Wednesday, January 12, 2005
CFOI on Israel and the wall
Another deleterious effect of seeming insouciant about the slaughter of Jewish civilians is that it endangers the good relations between Jews and Catholics that the Holy Father has worked so hard to promote.
Catholic leaders here and in Europe have been led down the garden path by Holy Land Catholics who require moral blindness as the price of loyalty. Latin-rite Patriarch Michel Sabbah’s friendship with Yassar Arafat and his collaboration with left wing, pacifist organizations that demonize Israel have created the false impression that Catholics are anti-Israel. Sabbah sings one note: “The occupation causes terrorism,” and from that historical incongruity springs a garden of moral equivocation. A Catholic Patriarch should be a voice for moderation and moral sanity; he should not offer up partisan propaganda wrapped in the thin veneer of Catholic social teachings.
Israel’s strategy was morally correct and strategically necessary. Rather than dropping bombs or saturating terrorist strongholds with IDF troops, Israel has opted for selective targeting of terrorist leaders, limited troop engagements (which pose greater risk to soldiers), and the non-lethal barrier. All of this is paying off, as the Intifada is running out of steam, terror attacks have declined significantly in number, and fewer Palestinians are lining their children up for murderous martyrdom, lest their homes be the price of slaughtering innocents.
Admitting you were wrong is tough, as any Catholic who regularly participates in the sacrament of confession will attest. But the facts are in and Catholic leaders were wrong: the anti-terrorism barrier saves Jewish lives from anti-Semitic violence so horrific its only corollary takes us back sixty years.
The Holy Father has called the Jewish people “our elder brothers.” In the Jewish town of Avnei Hefetz the security fence was left open to avoid hardship to the Arab residents of Tulkarm, who depend on Israel for an economy. A Palestinian terrorist slipped through the opening, shot dead one of our elder brothers and wounded his daughter. The UN, EU and the BBC may choose to be sanguine about this. Catholics should not.
Catholic leaders here and in Europe have been led down the garden path by Holy Land Catholics who require moral blindness as the price of loyalty. Latin-rite Patriarch Michel Sabbah’s friendship with Yassar Arafat and his collaboration with left wing, pacifist organizations that demonize Israel have created the false impression that Catholics are anti-Israel. Sabbah sings one note: “The occupation causes terrorism,” and from that historical incongruity springs a garden of moral equivocation. A Catholic Patriarch should be a voice for moderation and moral sanity; he should not offer up partisan propaganda wrapped in the thin veneer of Catholic social teachings.
Israel’s strategy was morally correct and strategically necessary. Rather than dropping bombs or saturating terrorist strongholds with IDF troops, Israel has opted for selective targeting of terrorist leaders, limited troop engagements (which pose greater risk to soldiers), and the non-lethal barrier. All of this is paying off, as the Intifada is running out of steam, terror attacks have declined significantly in number, and fewer Palestinians are lining their children up for murderous martyrdom, lest their homes be the price of slaughtering innocents.
Admitting you were wrong is tough, as any Catholic who regularly participates in the sacrament of confession will attest. But the facts are in and Catholic leaders were wrong: the anti-terrorism barrier saves Jewish lives from anti-Semitic violence so horrific its only corollary takes us back sixty years.
The Holy Father has called the Jewish people “our elder brothers.” In the Jewish town of Avnei Hefetz the security fence was left open to avoid hardship to the Arab residents of Tulkarm, who depend on Israel for an economy. A Palestinian terrorist slipped through the opening, shot dead one of our elder brothers and wounded his daughter. The UN, EU and the BBC may choose to be sanguine about this. Catholics should not.
