Warning Issued Not to Sign With Vatican
(Please read Bernard J. Shapiro's article below.)
Nisan 5, 5769, 30 March 09 12:37
by Hillel Fendel(IsraelNN.com) Pope Benedictus XVI is scheduled to arrive in Israel six weeks from now, and concern is growing over possibly irreversible Israeli concessions to the Church.
For more than ten years, Israel and the Vatican have been negotiating a diplomatic agreement regarding their tax dispute over Catholic Church properties in Israel, as well as other issues over which they disagree. Though public details are sparse to nil, Foreign Ministry officials say major progress has been made – leading many to fear that the Church will be granted a political and religious foothold in the Holy Land.
Though Church officials hope the agreement will be completed before the Pope’s arrival in May, this is not certain. Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Bahij Mansour, who heads its religious affairs section, said two weeks ago, "We are 85-90% there.”
Mansour also said that most issues still in dispute would be resolved in a meeting in April. Different reports say the meeting will take place either April 7 or April 23 - before and after Passover, respectively - and is to involve relatively high-level officials from both the Vatican and Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
The Sanhedrin, a body of 71 rabbis that is attempting to renew the ancient tradition of Judaism’s most authoritative court, has written a public letter to Israel’s leading officials, warning that any agreement regarding the transfer of national, historic, and/or religious Jewish assets to the Catholic Church will be null and void and will not be recognized by Jewish authorities.
Striving for Internationalized Jerusalem
In February 2000, the Vatican and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement calling for an internationally guaranteed special status for Jerusalem. During his visit that year, Pope John Paul II announced in Bethlehem that the Vatican had always recognized “Palestinian national rights to a homeland.” Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Dean of Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim, said at the time that the Pope's goal was simply to obtain a foothold in Jerusalem for the Church.
The Sanhedrin, which sees itself as a “vehicle to bring about Jewish unity and civil justice, to help repair some of the deepest rifts in our society, and to provide an active, exemplary and unified Torah leadership,” warns President Shimon Peres and incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against the Church’s religious agenda hiding behind diplomatic agreements.
The letter states as follows [subheadings added]:
The State of Israel grants freedom of worship to every religion – except to Jews on their most sacred spot, the Temple Mount. They do not have the right to pray there, nor even minimal religious rights. The State thus contravenes the purpose for which it exists, and undermines its own foundations.On the other hand, the State of Israel goes out of its way to transfer diplomatic, religious and spiritual assets to foreigners.Over the course of many years, contacts have been underway and promises of various agreements have been made regarding what the Catholic Church sees as its property or wishes were its property, in Mt. Zion, the Old City of Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee, and elsewhere. There are those who came up with the idea of the Holy Crescent [an area around the Old City to the north and east, newly known as the Holy Crescent - ed.] -- the main purpose of which is to rid the Temple Mount and the Old City of exclusive Jewish sovereignty.The Goal: Sever Jerusalem from Jewish People
Ever since the Israeli army liberated the entire city of Jerusalem in 1967, the members of other faiths and nations have not accepted the Jewish People’s sovereignty and return to its eternal capital, the place in which its Temple for the G-d of Israel and G-d’s kingdom will be established.In recent years, the Vatican – acting on behalf of Catholic theology – signed a series of secret agreements, behind the public’s back, with various elements in the State of Israel, bereft of respect for the spiritual and political essence of the Jewish Nation. The essence of these agreements is the transfer of ownership over national Jewish property in Jerusalem to the hands of foreigners, and the instigation of processes to destabilize the Jewish People’s ownership over its sacred sites – primarily, the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, and the entire Old City of Jerusalem.Giving these and other sites to the Vatican and international elements will lead to their detachment from the State’s territorial area.The State of Israel is bound to the document of acquisition [known as] the Bible, which was the basis for the Jewish People’s claim to its Land when it established the State of Israel. The State must therefore actualize Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem, the City of G-d, the city of kingship, the capital of Israel, the heart of the world. It must guarantee the right of worship for Jews on the Temple Mount…Standing Up For Israel's Honor
It should be noted that in 1964, when Pope Paul VI visited Israel, the third President of Israel, Mr. Zalman Shazar, read to him the verse in Micah stating that though other nations might follow other gods, “we will walk in the Name of our L-rd G-d forever.” The Chief Rabbis at the time similarly stood up for Israel’s honor by refusing to meet with him at all, after he refused to meet with them in their Jerusalem office. [During his visit, Paul VI did not acknowledge Israel’s existence or visit its key sites, did not mention its name, and refused to meet with the Chief Rabbi in Jerusalem. He later addressed a thank you note to the Israeli president, who lived in Jerusalem, by writing, “Mr. Salman Shazar of Tel Aviv.” - ed.]Public Opposition Worked
In 2000, when Pope John Paul II visited Jerusalem, various elements tried to promote foreign sovereignty on the Temple Mount at the expense of Israel’s sovereignty there. They attempted to enable the visit to the Jews’ holiest site in the world without official Israeli presence - but public opposition thwarted these efforts.All official and religious elements in Israel must prevent the signing of an agreement that deviates from the spirit of this document, and express their objections to the Catholic restorationist tendencies whose goal are the neutralization of Israel’s sovereign powers and the Jewish People’s status in its Holy Land, the Land of Israel.We expect you to show maximum alertness to the matter of Jerusalem as the holiday of Passover approaches, so that our right hand not be forgotten… Please, clarify your positions to your countrymen and the entire world. Show honor to the G-d of your forefathers, your city, and your nation, without flattery to foreigners who wish to minimize our national image…The Sanhedrin asserts that the representatives of the State of Israel can represent the Jewish Nation as long as they act in accordance with its traditions and laws – and are not authorized to transfer the ownership, or authority over, lands and properties in the Land of Israel to any foreign religious or political element.Agreement Will Be Null and Void
Therefore, any agreements made by such representatives with the Vatican as a theological political body, in opposition to the spiritual essence of the Nation of Israel, have no validity. They are all null and void, the Vatican should not believe that property promised to them by these contracts will remain in its hands.Churches in Israel - The Result of Forced Exile
It should be remembered that the Vatican, as the leading Christian Church, is responsible for the legacy of Rome – the conqueror of Jerusalem, the exiler of its Jews, the destroyer of its land. All the churches that exists today in the Land of Israel are the result of the Jewish destruction 1,900 years ago, the elimination of the Jews from their land, and the exile that Christianity wishes to boast will be eternal. This, in addition to the priceless material and spiritual treasures found in the basements of the Vatican [such as the utensils of the destroyed Holy Temple - ed.], as well as the countless synagogues throughout the world that were confiscated by the Vatican and its representatives and not returned.It is gravely forbidden to validate such agreements, as determined by the State’s criminal law code.Warning: Religious War
Continued flattery to the Church on the basis of illegal agreements is liable to end, Heaven forbid, in destructive religious wars all over the globe.
Former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau has said that Pope Pius XII refused several requests by then-Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog to meet with him before and during the Holocaust to discuss how the Church could help save Jewish lives. After the war, too, Chief Rabbi Herzog asked for the Pope's assistance in locating Jewish orphans who were cared for by Catholic families, and again, the Pope refused.
© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com
Subscribe to the free Daily Israel Report - israelnn.com/subscribe
Print===========
THE VATICAN AND ISRAEL
Diplomatic Relations, Recognition & Reparations
by Bernard J. Shapiro ( 1992)
As most Jews are preparing to celebrate Israel's 44th year of independence, the Vatican is embroiled in a weighty discussion of whether to recognize the Jewish State. Most of us who have followed this issue over many years placed most of the blame for lack of relations on the Vatican's fear of offending the Arabs who have substantial Christian minorities in their countries.
During Israel's early years, the official Vatican excuse for not establishing relations was Israel's refusal to internationalize Jerusalem. That was a part of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan the was rejected by the Arab states. The Jordanians who controlled the Christian Holy Places in Jerusalem during that time period also rejected internationalization. In modern times, the Vatican has recognized the impossibility of turning the clock back on Jerusalem, and now insists on a resolution of the Palestinian conflict before establishing relations.
Dr. Michael Kaniel, writing in the Jerusalem Post (April 25, 1992), analyzes the religious origins of the Vatican's anti-Israel policies. He shows how the real reason the Vatican has withheld formal recognition is because the Jewish State represents a vexing contradiction to Catholic theology. When Theodor Herzl met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Merry del Val to request support of the Zionist movement on January 22, 1904, the cardinal said: "as long as the Jews deny the divinity of Christ...how can we agree to their regaining possession of the Holy Land?...They should first have to accept conversion." Three days later Pope Pius X told Herzl: "the Jews have not recognized our Lord; therefore we can not recognize the Jewish people."
The persistence of the Jewish people goes against the Christian teaching that the Church is now the true Israel. Kaniel writes: "However, the foundations for modern antisemitism and the Church's antagonism to Jewish return to their ancestral homeland lies in the implacable contempt for Judaism and the Jewish people felt by all the Fathers of the Church, especially Justin, Augustine and Chrysostom. The Church Fathers taught that Jewish misfortune is Divine punishment for the rejection of Jesus, and that consequently Jews must be kept in degradation as living witnesses to the truth of Christianity - Justin Martry adding that the Land of Israel should be rendered a desert and Jews be forbidden to go to Jerusalem."
Because the Church held such anti-Semitic positions, a wide range of priests, monks, bishops, cardinals, and popes felt justified in almost any act that would injure the Jewish community of their region. Jews were forced to listen to conversion sermons. Blood libels were invented that claimed that Jews killed Christian children and used their blood to make matzo. Needless to day Jews were massacred every Passover to save the children. The masses were frequently encouraged to murder, rape and pillage the Jewish population. All in the name Christianity. The Church blamed the Jews for the Black Death in 1347-9 by claiming that they had poisoned the wells. This resulted in the massacres of Jews in 200 communities in Europe. The Church forcibly converted many Jews and then had the Inquisitor hunt down, torture and burn to death those found to be still practicing Judaism. Jewish populations were expelled in dozens of countries at the whim of the Church (200,000 from Spain alone in 1492). All this was just the precursor to the Holocaust. Hitler told German Bishop Berning and Monsignor Steinman that he was merely going to do to the Jews "what the Church had done for 1500 years
Israel and the Vatican are about to begin a dialogue that would mark the first concrete step forward on the long road to diplomatic relations. Israel radio last week said the Vatican was dispatching a delegation to Jerusalem in May to discuss ties. Both the Israel Foreign Ministry and the Holy See denied the story. Despite the denials, informed sources are pointing to numerous signals and the convergence of some important historical forces that will lead inevitably to such negotiations.
Some signs of the thaw in relations were seen recently when Avi Pazner, Israel's ambassador to Italy was warmly received by Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the head of the Vatican's Congregation of Doctrine, came to Israel on what was described as a private Easter visit. Not only was he the most senior Vatican official to visit Israel since 1964, but he also initiated private discussions with Israeli officials concerning tax exemption for Vatican property in Jerusalem.
Historically, the Vatican is way out of step. The cold war is over and all the states of the former Soviet bloc including Eastern Europe have already established diplomatic relations with Israel. Both China and India and most of Black Africa have recently established (or in the case of Africa, reestablished) diplomatic relations with the Jewish State. With Arabs and Israelis actually engaged in peace negotiations, the rationalizations and excuses used by Vatican spokespersons in years past seem absurd today.
I would like the Israelis to take pause and not rush too eagerly into relations now that the long awaited talks with the Vatican are approaching. The Vatican needs relations with Israel badly now so that it can have a say concerning the Holy Places in Jerusalem. A topic likely to come up during Arab-Israeli peace talks. The Jewish people have a long account to settle with the Church and we are within our rights to make a few demands before we grant them diplomatic recognition. The Vatican owes a debt of immense proportions to the Jewish people for its systematic plunder of its property during the last 1700 years. One of the reasons Jews were frequently expelled from European countries, was to allow confiscation of their property and wealth. The Church was not only the instigator of most expulsions but the prime beneficiary. All over Europe there are hundreds of former synagogues which have been stolen by the Church and converted to Christian religious buildings.
The Vatican library and hundreds of churches and monasteries throughout Europe are in possession of thousands of rare Hebrew manuscripts and books stolen from their rightful owners. Jewish ritual art and ceremonial objects of great value are in the hands of the Catholic church. At the very least, Israel must demand the return its manuscripts and Judaic objects. The ancient Jewish burying ground in the catacombs of Rome are still under Vatican control. This must stop.
Dagobert D. Runes in his book DESPOTISM A Pictorial History of Tyranny makes the observation that the Jewish population in ancient times was of such size ( e.g., in the year 70 C.E. Rome was 10% Jewish and Alexandria, Egypt had one million Jews) that through natural population growth could have reached 900 million by modern times. The one thing that interfered with that natural growth was the murder of Jews with the Church as the leading instigator.
I suggest that if it was legitimate to demand of Germany reparations after World War II, it is just a legitimate to demand reparations from the Vatican. Israel should offer the Vatican absolution for a penance of say: $100 billion plus the return of all Jewish property in their possession.
They may not accept such a proposal. They may be offended. But one thing is certain, they will know that we will not be victims anymore. They will know we have long memories. Someday they will have to deal with us.
[This article was published in the Jewish Herald-Voice on May 14, 1992.]
Posts
