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Israelis Criticize Pope For Holocaust Remarks
Many Sides to Please
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Benedict's reception, perhaps, shows the impossibility of pleasing all sides in the region's complicated religious, ethnic and political mix. In 17 sets of prepared remarks issued since he began his trip in Jordan on Friday, Benedict has talked in broad strokes about faith and the need for unity and love among all people, and has said he is praying daily for peace.
Many of his listeners, however, have been looking for specifics: for him to set aside one day a year for Catholic priests to preach against anti-Semitism; for help freeing an Israeli soldier seized in a cross-border raid near the Gaza Strip in 2006; for a denunciation of Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in specific neighborhoods.
In the case of Yad Vashem, the expectation was not just for specific words, but for specific words in a specific place.
Within minutes of his arrival in Israel on Monday, Benedict issued a strong condemnation of anti-Semitism and mentioned the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust.
When he did not repeat those phrases at Yad Vashem -- and omitted any reference to the Nazis, Germany or the Catholic Church's neutrality in World War II -- a central, symbolic moment of his visit fell flat for many Israelis.
"The identity of the murderers went completely unmentioned," Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, who heads the Yad Vashem Council, said in the daily Maariv.
"With all due respect to the Holy See, we cannot ignore the burden he bears," Israeli parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin said on Israel Radio. He added that Benedict spoke "as if he were a historian, someone looking in from the sidelines."
Benedict has received a warmer welcome while ministering to Christians, meeting with priests and nuns, and celebrating a Mass on Tuesday before a crowd of thousands near the Mount of Olives. He drew applause during his homily when he urged the local Christian community to persevere, declaring: "In the Holy Land, there is room for everyone!"
Alfred Ra'ad, whose Old City shop is near one of the stops Benedict made on Tuesday, said that as a Catholic he was proud to have Benedict in the country. Yet, he said, compared with Pope John Paul II, who visited nearly 10 years ago, the current pope seems distant.
"John Paul was loved and more popular," Ra'ad said. "This one -- he has provoked people. He has apologized, but something stays in the heart."
