 86 some terrorists killed by the IDF that have been reported as "civilians" by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (the source of statistics cited by Hudson in his prior article).

All the more reason to regard "facts" -- and the mere citation of statistics absent of context -- with caution.

* * *

According to Hudson:

"Tension with Muslims is not the primary reason for the exodus -- only 11 percent of Palestinian Christians cite it as a reason for immigration."

With all due respect, I have reasons to approach this statistic with some skepticism. Most curiously, Hudson himself has previously cited (approvingly!) the work of Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer who has made the plight of Palestinian Christians a subject of personal research. You can read an interview with Weiner here; a monograph, Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society is available for free download as well.

Weiner speaks of "intimidation, beatings, land theft, firebombing of churches and other Christian institutions, denial of employment, economic boycotts, torture, kidnapping, forced marriage, sexual harassment, and extortion" -- not, however, at the hands of Israel. (See the aformentioned links for documentation).

According to Weiner:

[Over a 10 year period] my research assistants and I have interviewed scores of Christian victims. Many of those interviewed were too terrified to tell their stories. In an effort to reassure them, I promised to conceal their real names, professions, and places of residence.

Suffice to say this doesn't strike me as an opportune environment for a persecuted minority to register open complaints about their condition. In fact, says Weiner, the silence and suppression of Palestinian Christians remain the norm when it comes to such persecution:

Weiner says he became aware of the many crimes against Christian Arabs under the Palestinian regime when, ten years ago, a Christian lay pastor said to him, "You're a human rights lawyer, what are you doing for the Christian Arabs?" Weiner replied that he was not doing anything for them as he was not aware they had any problems. The pastor then said: "Let me send you some people to interview and once you've done that make up your own mind."

Weiner remarks: "That began my education process on this subject. The problem I had the most difficulty understanding was why the large, powerful, populous Christian world has permitted this to go on for so long. This is the more surprising as the PA is in such need of funds and political support. Ten years down the road I can only say that it is a sad testimony for contemporary Christianity.

"I discovered a wide gap between the Palestinian Christian leadership and their flock. The former tended, for many years, to put on their nice robes and hats to meet Arafat for religious occasions. They are the same people who keep touring around the United States and being feted in different locations where they repeat the false story that everything is fine.

"These patriarchs and archbishops of Christian Arab denominations who are currently deceiving the international community are self-interested people. They collaborate with the Muslim perpetrators of intimidation and violence. Against all evidence they claim that the Christians Arabs are living comfortable and prosperous lives. In fact the present situation is growing worse by the day."

The numerous incidents of Muslim persecution told by Weiner stand in stark contrast to the testimony of, say, Michael Sabbah (former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem 1987-2008), who in a December 2003 interview dismissed such accounts:

Is it difficult being a Christian Palestinian in a predominantly Muslim and Jewish land?

Christians are part of Palestinian society, and the Palestinians are Christians and Muslims. No one is going to flee because of Islamic influence, but because of the lack of work, or the political tension provoked by the curfew. But there is no Muslim persecution of Christians, and in fact they share the same hope of one day having an independent state.

Don’t you see a desire on the part of Muslims to dominate and convert other faiths?

Just a moment. This isn’t easily understood in the West. We Palestinians know how to live together and how to understand this relationship. We are one people, even if there are some difficulties.

But aren’t you isolating the case of the Palestinians? This isn’t a relationship that is easily exported. To find Christians who are persecuted it’s enough just to look at Vatican reports. Think of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq.

In Arab countries there is no persecution of Christians. I don’t speak of Pakistan, but in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon—no. Historically there have been some massacres, beginning when Europe entered the Mideast. ...

Not even any effort at the conversion of Christians?

There’s always that, but much of it is social pressure, that’s all. Nowadays we cannot say there is persecution. There are problems of the majority and minority, disputes of a social nature. These governments are very vigilant about relations between Muslims and Christians. There’s a lot of propaganda in the West; I don’t know why. Let us live in peace and don’t foment fear, it’s fear that weakens us. Our vocation is to live among Muslims and to give testimony to Jesus in a Muslim society. It’s difficult, but we accept it.

Rod Dreher, a journalist and [Orthodox] Christian blogger, conveyed his own first-hand encounter with the self-imposed censorship of Palestinian Christian prelates in 2005:

When I was in the Holy Land covering John Paul's visit, I spent time talking to Palestinian Christians. They have hard lives, no doubt about it, and all blamed Israel. But a funny thing happened when I put my notebook away after one of these interview sessions. The Christians with whom I was speaking suddenly started talking about how terrified they were of the Muslims, and said how life would be far worse for them if the Islamists took power within the PA. They wanted me to know that, but did not want me to quote them. They (correctly) saw things as hopeless all around for Palestinian Christians, and just wanted to move. There are no Christian suicide bombers, but the Christians have to pay the price for what the Muslim suicide bombers do. And so forth.

[...]

At my newspaper a couple of months ago, the Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, a Palestinian, came by for an interview with the editorial board. It was pathetic to watch. He was dhimmi-ized through and through. Couldn't bring himself to condemn anything Muslims did. Everything was the fault of the Israelis. If a Muslim blew himself to bits and killed scores of Israeli civilians in so doing, that was Israel's fault. No, there is no enmity between Muslims and Christians there, he insisted; we have always gotten along wonderfully, couldn't be better, he said.

I couldn't figure out if he was lying to himself, or to us. But when he said that Abraham wasn't Jewish, well, that just took the cake.

Weiner concedes that Israel does bear some responsibility for the situation and cites several issues (which Hudson raised in his article), such as visa restrictions which hamper foreign and local Christian clergy from traveling between parishes, and "economic hardship and unemployment is caused by the cutoff from outside aid due to Israeli security measures that bar most Palestinians from working inside Israel."

Nonetheless, to reiterate my prior post: any moral evaluation of the restrictions on movement imposed by Israel must take into account the reasons why they were established and imposed in the first place.

There is no disputing that life would be easier for Palestinian Christians and their counterparts if Israel were to dismantle the checkpoints and the security fence. But such a removal would, of course, be predicated upon the willingness of organizations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad to disavow terrorism.

And that's something Hudson hasn't actually addressed.

* * * In closing, perhaps as an incentive to further discussion, permit me to pose some questions:

What do you anticipate would happen, were Israel to suddenly dismantle its security measures -- the checkpoints? the security fences?

How would Palestinians react? -- Fatah? Hamas? Islamic Jihad?

Noting that the Vatican has itself formally recognized the State of Israel, is such a recognition incumbent on Palestianian Christians and their Muslim counterparts?

Related

• Christians in the Land Called Holy, by Habib Malik. First Things January 1999.
• Denial of Religious Rights by the Palestinian Authority: Not just Jews, but Christians have also been victimized by Islamic intolerance for 'infidel' holy sites. By Lenny Ben-David. HonestReporting.com November 11, 2002.
• The Mayor of Bethlehem is Christian, but It’s Hamas That’s in Charge, by Sandro Magister. (www.Chiesa) 2005.
• Israel and the Territories: Disappearing Christians of the Middle East, by Daphne Tsimhoni. Middle East Quarterly Winter 2001. A good analysis of the situation.

Durban II

Teresa Polk @ Blog By The Sea blogs a helpful roundup of the 2009 Durban Review Conference, a follow-up to the 2001 UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance (WCAR). Teresa notes that:

The first WCAR in 2001 had an anti-Israeli agenda, driven by Iran, with a final draft of a declaration labeling Zionism as racist. The 2009 final draft of the declaration has removed all anti-Israeli references and all references to the Middle East.

The Vatican has sent a personal representative to the conference (to which Benedict XVI lent his personal support). At the same time, the United States, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and Israel have declined to attend.

Point / Counterpoint

• Damien Thompson (Holy Smoke) wonders: Why is Pope Benedict supporting the UN's 'anti-racist' hatefest against Israel? (UK Telegraph April 19, 2009)
• Shimon Samuels, director for international relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and head of the Jewish caucus at Durban I, pens a provocative editorial: Why we should be at Durban II (Jerusalem Post April 16, 2009).

Interview with Fouad Twal on Benedict XVI's visit to the Holy Land

The website of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land features an interview with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, in which he responds to many questions that have been arisen concerning the Pope's impending journey.

• Responding to the concerns of Palestinian Christians:

  The worries – I would even say, the anguish – are in part legitimate, but I want to underline that they were – and still are here and there – felt by the Arab Christians living in the Territories and in Jerusalem. The reality of the Christians who live in Israel, and all the more so that of the Christians of Jordan is an entirely different one; they see the pope’s visit in a different light. In a diocese that lives extremely differing realities, we must try to have a more global vision of this visit and to consider it in all its dimensions: political and social and human and religious.

• On whether the Holy Father should have waited "for a better time", in light of the Israeli-Palestianian conflict in Gaza:

  So what should be done? Wait for better times? But this region is never at peace! Wait until the Palestinian question is resolved? I’m afraid that two or three sovereign pontiffs will pass before it is definitively settled.

  It’s the story of the glass that is half full or half empty… Some say: “The situation is difficult, so it would be better if he didn’t come.” Others on the contrary say: “The situation is difficult, so it would be better if he came.” And that is our position. During these difficult times, I want the Holy Father to come to help us to “superare”: to go beyond, to see further.

  The pope is coming to visit all the Churches, all the people who live in the Holy Land in order to encourage us to remain faithful to our mission, to our faith, and to our awareness of belonging to this Land.

• On Israel's expected use of the visit for public-relations:

  Israel will do all it can to present its country in the best light. I understand that, it is its right.

  It is not our task to criticize or to denounce what the others do. Our job is to do our part to make the visit as pastoral as possible; it is our responsibility to do our part so that our Christians might have the possibility to see the Holy Father, to pray with him and to hear his message of peace and of justice for all. If one studies all the messages published by the Holy See concerning the Holy Land, Iraq and the Middle East, one can see that we have an unheard of capital of addresses, support, interventions that are rich in humanity, the Christian spirit and justice. There is no doubt that the Holy Father will continue in this sense during his visit to the Holy Land.

  It falls upon us, the local Church, to watch over the program’s equilibrium: the sites to visit, the persons to meet, the addresses to be made. It is our job “to give the Holy Father a helping hand”.

• On relations between Israel and the Vatican:

  It is difficult to find a good balance and to maintain it. Having said that, the more the Vatican is a friend of Israel’s, the more it will be able to draw profit from that friendship for greater peace and justice. If the tension continues between the universal Catholic Church and Israel, we will all lose, we Christians and we Arabs. On the other hand, if Israel trusts the Holy See entirely, based on that friendship, the Holy See will be able to speak of truth, of justice and of peace. For with the language of friendship, it is possible to say things to one another that one would refuse to hear if it came from an enemy.

  Being friends and speaking as such is good for everyone: for the friend, for Israel, and for the others. I just hope that the Holy See’s friendship with Israel is reciprocal.

Read the rest of Fouad Atwi's interview with Marie-Armelle Beaulieu.

Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan objects to Papal visit, insists that Pope Benedict define his stance on Islam and Muhammad

Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan have objected to Pope Benedict's visit, insisting that he define his stance on Islam and Prophet Muhammad ahead of his arrival:

The spokesperson of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, said the visit meant little, if anything, to him.

“The pope hates Islam and Muslims. I do not expect anything from his visit,” said Raheil Gharayba, who is also the deputy secretary general of the IAF, the most influential political party in the [Jordanian] kingdom.

[...]

“His position on the Gaza War was shameful, after failing to condemn the genocide by Israel on innocent civilians," said Gharaybeh.

[...]

President of the Muslim Brotherhood Shurah council, ‘Abd A-Latif ‘Arabiat, said the pope was “welcome in the country of Islam, but he must send a clear message to the hard-line government of Israel,” referring to the right-wing cabinet of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ...

“The visit should not be seen as a vindication of Israel and the Zionist movement from their war crimes in Gaza,” said ‘Arabiat.

“The Pope is not welcome in the kingdom,” he added.

Earlier in the year, a human rights organization funded by the Jordanian government urged the Pope to cancel his visit to Israel, warning that "it will be as if he is blessing its actions in Gaza."

"We respectfully request Your Holiness to call-off your intended visit to Israel next May. Such a gesture by your high moral authority will certainly send a loud and an unambiguous message to set free the Palestinian people from their captivity which has been going on since the year 1967."

By all appearances, the Holy Father is not one to submit to intimidation; his visit to Israel is still on the agenda.

On a related note, the Jerusalem Post reports that Islamic Movement in Israel is split over pope's May visit:

The northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel has announced that it is "boycotting" Pope Benedict XVI's visit next month, while an official from the more moderate southern branch said it intend to participate in the event.

However, there was no indication that the northerners plan to protest his arrival or try to block the pontiff's path to al-Aqsa Mosque, which he is scheduled to visit.

Israel and Jordan launch new websites dedicated to Papal visit

The Israel Ministry of Tourism will launch a new website dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI’s first Papal visit to the Holy Land on April 15th.

The user-friendly website will be available in seven languages and feature background information, photographs and video footage related to Christian holy sites in Israel as well as detailed information on the Pope’s itinerary and trip highlights.

For more information on Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Israel visit www.holyland-pilgrimage.org.

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The Jordan Tourism Board has likewise devoted a section of their website www.visitjordan.com/pope in commemoration of the historic visit, available in six languages.

The site has information on Pope Benedict XVI, as well as Pope John Paul II, who paid a special visit and pilgrimage to Jordan in 2000, during which he officially recognized the Baptism Site at Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan on the eastern banks of the River Jordan.