Israel protests pope Papal silence on terror

Trying to change the Vatican’s habit of excluding Israel when condemning terrorist attacks, the Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican envoy Monday to protest Pope Benedict XVI’s failure to mention recent attacks in Israel during a condemnation of world terrorism.

In his noontime sermon on Sunday, the pope prayed for God to stop the “murderous hand” of terrorists, and referred to the recent “abhorrent terrorist attacks” in Egypt, Britain, Turkey and Iraq. He did not mention the July 12 suicide bombing that killed five people in Netanya.

Nimrod Barkan, director of the Foreign Ministry’s World Jewish Affairs Bureau, called Vatican Archbishop Pietro Sambi into his office to protest what Israel believes was not just an innocent oversight.

Barkan said not condemning terrorism in Israel had been Vatican policy for years, and “now that there is a new pope, we have decided to deal with it.”

“We feel that now that there is a new pope, we need to turn over a new leaf and change the fact that the Vatican refrained in the past from condemning attacks here,” he said. “They need to help the moderates in the Middle East, not the extremists.”

Barkan said that during the reign of pope John Paul II, Israel “quietly” protested in Rome the pope’s lack of condemnation of attacks in Israel. He said Israel had now decided to go public with the matter to change an entrenched but negative mode of conduct.

Asked to speculate why the previous pope refrained from condemning attacks in Israel, Barkan said: “There are forces in the Vatican pulling in different direction regarding Israel. Since they never paid a price for the lack of a condemnation, they continued to do it. But if they understand we won’t let this pass quietly, I assume they will change their ways.”

If the protest is not effective, “we will have to weigh other steps,” he said.

Barkan said he was not concerned the public protest would damage relations with the new pope.

“What could be worse than implying that it is okay to kill Jews? What else am I supposed to do,” he said.

Barkan said Sambi took notes during their meeting and said he would pass the message on to the Vatican.

Sambi on Monday night would not comment about the incident.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, accompanying Benedict on vacation, issued a one-line statement saying the papal envoy “has already replied to the Israeli government.” It did not elaborate.

Later, Navarro-Valls released a second statement in which he noted that Benedict’s words expressly referred to terrorist attacks in “recent days.”

“It’s surprising that one would have wanted to take the opportunity to distort the intentions of the Holy Father,” Navarro-Valls said in the statement. “Obviously the other week’s grave attack in Netanya referred to by Israel falls under the general and unreserved condemnation of terrorism.”