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3. WARNING ISSUED NOT TO SIGN WITH
VATICAN
3. WARNING ISSUED NOT TO SIGN WITH VATICAN
by Hillel Fendel
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. The
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.
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