From the Editor

Unlikely Partners:
The Pope and Arafat

One of the most bizarre outgrowths of Israel's whitewashing of the world's chief terrorists and supporters of terror (otherwise known as "the peace process") is the agreement between the Pope and Yasser Arafat to undercut Israel's control of Jerusalem. While Israel (whose leaders now protest loudly) in fact has no one to blame but itself, nevertheless it must be repulsive to everyone with religious sensitivities to see a great, if ailing spiritual leader ally himself with a creature like Arafat, whose long murderous career has been devoted to making a mockery of every principle which this Pope affirms.

One paragraph is more offensive than the other. The agreement calls for a "special statute for Jerusalem, internationally guaranteed" that would safeguard "freedom of religion and conscience for all" and "freedom of access to" and "of worship in" the Holy Places. The outrageous inference is that such freedom is currently denied under Israeli rule, when in fact such freedoms are scrupulously maintained for every religious group -- in striking contrast to the pre-1967 period when much of the city was under Arab rule, and Jewish tombstones were used for latrines and access to Jewish holy places was totally denied.

There are comical aspects to the agreement: In Article 1, paragraph 1 "The PLO affirms its permanent commitment to uphold and observe the human right to freedom of religion and conscience" and in Paragraph 2, "The Holy See affirms the commitment of the Catholic Church to support this right." It sounds as if the Pope is following the moral lead of Arafat! In Article 2, the parties are on an equal plane, promising "appropriate cooperation in promoting respect for human rights, individual and collective, in combating all forms of discrimination and threats to human life and dignity, as well as to the promotion of understanding and harmony between nations and communities." Coming from the PLO, which simultaneously issued a call in Morocco for Moslem funds to save Jerusalem from "cancerous Judaization," this is about as funny as you can get.

But perhaps the most egregious elements of the agreement are in the preamble. The Pope declares that "unilateral decisions and actions altering the specific character and status of Jerusalem are morally and legally unacceptable." "Legally unacceptable"? It is not the Vatican's role to make determinations of international law. As for morality, what kind of morality is it for the Pope to give his religious imprimatur to the notion that the Arabs, with their appalling record of the most massive violations of human and religious rights in Jerusalem, deserve to decide the fate of the city, and not the Jews? As if this were not bad enough, the preamble calls for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict "which would realize the inalienable national legitimate rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people...on the basis of international law, relevant United Nations and its Security Council resolutions, justice and equity." This is PLO code for Israel's return to the 1947 partition lines (i.e. dissolution of the state), which the Pope is thus --whether he realizes it or not--endorsing.

What can the Pope (and/or his advisers) have thought they were doing with this shameful alliance with a Mideast gangster? PLO harassment has been responsible for making Bethlehem, once a Christian city, virtually Christian-rein. It is only months ago that the Moslems of Nazareth faced down the Christians in order to build a mosque at a Christian holy place. (Israel, in the middle, caved in to the group of which it was most terrified, the Moslems.) Not a word on that from the Pope. The Pope has nothing to say about the plight of the Christian community of Lebanon or the Copts of Egypt. He is concerned only that the Holy Places in Jerusalem be under the political control of those least likely to serve as true guardians.

The agreement will be an indelible stain on the record of a Pope who would otherwise have been remembered warmly by Jews for his efforts to make amends for the dubious Vatican role during the Holocaust.

Haider No, Assad Yes

Israel is up in arms, calling back its ambassador, its leaders competing with one another in self-righteous moral indignation because Austria has included Jorg Haider's Freedom Party in the governing coalition. Haider has indeed made questionable remarks as he

(Continued on p.10)

Outpost               - 2 -               February 2000