Hey, Shaun (and everyone else), what do ya think about this?
Glenn Reynolds is accusing the Catholic Church of growing anti-semitism based off of their support of Palestinians. He began the accusations here and brought it back today.
the Vatican has consistently taken the side of Palestinians, and Arab Muslims generally, against Israel and Jews, to the point where I can’t really believe any excuses that it’s not about antisemitism. (I think that there have been a few minor condemnations of the increasing anti-semitism in Europe, though I looked and couldn’t find any.) Then there’s this damning picture. (Yeah, he’s French, but he’s also a Cardinal.)Glenn, and many others, seem to suffer from the thought that supporting a Palestinian state makes you anti-semetic by default. If you suport them, you must hate Jews, right?Sorry — readers can defend this sort of thing if they like. But to me it’s just another sign that the Vatican — whose retreat from antisemitism was at any rate recent and shallow — has no moral ground to stand on.
Supporting a Palestinian state simply means that you feel that the Palestinians have gotten a raw deal and deserve better, but it is not a blanket approval of their means to reach that, that’s two different things. Nor is supporting a Palestinian state opposing Israel or Jews in general. No where has the Church come out and said “give all that land back”. No where has the Church said “they have evey right to be blowing people up”. God forbit they realize that Israel was the first to violate the Dayton Accord (Dayton, right?) by expansing settlements into Palestinian territory. Not that this is a justification for their attacks, but where is that “moral ground to stand on” for Israel?
And Craig Schamp says: “I can only imagine how American Catholic heads must be spinning these days. It’s hard to keep up with all of the idiocy and equivocation coming out of the Vatican lately.
So, let me get this straight, because the Church is opposed to war and because they feel that the Palestinian’s have gotten a raw deal, they’re only spouting “idiocy and equivocation”? Is wanting peace idiocy? Now, I don’t agree with the Church in its opposition to war, but I think their opposition lies not in the war itself but it’s reasons. If America had been making the arguement that this was for humanitarian reasons from day one, I think we’d have a hell of a lot easier time with this world wide. But, no, we spouted idiocy by saying “pre-emptive strike!” for the first however many months before we took the “enforcing UN sanctions” and “look at how the Iraqi people suffer” route. Too little too late for the world and the Vatican.
UPDATE: Thanks, Shaun.
Catholic Bishop Comes Under Israeli Gunfire
January 11, 2001 (well before the May 2nd photo Glenn started his accusations on)
A car carrying a Catholic bishop came under fire from Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint on the West Bank on Wednesday.Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo, a Jerusalem auxiliary, was traveling from his residence in Nazareth to the village of Zababdeh, in the Israeli-occupied territories. He was riding in a car clearly identified as a diplomatic vehicle, flying the Vatican flag, as he approached an Israeli military checkpoint. There, the soldiers refused to let them pass.
Father Elie Kurzum, the bishop’s secretary, was driving the vehicle. He reports that when he was turned away from the checkpoint, he stopped by the side of the road, hoping to talk with the soldiers and convince them to let the car pass. Instead, a soldier shot at the bishop’s car. When Father Kurzum shouted at him to hold his fire, the priest reported: “He answered me, ‘Go away or I’ll put a bullet in your head.’” Father Kurzum says that two more shots were then fired at the car, as he accelerated away from the checkpoint.
Bishop Marcuzzo immediately went to another nearby military post and complained to the commanding officer there. The officer apologized, and agreed to accompany the bishop back to the first checkpoint, so that they could pass without further incident. The officer also agreed to tell the soldiers that the bishop would be returning within an hour, and should be allowed to pass through the checkpoint once again.
However, when Bishop Marcuzzo returned after visiting the sick priest, the soldiers again stopped his vehicle at the same checkpoint, and leveled their guns at the car. This time the driver immediately reversed his tracks, without attempting to talk to the soldiers. The bishop eventually returned to Nazareth by another, more circuitous route.
No one was hurt in the checkpoint incident. However the bishop’s secretary, Father Kurzum, remarked: “It’s just to tell that the Israeli soldiers– they use very easily their guns.”
A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem observed that the incident was a clear violation of the right of freedom of movement. He added: “If this happens now, with such a high-ranking personality, what could happen every day and night to our simple common people?”
Israeli soldiers fire at bishop’s car at checkpoint
Israeli soldiers fired at a bishop’s car with a Vatican flag as it tried to pass through a border checkpoint.
Auxiliary Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo of Jerusalem, his secretary, Father Elie Kurzum, and Father Elias Odeh, parish priest of the Israeli Arab village of Shefa Amer, were driving to the West Bank village of Zababdeh to visit a sick priest when the shooting occurred. No one was injured in the Jan. 9 incident.How horribly anti-semetic of the Church.An Israeli official met with the bishop and apologized for the soldiers’ actions.
Father Kurzum, who was driving the car, said he approached the checkpoint, which was not manned by soldiers, at about 6 mph, zigzagging around a series of cement blocks, when some 165 feet away he saw soldiers running toward them from the adjacent military camp with their guns aimed at the car.
“I stopped the car when I saw they were pointing their guns ? their M-16s ? at us, and one soldier said to go back. He spoke in English so he knew we were in a foreign car. We had the Vatican flag and (foreign) license plates,” said Father Kurzum.
He said the soldiers did not ask for their identity cards.
Father Kurzum said he then drove back a bit and stopped at the side of the road. It was at that point, he said, that the first shot was fired.
“It was very near to us. I heard it like it was in the car. I knew that he wouldn’t shoot us directly, so I opened the window and told him in Hebrew to come talk to us. He said `Get away from here or you will have a bullet in your head,’” Father Kurzum told Catholic News Service.
Another soldier fired two more shots at the car, the priest said, so he turned the car around and drove toward Zababdeh via another route.
“They have shot at Palestinian cars before, but this is the first time it has happened at a patriarchate car,” he said. “Even if they didn’t know we were from the Vatican, they saw the flag and knew we were representatives of somebody.”
The churchmen stopped at another military camp along the way to report the incident to a commanding officer. The officer apologized for the soldiers’ behavior and escorted the car to the village.
Father Kurzum said they told the officer they would be returning the same way, and he said he would speak to the soldiers.
Deciding that they should return to Nazareth, Israel, where the bishop lives, while it was still daylight, the churchmen stayed only 40 minutes in Zababdeh, Father Kurzum said.
At 4:40 p.m. they returned to the same checkpoint. Father Kurzum said he put on his emergency flashers to signal their approach to the soldiers, but the soldiers once again came out pointing their guns. The priest turned the car around and went a circuitous way back to Nazareth.
Israeli Justice and Religious Minister Yossi Beilin met with Bishop Marcuzzo Jan. 10 and apologized for the incident.
A statement from Beilin’s office said he told the bishop he hoped there would be clearer instructions of conduct for soldiers regarding the passage of religious representatives so the incident would not be repeated.
The statement said the bishop accepted Beilin’s apology and asked to receive a copy of the investigation report when it was completed.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli Defense Forces said statements would be taken from all those involved, and as soon as the facts were reviewed, a formal response would be issued.
The Vatican issued no comment on the incident.
Father Raed Abusahlia, chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate, said his office was awaiting the return of Patriarch Michel Sabbah Jan. 11 before issuing an official response.
However, he said, although there have not been any other incidents of this gravity involving patriarchate officials, Patriarch Sabbah has faced difficulties moving around Israeli checkpoints.
Once, the patriarch arrived an hour late for a Mass because he was forced to take a longer route due to problems at the checkpoints. Another time when the patriarch and chancellor were traveling to Nazareth via Jericho, West Bank, they were initially confronted by soldiers with pointed guns. After the soldiers saw their Vatican passports, they apologized, Father Abusahlia said. “The daily life of every person here is already complicated, and this is making it more complicated. It is a situation of fear,” he said, calling the incident an “unjustified action.” “The soldiers have their orders, and we respect their orders; I can understand their fear, but they have to deal with people,” he said. “We appeal to Israel to stop the closure and remove all the checkpoints which are separating our cities and towns and making this whole area one big prison. They have to end this last bloody occupation in the world.”
