GayandRight

My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam. I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)

Monday, July 25, 2005

Pope ignores terror against Israel...

It's not just the Pope...but Tony Blair did this as well recently...as did several newspapers who published maps of terror attacks, but left out Israel.

Pope Benedict XVI faced the first major conflict of his 3-month-old papacy when Israel summoned the Vatican envoy Monday to express outrage that the pope "deliberately failed" to condemn terrorist attacks against Israelis.

The pontiff also said in separate comments Monday that he didn't see any anti-Christian motive in recent attacks blamed on Muslim extremists and urged dialogue with the best elements of Islam.

The German-born Benedict, who has consistently reached out to Jews since assuming the papacy, was criticized by Israel for remarks Sunday from his Alpine vacation retreat in northwestern Italy.

He prayed for God to stop the "murderous hand" of terrorists and referred to the recent "abhorrent terrorist attacks" in Egypt, Britain, Turkey and
Iraq, but did not mention attacks in Israel.

"The pope deliberately failed to condemn the terrible terror attack that occurred in Israel last week," a Foreign Ministry statement issued in Jerusalem said.

A July 12 suicide bombing in the seaside city of Netanya killed five Israelis. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

"We expected that the new pope, who on taking office emphasized the importance he places on relations between the Church and the Jewish people, would behave differently," the Israeli statement said. It called on the pope to condemn attacks "against Jews in the same way he condemns terror attacks against others."