Vatican: Pope silent when asked to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people

Last year the Pope wrote in an email that "anyone who does not recognize the Jewish people and the State of Israel — and their right to exist — is guilty of anti-Semitism".

Jews assumed this means the Pope thinks that not recognizing Israel as Jewish is antisemitic.  But that's not what he said.  He said the Jewish people and the State of Israel have a right to exist.  Each one separately.

The Pope repeated that statement a few months later: "Israel has every right to exist"

Does it have a right to exist as the state of the Jewish people?  The Pope never said so.

Christian Today, a British Christian news-site, reported that the Pope was "ambushed" with that question and that Israel as a Jewish state is a "highly controversial issue".



Via Arutz 7:

The rabbi told Arutz Sheva that during the visit he turned to the pope and asked him to declare that the church recognizes the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, but the clearly embarrassed pope simply responded with silence.

Rabbi Arusi said that while the Catholic church has conducted something of an about face in recent years regarding its relations with the Jewish people, there remains much that it must do.

"The church ignores the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, they talk about the Holy Land, but not about the state of Israel," he said.

"Therefore during the meeting with the rabbis after the public event, I turned to the pope and I told him that we appreciate his words against anti-Semitism, but today there is a new and very fierce anti-Semitism built on the basis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

The rabbi called on the pope to be "the Balfour of the Catholic church, and since the land of Israel is the Holy Land and they recognize our birthright, they should declare that the state of Israel is the state of the Jewish people by virtue of the Bible, without diminishing the rights of the Palestinians to a state."

In response, "the pope was very embarrassed by my request, he was never told that directly, and afterwards he smiled but didn't say a thing. I think that the time has come for them to indeed recognize the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people."

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