The Vatican to Israel: we do not need lectures from anyone
Israel-Vatican, Politics, 7/29/2005

The Vatican on Thursday reacted strongly to Israeli accusations that Pope Benedict XVI has not condemned the terrorist acts "which target Israel." The Vatican indicated that the Holy See is not in need lessons from any one about its position.

The core of the difference is a speech Pope Benedict delivered last Sunday in his resort in the Italian Alps mountains. The pope condemned the terrorist aggressions which "resulted in the death and destruction in various countries including Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Britain," giving no mention to Israel.

The spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry Nimrus Birkan said in a statement to the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post that the Pope deliberately gave no mention to the Nathania operation which took place on July 12, in the context of his review of countries which suffer terrorism, adding that the Vatican "has since years embarked on a policy not to condemn terrorism conducted against Israel," in remarks to Pope John Paul II.

The Vatican said in a statement "as the Israeli government does not accept to be instructed from anyone on what it should do, the Holy See would not accept to receive lessons and instructions from any authority on the direction and content of its statements." The Vatican indicated that Birkan tried to make "baseless accusations," addressed to Pope Benedict "through concentration on the alleged silence attributed to John Paul II, and of creating a story showing that the Israeli government interfered repeatedly at the Holy See" to this effect.

The Vatican said that the "interventions made by Pope John Paul II against all forms of terrorism and against aggressions targeted Israel were open and numerous." But he also stressed "it was not possible to condemn all attacks which target Israel, especially the recent ones, which came as immediate reaction to attacks, and its reactions were not always in line with the principles of the international law," a reference to Israel's repeated attacks against Palestinians in violation of international law, which caused Palestinian counterattacks.

He explained that "consequently," it was difficult to condemn the Palestinian acts and keep silence over the Israeli acts.

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