Pope Misguided Advise to Israel

ZOA Criticizes Pope's Supporting 'Right Of Return' & Palestinian State; 
Opposing Security Fence, Minimizing Terrorism As Mere Temptation

May 14, 2009
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Morton A. Klein
Phone 1: 212-481-1500

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has expressed criticism and 
concern over statements made by Pope Benedict XVI on his visit to Israel 
and the Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled areas, particularly his 
implicit endorsement of the Palestinian so-called right of return. The 
right of return would mean the entry into Israel by Palestinian Arab 
refugees of the 1948-49 war and their millions of descendants, thereby 
inundating Israel with hostile Arabs, demographically overwhelming Jews 
and ending Israels existence as a Jewish state. Across the Israeli 
political spectrum, it is regarded as death warrant for Israel.



Statements made by Pope Benedict on his visit:



         Implicit support for right of return: Expressed his solidarity 
with all the homeless Palestinians who long to be able to return to their 
birthplace, or live permanently in a homeland of their own.

         Misrepresenting Palestinian terrorism as an understandable 
temptation due to implied Israeli misdeeds, rather than an inexcusable 
evil: I make this appeal to the many young people throughout the 
Palestinian Territories today: do not allow the loss of life and the 
destruction that you have witnessed to arouse bitterness or resentment in 
your hearts. Have the courage to resist any temptation you may feel to 
resort to acts of violence or terrorism.

         Support for Palestinian statehood: Palestinians have a right to a 
sovereign homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace 
with its neighbors, within internationally recognized borders.

         Criticism of Israels security fence designed to keep out 
terrorists: In a world where more and more borders are being opened up  to 
trade, to travel, to movement of peoples, to cultural exchanges  it is 
tragic to see walls still being erected.

         Prayers for Palestinians who suffered in Gaza fighting  but not 
for Israelis who suffer from Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza: Please 
be assured that all Palestinian refugees across the world, especially 
those who lost homes and loved ones during the recent conflict in Gaza, 
are constantly remembered in my prayers.

         Plight of Christians in Gaza mentioned, but only in general terms 
- their persecution at the hands of Hamas and Islamists ignored: In a 
special way my heart goes out to the pilgrims from war-torn Gaza: I ask 
you to bring back to your families and your communities my warm embrace, 
and my sorrow for the loss, the hardship and the suffering you have had to 
endure. (Rachel Donadio and Sharon Otterman, In Bethlehem, Pope Laments 
Israeli Wall, New York Times, May 14, 2009).





ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, We find many reasons for 
concern and even criticism in statements made by the Pope during his 
visit. While acknowledging that the Pope has made important statements 
regarding his concern for the plight of Christian minorities in Muslim 
majority countries and called for religious tolerance and freedom in 
Muslim societies, the ZOA believes the Popes implied support for the 
so-called Palestinian right of return and his failure to condemn as an 
inexcusable evil the culture of terrorism and support for eliminating 
Israel that permeates Palestinian society represented a failure to speak 
the truth. These statements and omissions obscured the nature of the 
conflict and thus gave aid and comfort to Palestinian non-acceptance of 
Israel.



At no time did the Pope name the root of the conflict  the Palestinian 
rejection of Israels right to exist as a Jewish state. But for this, peace 
would have been achieved long ago. By expressing solidarity with the 
Palestinian desire to return, the Pope was in effect giving sanction to 
the Palestinian design to eliminate Israel by demographic inundation. Yet 
the Pope knows, or ought to know, that the reason Palestinians are still 
in refugee camps is because they have been deliberately incarcerated in 
them as an element in a campaign to delegitimize Israel and denied 
opportunity to resettle, as all other refugees have been able to do. How 
much better it would have been if the Pope had called upon Arab states to 
absorb the refugees and their descendents rather than keeping them penned 
up refugee camps.



We are also perturbed rather than reassured by the Popes statement urging 
Palestinians to have the courage to resist any temptation you may feel to 
resort to acts of violence or terrorism. Though undoubtedly intended to 
address the evil of terrorism, the Pope failed in this task. He presented 
terrorism as a failing into which Palestinians understandably might fall, 
rather than an evil that they, like all other human beings, are morally 
prohibited from committing. This speaks volumes for the success of 
Palestinian propaganda that has insidiously insinuated the notion that 
Palestinians have been so deliberately and wantonly victimized by Israel 
that they understandably turn to terrorism.



The Catholic Church has no inhibitions in forthrightly describing abortion 
as morally wrong, not a mere temptation. How, then, is it possible that an 
evil like terrorism wasnt condemned by the Pope  merely described as a 
temptation that might understandably appeal to Palestinians?



We regret that the Pope saw fit to declare that Palestinians have a right 
to their own state at a time when both the Palestinian leadership and 
society as a whole (as polls show) reject the right of Jews to their own 
state and support the use of terrorism against Jews. How much better it 
would have been for the Pontiff to say that he believes Palestinians must 
meet their Oslo and Roadmap commitments to end terrorism and the 
incitement to hatred and murder that feeds it before Israel can be 
expected to make further concessions.



We too lament the security barrier: we would dearly wish that Israel had 
never seen any need to erect it. But as its building was a direct result 
of on-going terrorism that claimed over a thousand Israeli lives, we 
object to the Pope criticizing this legitimate, non-lethal security 
measure. What he should have done was to condemn the terrorism and 
rejection of Israel that gave rise to it.



Lastly, the ZOA is also concerned that, in his address at the Yad Vashem 
Holocaust memorial, the German-born Pope made no apology on behalf of 
German Catholics who participated in the commission of the Holocaust, nor 
make mention of German guilt for the genocide under the Nazi regime. This 
is all the more surprising, in view of the Popes own service in the Hitler 
Youth and German armed forces during the Nazi era. Nor did the Pope 
mention the long, lamentable history of Catholic anti-Semitism, which 
tragically paved the way for the anti-Semitic furies of Nazism.