The naïve pope and his 'angel of peace' from Ramallah
Op-ed: Francis should have asked Abbas why almost all Christians have fled the Palestinian-controlled territories, while in Israel hundreds of thousands live peacefully and enjoy full freedom of religion.
The conclusion from this statement is that His Holiness is either a very naïve person or hasn't the slightest idea about what has been happening in the Middle East for almost 70 years. Otherwise, it's impossible to understand how an intelligent person could voice such a strange sentence, which contradicts what is happening reality.
Why Abbas, who heads an ephemeral authority which exists mainly thanks to donations from the world's countries and the good and merciful will of the State of Israel, is the person who thwarted and is continuing to thwart any possibility for any peace agreement in the conflict between Israel and his Palestinian Authority.
Just like his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, Abbas knew how to repeatedly evade any attempt to hold serious discussions about the PA's future alongside Israel.
He doesn’t even want to be the president of an existing and sovereign state. Why should he have to deal with all the many problems of a state? He anyway receives the title of president everywhere. He doesn't have to take care of the economy or finances of a real state. Many countries across the universe have recognized the PA as if it were a state, including the Vatican – which is an ephemeral entity itself – in recent days.
If Francis really understood some of what is happening in our region, he could have, for example, asked the "angel of peace" from Ramallah why is it that over the years almost all the Christians have escaped-emigrated from the territories controlled by the Palestinians, while in Israel hundreds of thousands of Christians live peacefully and enjoy full freedom of religion.
When the Argentinean cardinal was elected pope, everyone hoped that he would be slightly different from most of his predecessors. Maybe even in regards to the Jews, although we don’t need any attention from the Catholic Church, which developed the biggest murderers of Jews over the years:
From the Crusades to Symon Petliura, from the Spanish Inquisition to Bohdan Khmelnytsky. A large part of the Germans were also worshippers of the Holy See. But it quickly turned out that nothing had changed in Rome. Sorry, in the Vatican.
