Posted on 05/13/2009 8:40:35 PM PDT by Libloather
Pope says Bethlehem wall "can be taken down"
Reuters - Thursday, May 14
By Philip Pullella and Mustafa Abu Ganeyeh
BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Pope Benedict on Wednesday said the fortified Israeli wall dividing Bethlehem from Jerusalem could be taken down, if Israel and the Palestinians could remove the walls around their hearts.
On a visit to the town where Christians believe the son of God was born, he said he had seen "overshadowing much of Bethlehem, the wall that intrudes into your territories, separating neighbours and dividing families."
"Although walls can be easily built, we all know that they do not last forever," the pope said. "They can be taken down."
"First, though, it is necessary to remove the walls that we build around our hearts," he added at the end of a day spent in Jesus's birthplace in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
"My earnest wish for you, the people of Palestine, is that this will happen soon," he said, before returning to Jerusalem and continuing a week-long tour of the Holy Land.
In a speech at a refugee camp school in the wall's shadow, he called it a towering symbol of deadlock in the struggle for peace and a "stark reminder of the stalemate that relations between Palestinians and Israelis seemed to have reached."
"How earnestly we pray for an end to the hostilities that have caused this wall to be built," Benedict said.
The wall did not exist when his predecessor John Paul came in 2000. Israel began raising its barrier of fences and concrete through and around the West Bank in 2002, in what it said was a temporary measure to stop deadly Palestinian bombings.
Palestinians, backed by the World Court, say it is an illegal construction which steals and divides their land.
(Excerpt) Read more at asia.news.yahoo.com ...
You did read more than the title...right?
If the Pope wants to take down the wall, then let him also live there - without the Swiss Guard.
Precisely! An earlier thread today quoted a rabbi who suggested that the Pope cede half of Rome to the Palestinians.
Yep. Can a pope be impeached?
I don't think so. Although historically a good many of them have been murdered, and quite a number have been removed from office by kings, emperors or mobs.
The Pope understands Islam. If Islam WAS a religion of Peace and they had love in their hearts, then they could all live in peace. He isn't saying tear down this wall now or that it is the job of the Jews to make peace happen.
To the Palestinians, a fence placed anywhere west of the Jordan divides their land as they do not recognize the existence of a State of Israel.
Pope Benedict on Wednesday said the fortified Israeli wall could be taken down, if ....
"First, though, it is necessary to" .....
Sounds a lot different from what the title alone and some peoples comments imply.
No offense, but it’s very easy to live in a self-contained state, heavily guarded with tons of personal security, lots of money, wanting nothing, apparently not bound by a vow of poverty,
to jet in to a foreign land, and start pontificating hyperboles and snappy one-liners about the walls around peoples’ hearts. A gross oversimplification that he doesn’t personally have to deal with at all. As he jets back out to the safety and security of the Vatican.
That’s because Reagan talked the talk AND walked the walk. The guy was anti-communist since he switched to Republican, and his long-term personal goal was to see communism and the Soviet Union fall. And he made it happen along with his buddy Maggie Thatcher.
The current Pope talks the talk, but show me what he’s done getting his own hands dirty and fixing the problem he’s preaching about. Nada. Just words. He comes off hypocritical and condescending, where Reagan actually fought against communism and the ideas of communism since the early 60s and at every office he was elected to.
The people of Palestine? Was he referring to the Palestinians? The ones responsible for creating the problems in Israel in the first place?
Muslims have no hearts, unless they renounce evil and embrace Jesus Christ.
I'd love to see the Pope endure suicide bombers. He lives as pampered as any Roman Emperor. There are no terrorists in the Vatican.
Benedict started out so well by speaking the truth about Islam conquering by the sword 4 years ago. Then the Muzzies went hog wild. Unfortunately instead of reiterating that truth, he has been apologizing to the Satanic hoard ever since. Why? Does he not realize that within 50 years Europe will be majority Muslim? why does he not take on Islam and call European Christians to task for not having enough children to thwart the Muslim infestation of the West?
Nobody wants them. Let the rest of the ME give them a home.
The world needs Benedict to view Islam the same way as John Paul II viewed Communism—as an existential threat to the free world.
The pope can go straight to hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Especially since they are not from Israel in the first place.
“Palestinians, backed by the World Court, say it is an illegal construction which steals and divides their land.”
Exterminate the palestinians!
No, but G-d can remove his hand from him. I hope this does not happen, and that G-d keep his eyes open.
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