Posted on 04/03/2002 2:18:09 PM PST by Pokey78
ISRAELI troops pushed further into the West Bank yesterdayas the Vatican summoned the Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See to accuse his country of imposing unjust conditions and humiliations on the Palestinians. In a statement the Vatican also denounced suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism by Palestinian extremists against Israeli civilians, reflecting the Popes growing alarm over the threat to Jerusalems holy sites posed by the current fighting. It said that the Pope who on Easter Sunday said that it was as if war has been declared on peace in the Middle East believed that reprisals and revenge attacks did nothing but feed the sense of frustration and hatred in this dramatic situation. LOsservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, carried a harshly worded editorial accusing Israel of desecrating the birthplace of Jesus, as Israeli tanks encircled Bethlehems Manger Square. Troops tightened their hold on the towns of Jenin and Salfit, while enforcing strict curfews that have turned Ramallah into a ghost town. Police fired teargas at Jewish and Arab protesters trying to deliver humanitarian supplies to Ramallah, which is in its sixth day of siege. At Ramallah Hospital, where staff are sleeping in their offices for fear of Israeli soldiers enforcing a curfew, doctors said that the water supply had been cut off and they had enough reserves for just 24 hours. Inside the compound where Yassir Arafat is confined, Caoimhe Butterly, an Irish volunteer among 33 international peace activists acting as human shields, said that morale was high. She said that the water supply had been effectively cut off since Friday, although a trickle returned on Tuesday night. We are not going to starve to death but the supplies are meagre. Water is the main problem, she said. Mr Arafats neurologist, Ashraf al-Kurdi, who spoke to the Palestinian leader by telephone, said that his health was good and morale high but that he was overdue for a routine checkup. Palestinian medical sources said that a 13-year-old child was among six people killed by Israeli forces in a Jenin refugee camp where Israeli soldiers moved in with tank and helicopter support. Others reported killed included a 30-year-old woman doctor and the senior Preventive Security officer Ziad Al-Amer. The Israelis said that he was head of the local al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia, which has claimed many recent suicide bombings. In Nablus witnesses said that 300 armoured vehicles had massed near the town, 20 of which had gone into Askar camp, where gunfire was exchanged. Palestinian forces withdrew and heavy fighting was expected after nightfall. On Tuesday the Pope set in motion urgent Vatican diplomacy aimed at stopping the conflagration in the West Bank to try to save holy places such as the besieged Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where more than 100 Palestinian gunmen have taken refuge with a handful of Italian journalists trapped by the fighting. Fides, a Vatican-linked news agency, said that 40 Franciscan monks and nuns and 30 Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks were also trapped. Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vaticans Foreign Minister, summoned Yosef Neville Lamden, the Israeli Ambassador, to convey the Popes concerns. Monsignor Tauran also held talks with James Nicholson, the US Ambassador to the Holy See.
The burden of the Vaticans remarks was, however, seen by diplomats as anti-Israeli, with the statement calling on Israel to use proportionate force in its acts of legitimate self-defence. It said that Israel should respect United Nations resolutions, a reference to Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian-ruled areas.
JPII's concern for Palestinians--a minority of whom actually want peace (sadly, it is a minority, but that's what the Gaza and West Bank polls really do say about Palestinians' views on the suicide bombings)--is well-founded, even if it's clear that Israel's military action is necessary.
A lot of us Catholics are backing Israel heartily in her hour of need, so it seems a bad time to start beating up on us now.
As for the seminaries, not all of them are bad either.
There is good and bad in everything. As long as the world is run by man, who is sinful, then nothing is totally good. You will find corruption everywhere. Yes, even the Church has its bad eggs.
It sounds like to me that you would want to say their all guilty, at least the things that you disagree with, and the hell with presuming that they just might be innocent. Go ahead, uncbob, trash the constitution.
1) The areas wouldn't be "occupied" if the surrounding countries had not attacked Israel in 1967. They lost the war and they shouldn't be whining about the land. Do you honestly think that Syria would be rushing to give land back to Israel if the 1967 war would have turned out differently. Hell, no!
2) The Isrealis are happy to let the Palestinians live in peace. It's the Palestinians who refuse to be peaceful. Don't forget that Jordan kicked out Arafat and the Palestinians in 1970 for trying to foment a revolution there.
3) It's a total myth is that the Arabs who now call themselves "Palestinians" were long established in what is now Israel until the Jews came and "displaced" them. Actually, Arab immigration into present-day Israel displaced the Jews.
Well you should. They obviously have it wrong about God since neither group believes in Jesus as Savior. They believe in other Gods.
They should be made to submit to Christianity or be killed....
Sorry, not being a religious person I am getting my religions mixed up.
In any event you should not be tolerant of religious beliefs that are obviously wrong, just to get along,and make these people who are an affront to God comfortable in their erroneous beliefs..
I am sure God isn't to tolerant about having strange gods before HIM. - Tom
How utterly stupid. If you have a disproportionate force available to throw at an enemy, the smart thing to do is use it. Win the objective quickly and decisivly and leave them with no delusions about your might and willingness to use it. THEN you have peace.
Queen Isabela of Spain didn't have the full support of the Pope either when the Spaniards rescued Spain from the Muslims.
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