HARD TO FULLY TRUST THE ARABS!                    

The Arabs screw up the whole deal. Gaddafi wants to lead, Moubarak has to compromise, the Palestinian Authority is hopeless, the Saudis do not give a damn, and the Syrians are not to be trusted.”

The Arab League is en route to offer an unprecedented peace initiative to Israel. This means, normal relations with more than 21 Arab countries. But there is a catch here. In return, Israel will guarantee a total withdrawal to the borders prior to the Six Day War. This could create a major domestic and geo-political headache for Prime Minister Sharon.  Arab leaders already met in Algiers to debate the issue. And as expected, they are not yet in sync with each other. Heated debates and mutual accusations dominated the Arab conference.  “They are working on a practical way to repackage a three-year-old Arab peace offer repeatedly rejected by Israel”, said an official spokesman of the Jordanian government “They will screw up the whole deal. Gaddafi wants to lead, Moubarak has to compromise, the Palestinian Authority is hopeless, the Saudis do not give a damn, and the Syrians are not to be trusted.

 In almost 90% of Arab leaders’ summits, no final and practical political agreement was ever agreed upon by Arab heads of states. Each one of them had his own agenda. And this political oddity began with Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1964. As at almost every Arab political summit since the first one which took place in Cairo in 1964, the Arab-Israeli conflict was the primordial topic. Israel-Palestine conflict dominated the debates. But now, things became to change and the political ambiance is conditioned by major new key players.  In the past, Russia  played a major role. Today, Russia is an observer. Today, the Palestinians for the first time in the history of Israeli-Palestinian-Arabs peace negotiations will have the power  “to do something, to say something”, commented an official spokesman of the Arab League, in Cairo. And this time at the Arab Leaders Summit, new preparations are en route, for, sharp exchanges over a Jordanian proposal to re-craft the 2002 Arab initiative for Israeli consumption is la piece de resistance.

The Saudis are saying nothing about the summit debates. The Syrians are preoccupied with their military presence dilemma in Lebanon. Egypt is working on the final draft. And Jordan, the Arab government friendliest towards Israel, is trying to simplify the two-page peace initiative, also referred to in the Arab world as “The Beirut Initiative”. Reuters reported that King Abdullah of Jordan wanted to build on the slight improvement in Arab-Israeli relations since Israel's decision to suspend targeted killing of Palestinian terrorists, making a truce possible after four years of conflict. The main Palestinian factions have offered a conditional halt to attacks until the end of this year. Egypt and Jordan, which have peace treaties with Israel, have sent ambassadors back to Tel Aviv after a four-year gap. But other Arab countries, wary of appearing to dilute the conditions, insisted the summit stick close to the text approved in Beirut in 2002. Despite the good intention of the Hashemite Kingdom, King Abdullah will now stay away from the summit. He has been joined by the Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf leaders. And now, a new round of controversy and disagreements on the landscape of Arab politic is threatening a “global Arab understanding and unity” said a spokesman of the Lebanese government. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi seems to enjoy the political show.  Last year, he walked out of the Arab summit in Tunis. But now,  he was the first Arab leader to arrive on time, after foreign ministers agreed to put on the agenda his one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Gaddafi's political view of a Palestinian state is diametrically opposed to the Arab and international consensus on a solution based on two states living in peace side by side. Can we trust the Arab League? Not sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JEWISH CONCERNS

 

JEWISH REACTIONS TO THE POPE'S DEATH                                  

Israel's Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom: "The death of Pope John Paul II is a great loss for all humanity."



In 1993, Pope John Paul II re-established diplomatic relations with Israel. He was the first pope to visit a synagogue. True! In  April of 1986,  Pope John Paul II visited the Orthodox Synagogue in Rome, Italy. During his historic visit to the Roman synagogue, Pope John Paul II said, "With Judaism, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are dearly beloved brothers and, in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers." Also, he was the first Roman Pontiff  to visit the Chief Rabbis of Israel, the Rabbinate and the President of Israel at his residence.  Israel's Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom said: "Pope John Paul II  promoted inter-faith understanding and dialogue with a willingness to address the past, and a profound determination to build a future of understanding and brotherhood between all faiths." Associate Premier Shimon Peres, with a deep sorrow,  stated that he was extremely chagrinned  by the death of Pope John Paul II. Peres described the Pope as "A true spiritual leader whose leadership extended beyond his traditional flock and believers, embracing the entire human family... His actions and statements transformed relations between the Catholic and Jewish faiths, and made a fundamental impact on the struggle against anti-Semitism." The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America issued a statement, in which it stated: "Great sadness at the passing of Pope John Paul II. The historic and landmark contributions that he made to Catholic-Jewish relations were pioneering and invaluable. The Pope’s denunciation of anti-Semitism as a sin against God, which he made as he traveled around the world, is all the more important in light of the alarming trends we see today." In an in-depth article on Pope John Paul II's relationship with the Jewish people, Sergio Itzhak Minerbi, Israel's former Ambassador to the Ivory Coast and Belgium, wrote: "No other pope has displayed such a strong interest in trying to find a common ground between Catholicism and Judaism. But while some people have enthusiastically received the words of this pope as those of a great friend of the Jews, others have remained critical."  Ambassador Minerbi added: "The will of the Pope and the Polish Church to stress the Christian character of the Holocaust is clear. In every former death camp there is today a chapel, a church or a cross, even if all the inmates had been Jews... It could be that the Pope wanted to transform the Shoah into a martyrdom of the Catholic Polish nation. As a result, it is feared that the Church will teach Catholics in future generations that the Shoah was mainly a Catholic tragedy, or at the very least, that this is a way to avoid any responsibility for the Shoah, since the Church itself was a 'victim' of the Nazis."


The main criticism against Pope John Paul II, was his constant effort to Christianize the Shoah (Holocaust).

Although, the Pope is credited with tremendously improving Roman Catholic -Jewish relations, many questions pertaining to his so-called affection for Arafat and controversial Christianization of the Holocaust remain unanswered.  In February of 2000, the Pope and Yasser Arafat, jointly issued an official condemnation of any unilateral decision that would  allow  a drastic change of the geographic and socio-political aspect of Jerusalem. Both leaders strongly focused on what they called "a decision  which is legally and morally invalid." In an official meeting in the Vatican and at a state level,  the Pope and Arafat called for an "international city status" for Jerusalem. However, "The main criticism against Pope John Paul II," ambassador Minerbi explains, "is the Pope's constant effort to Christianize the Shoah (Holocaust). " When the Pope visited Auschwitz in June 1979, he compared Auschwitz , where over a million Jews were murdered, to Golgotha, the hill where Jesus was crucified. 

According to trusted sources in the international Jewish communities, the date of the beatification of Edith Stein, a Jewish born nun  who was murdered in Auschwitz, became an official "Holocaust Day" for the Roman Catholic Church. Her canonization was done, despite an international opposition from  many Jewish groups around the globe. The Roman Pontiff eulogized Edith Stein's death in this manner " Edith Stein died as a daughter of Israel for the glorification of the holy name of God and at the same time as Nun Teresa Benedicta of the Cross." In 1998, Pope John Paul II wrote: "The Shoah remains an indelible stain on the history of the century that is coming to a close. The Shoah was the work of a thoroughly modern, neo-pagan regime. Its anti-Semitism had its roots outside of Christianity." He did admit a minor blame and  a relatively  small guilt on behalf of the Christian church. He stated that " Nazi persecutions "were made easier by the anti-Jewish prejudice imbedded in some Christian minds and hearts." Pope John Paul II quite often defended Pope Pius XII, who has been accused by the European and international Jewish communities of  remaining silent in the face of the Nazi genocide in Europe and the persecution and death of Italian Jews on the hands of the SS and Gestapo who were  stationed in Rome, Italy. "Whatever his reasons," of which there are several, ambassador Minerbi wrote about Pius, "It is clear that when he had to chose between the moral duty of denouncing genocide in order to save Jewish lives, and what he deemed to be the supreme interest of the Church, he preferred the latter." Other Jewish concerns? Over the years, many Jewish groups in the eastern and western hemispheres,  have demanded that the Vatican  return the  many stolen Jewish treasures, arts, scrolls, books and  manuscripts which were kept in the Vatican vaults. Such calls and demands were never answered by the Holy Seat of Rome.