President Shimon Peres will visit Pope Francis at the Vatican next week in their first diplomatic meting, whose agenda includes the eternal pursuit for peace in the Middle East, “peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians,” the war against poverty and relations between Jews and the Vatican.

That is pretty hefty list, but wait. There is more.

The mayor of Assisi, where hundreds of Franciscan monks live, will present its first-ever Medal of Honor for Peace to President Peres for his “unique contribution to dialogue and the cause of peace.”

Everyone, perhaps even Peres himself, has lost count of all the peace awards he has received. Of course, he won the Nobel Peace Prize, but then again, so did Yasser Arafat.

With every peace award, peace seems to be further over the horizon, but that only makes people like President Peres, the pope and the U.S. State Dept. even more determined than ever to get there.

Every year, the “window of opportunity” is closing. Every year, this is the last chance.

Every year, a Palestinian Authority-Israeli peace agreement will be signed in a year.

Perhaps that is what keeps war in the shadow of peace. Or maybe that is what keeps peace in the shadow of war.

Either way, popes are just as good as Peres in preaching peace, pardon the p’s, please.

But, wait. There is more.

Peres will officially invite Pope Francis to visit the Holy Land.

Ouch.

Pope Francis has been to Israel before, when he was beginning his position as Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina

When?

He arrived just when the Yom Kippur War broke out, according to the Times of Israel.

So much for peace.

But, wait. There is more.

John Kerry, Hillary Clinton’s successor in going around the world in 80 hours 80 times year, also is Catholic, kind of. He does not back abortion but thinks women have the right to make that decision for themselves. That is grounds for automatic excommunication.

Nevertheless, he says he is Catholic, and he, the pope and Peres undoubtedly will be in communication to resurrect their favorite hobby, the peace process. Kerry needs it more than anyone, because without it, he would have to stick to less enjoyable jobs, such as making peace with chemical weapons, teaching the Muslim Brotherhood all about democracy, and convincing himself that Iran is just another tolerant Muslim country that really likes Jews and Christians, especially Catholics.

Israel already is getting geared up for pope’s visit, which may happen later this year.

The pope really has excited Israeli officials.

Etzion Evrony, Israel’s ambassador to the Vatican, recently met with Pope Francis after his installation.

The pope greeted him in Hebrew. Wow.

He said  “Shalom.”

That means “peace.”

It also means “hello.”

And it also means “goodbye.”

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel on Thursday reacted to the election of Pope Francis I by highlighting his predecessors’ “rich and fruitful dialogue …with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel on primary issues such as banning terrorism in God’s Name, the sanctity of life and the sanctity of the family unit.”

The office of the Chief Rabbis said the dialogue led to Pope Benedict XVI “to heed the Chief Rabbinate’s request and suspend Holocaust-denier Bishop Richard Williamson, and the modification of sections of the Good Friday liturgy that were harsh and insulting towards the Jewish People.”

The Rabbinate also noted statements by Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II that “Jews are the elder brothers, and even the parents, of Christian believers.”

They added that both popes joined the fight against anti-Semitism n Europe and elsewhere,

“The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is confident that Pope Francis, whose good relations with the Jewish People are well known, will keep the same spirit, and strengthen and develop the Roman Catholic Church’s connections with the State of Israel and the Jewish People,” the office of Israel’s two chief rabbis added.

Jewish leaders praised the new Pope Francis, Argentinean Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and expressed optimism for an improvement of Vatican-Jewish relations after he was elected Wednesday night to replace Pope Benedict XVI.

“We have every reason to be confident Pope Francis I will be a staunch defender of the historic Nostra Aetate, the declaration on the relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council, which forever changed the relationship of the Catholic Church and the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center

Bergoglio, 76, a Jesuit, was the choice of the College of Cardinals following two days of voting in Vatican City. He is the first pope to come from outside Europe in more than a millennium; reflecting the changing demographics of Catholics, he comes from Latin America.

Rabbi David Rosen, the director of interfaith affairs for the American Jewish Committee, told JTA that the new pope is a “warm and sweet and modest man” known in Buenos Aires for doing his own cooking and personally answering his phone.

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio attended Rosh Hashanah services at the Bnei Tikva Slijot synagogue in September 2007.  Bergoglio told the congregation that he was there to examine his heart “like a pilgrim, together with you, my elder brothers,” according to the Catholic Zenit news agency.

After the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in 1994, he “showed solidarity with the Jewish community,” Rosen said.

In 2005, Bergoglio was the first public personality to sign a petition for justice in the AMIA bombing and was one of the signatories on a document called “85 victims, 85 signatures” as part of the bombing’s 11th anniversary. In June 2010, he visited the rebuilt AMIA building to talk with Jewish leaders.

Israel Singer, former head of the World Jewish Congress, said he spent time working with Bergoglio when the two were distributing aid to the poor in Buenos Aires in the early 2000s, part of a joint Jewish-Catholic program called Tzedaka.

“We went out to the barrios where Jews and Catholics were suffering together,” Singer told JTA. “If everyone sat in chairs with handles, he would sit in the one without. He was always looking to be more modest. He’s going to find it hard to wear all these uniforms.”

Bergoglio also wrote the forward of a book by Rabbi Sergio Bergman and referred to him as “one of my teachers.”

Last November, Bergoglio hosted a Kristallnacht memorial event at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral with Rabbi Alejandro Avruj from the NCI-Emanuel World Masorti congregation.

He also has worked with the Latin American Jewish Congress and held meetings with Jewish youth who participate in its New Generations program.

“The Latin American Jewish Congress has had a close relationship with Jorge Bergoglio for several years,” Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, told JTA. “We know his values and strengths. We have no doubt he will do a great job leading the Catholic Church.”

In yesterday’s State Department press conference, Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed that the U.S. will be voting “no” on the effort by Mahmoud Abbas to raise the United Nations status of the Palestinian Authority so that “Palestine” will move from being merely an “observer” to what is known as a non-member observer state.

At this time, the only official U.N. non-member observer state is the Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, which is the representative of the Vatican.

Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas landed in New York last night.  The Resolution endorsing the change is expected to be voted upon in the U.N. General Assembly this Thursday, Nov 29.

The government of Israel is adamantly opposed to the change in status for the Arab Palestinians, and is hoping that other countries will support its position.

But, in a surprise announcement, a top diplomatic Israeli official in Jerusalem told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday that Israel no longer intends to dismantle the Oslo Accords if Abbas goes through with his UN gambit.  Technically, such a move negates the Oslo process, and Israel has long threatened to consider the Oslo Accords fully abrogated if the Arab Palestinians attempt to achieve results outside of negotiations.

It was not readily apparent what response, if any, the government of Israel will have to a change in status for “Palestine” at the U.N. But the announcement made Tuesday was in conflict with statements made over the past few weeks by Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman in which he threatened that the Oslo process would be cancelled if Abbas went forward with his effort at the U.N.

Thus far only the U.S. has officially declared its intention to vote against the Palestinian statehood resolution.  Nuland explained the U.S. position to reporters yesterday, Nov 27:

We’re focused on a policy objective on the ground for the Palestinian people, for the people of Israel, which is to end up with two states that can live peacefully next to each other. Nothing in this action at the UN is going to take the Palestinians any closer to that. So yes, we’re going to oppose it because we think it is the wrong move. We think it makes other steps that might improve the lives of Palestinians and Israelis harder. Other countries will make their own decision. This is not a new issue. We’ve been talking about it for more than a year, and so we’re just going to have to see what happens later on in the week.

It is anticipated that Canada will vote against the Resolution, and Germany may abstain, but already both France and Britain have publicly stated they are committed to voting in favor of the resolution.  Switzerland and Portugal are also expected to support the measure.  No doubt the 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will all vote in favor of the measure.

Unlike a Resolution in the Security Council, in the General Assembly there is no such thing as a veto.  A simple majority vote is all that is necessary for the measure to pass. Full member status can only be obtained through a vote at the Security Council. Last year Abbas went to the Security Council to seek full member status for “Palestine.” The United States, however, made clear its intention to veto the measure, and the effort was withdrawn.

After some badgering by reporters over whether the change in status would have any impact on the peace process, Ms. Nuland said, categorically, “We oppose any move in the General Assembly. We think it’s going to make the situation harder.”

And Abbas is going to the UN with the support from an unexpected source – longtime political rival leadership of Hamas is now supporting the U.N. bid.  No clear explanations have been offered for this about-face.  However, there are those who suspect Hamas anticipates victory over Abbas’s Fatah as the sole representative of the Arab Palestinian people.  If so, then they will be the representative party at the United Nations.

It is widely expected that the U.N. Resolution will pass, but even if it does “Palestine” will not be a full member of the UN.

A draft copy of the Resolution, dated 26 Nov 2012,  was obtained by The Jewish Press.  The Resolution reiterates all of the demands the Arab Palestinians have made, with no concessionary language whatsoever, and includes demands for the release of prisoners, the “right of return,” the cessation of all Israeli “settlement” activities, including in “East Jerusalem,” that the capital of “Palestine” will be “East Jerusalem,” and,

the attainment of a peaceful settlement in the Middle East that ends the occupation that began in 1967 and fulfills the vision of two States, an independent, sovereign, democratic, contiguous and viable State of Palestine, living side by side in peace and security with Israel, on the basis of the pr-1967 borders.

The Resolution also calls on the Security Council to favorably consider the application submitted last year to the United Nations for full membership for ”Palestine.”

In understandings reached last weekend between Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and his counterpart from the Vatican, the Church renounced its demand for sovereignty over the location of the “Last Supper” on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. In addition, the Vatican agreed that it would start paying property tax on properties in Israel. In return, Israel agreed to consider giving the Vatican first priority in leasing opportunities and access to the site.

The agreement was the culmination of almost two decades of negotiations between Israel and the Vatican.

Ten years ago, the Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission, established to investigate Pope Pius XII’s response to the Holocaust, met for the first time to discuss its future work. I was the only Israeli historian among the six scholars (three Catholics and three Jews) designated by the Vatican and leading Jewish organizations to study this hotly contested issue.

A little under two years later, the project was abandoned as a result of the Holy See’s unwillingness to release materials from its own archives that could help clarify issues our team of scholars raised in our provisional report. Already at that time there were moves afoot to place Pius XII on the fast track to sainthood, but they were probably slowed down by Israeli and Jewish protests and a desire by Church authorities to prevent a serious rupture in Catholic-Jewish relations.

At issue was the silence of Pius XII during the Holocaust and his indirect complicity in the Nazi mass murder of Jews. These allegations had prompted the Vatican to publish eleven volumes of its own documents (edited by four trusted Jesuit scholars), most of them appearing in the 1970s. It was these documents in Italian, German, French, Latin and English that we were originally asked to review. The million or so unpublished documents from the pontificate of Pius XII (1939-1958) will only be available in about four years.

It is in this context that we need to see the recent decree on the “heroic virtues” of Pius XII, just signed by Pope Benedict XVI. Most Jews have interpreted this act as yet another signal that the Vatican is determined to beatify the controversial wartime pope – regardless of what the historical evidence may indicate.

The sharp response of Jewish leaders to Benedict’s decree prompted the Vatican’s Press Office director, Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., to release a conciliatory note distinguishing between the historical judgment of Pius XII’s actions (still an open question) and the saintly Christian life he apparently led. In particular, Father Lombardi was concerned to disclaim any notion that this decree was “a hostile act towards the Jewish people” or an obstacle to Catholic-Jewish dialogue.

Nevertheless, the decree on Pius XII raises concern not only about the continuing drive to beatify the wartime pontiff but also about the present pope and the state of relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people.

I personally have never seen Pius XII either as “Hitler’s Pope” (the theory of British historian John Cornwell, a “lapsed” Catholic), or as the “Righteous Gentile” evoked by Rabbi David Dallin. My own provisional conclusion drawn from the study of thousands of documents is that the mass murder of Jews was fairly low on his list of priorities. Of course, much the same could be said of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, but they did not claim to be the “Vicar of Christ” or to represent the Christian conscience.

Pius XII strikes me as a polished diplomat far more worried about the Allied bombing of Rome than about the thousand Roman Jews who were being deported by the Germans to their deaths in Auschwitz, virtually under the windows of the Holy See. True, other Roman Jews were discreetly given sanctuary in ecclesiastical establishments in and around Rome after October 1943, but it remains unclear if this was the result of a direct papal instruction.

In some instances we know Pius XII did try to intervene against Nazi or racist anti-Semitic legislation, but in general this was almost always on behalf of baptized Jews since they were protected by the Church as Catholics. Pius’s rare references to the mass murder of Jews were invariably veiled and very abstract, as if he found it difficult to utter the word itself.

Was it fear of further German reprisals? A latent anti-Semitism? Was it his visceral anti-Communism that led him to hope for a Nazi victory in the East? Or perhaps the desire to spare German Catholics a conflict of conscience between their loyalty to Hitler, the fatherland, or their Church? Whatever the reasons, this was hardly heroic conduct.

So why has Benedict XVI chosen to take this step now? My own inclination is to think the present pope regards Pius XII as a soulmate, both theologically and politically. He shares with the wartime pontiff an authoritarian centralist world-view and a deep distrust of liberalism, modernity, and the ravages of moral relativism. He was 31 years old when Pius XII died in 1958, and already then regarded him as a venerated role model.

“Now we have the possibility of permanently stopping the yearly gay pride march in Jerusalem,” Rabbi Yehuda Levin of the Rabbinical Alliance of America told The Jewish Press at the end of a two-week trip to Israel, which ended earlier this week.

 For the past several years, Rabbi Levin, a Brooklyn resident and founder of Jews For Morality, has traveled to Israel, lobbying to ban the annual summer gay pride parade in Israel’s capital. With Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu likely to form Israel’s next government, Rabbi Levin sees success in sight.

 Several years ago, a Knesset bill which would effectively prohibit gay parades in Jerusalem was buried in committee. If religious and right-wing parties – who currently have considerable leverage – make joining a Netanyahu coalition conditional on a commitment to passing that bill, Rabbi Levin is “cautiously optimistic” that Jerusalem’s streets may finally be clear of what he calls “the abomination parades.” While in Israel, he and his colleague, Efraim Holtzberg, approached several politicians, including Shas leader Eli Yishai and National Union head Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh) who were receptive to the initiative, he said.

 In the meantime, however, Rabbi Levin is keeping other channels open as well. Prior to arriving in Israel, Rabbi Levin traveled to Rome and met several prominent Vatican officials concerning the parade, among other issues. In the wake of his visit, Archbishop Antonio Franco, the papal nuncio in Jerusalem, conveyed the Church’s opposition to the parade to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

 At the Vatican, Rabbi Levin met with Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signatura; Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life; Msgr. Charles Brown of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Father Peter Gumpel, who is heading the efforts to beatify Pope Pius XII; and Bishop Brian Farrell, vice president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews.

 ”One of the purposes of my trip,” Rabbi Levin said, “was to stress that in light of the constant worldwide attacks on family values, it is imperative that ecumenical activities between Catholics and the Jewish community focus not on religious liturgy and past wrongs but on a united alliance to preserve family values.

 ”In other words,” he said, “90 percent of Catholic-Jewish dialogues are between liberal Jews and the Catholic hierarchy in which there is total disagreement on the homosexual agenda, abortion, etc.” 

 Rabbi Levin urged Vatican officials to reach out to people like him, radio host Rabbi Daniel Lapin, and members of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel – all more traditionally minded. “This can create a new and very positive alliance,” he said.

Rabbi Levin realizes some Jews are apprehensive after the Church in recent years revived a Latin prayer calling for Jewish conversion, moved toward beatifying Pope Pius XII, and lifted the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop.

 But Rabbi Levin notes that it took the Church 500 years to recant its position on Galileo; in contrast, the Church’s position regarding Jews has altered dramatically in just 50 years. To constantly harp, Rabbi Levin said, on liturgical changes and other internal Church affairs, which antagonizes hundreds of millions of Catholics, “is outrageous and violates the rules of Jewish Diaspora, which we’ve absorbed for 2,000 years on how to deal with gentiles.”

 Besides, he said, “there is a fire in the house” – the global erosion of family values. Next to it, all other issues pale in importance. And “when the Catholic Church, which is arguably the strongest religious institution in the world, speaks out for family values the trickle-down effect helps everyone.”

ROME – Always uneasy, the relationship between the Vatican and the Jewish community took another sour turn recently when Pope Benedict XVI announced he was rescinding the excommunication of a bishop who denies the Holocaust.

While the pope managed to smooth things over somewhat by distancing himself from Bishop Richard Williamson’s Holocaust denial and, at a meeting last week at the Vatican with Jewish representatives, announcing plans to visit Israel in May, the uproar of the past few weeks raises significant questions about the goals of Benedict’s papacy.

It also highlights the scrutiny Benedict has come under regarding Jewish issues in the nearly four years since he became pope. The Williamson affair may be the most dramatic of the Jewish-related crises of Benedict’s papacy, but it’s not the first.

“What has been revealed most dramatically by this episode is something that Vatican observers have been noting consistently during this papacy in contrast to the previous pontificate: an amazing lack of consideration of the ramifications of papal actions, and a profound lack of collegial consultation,” said Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee’s director of Interreligious Affairs.

The result, Rosen said, is that time and again the Vatican has ended up “running to put out fires” when it “could have prevented the distress to others and the harm to itself in the first place.”

The most recent flare-up is a case in point.

Benedict announced on Jan. 24 that he had lifted the 1988 excommunication of the British-born Williamson and three other members of the Society of St. Pius X, a breakaway traditionalist group that rejects some of the reforms of the 1962-65 Vatican II Council. The council’s Nostra Aetate document paved the way for formal Jewish-Catholic dialogue by repudiating collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus.

Just days before Benedict’s announcement, Swedish TV had broadcast an interview with Williamson in which he denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers and claimed that only 200,000 to 300,000 Jews had been killed in the Holocaust rather than the more accepted number of 6 million.

While the reinstatement of the four bishops was an internal Catholic matter aimed at fostering Catholic unity, Williamson’s rehabilitation triggered anger, outrage and a measure of disbelief around the world.

“The Vatican has done far more than set back Vatican-Jewish relations,” the scholar Deborah Lipstadt, an expert on Holocaust denial, wrote on her blog. “It has made itself look like it is living in the darkest of ages.”

Condemnation rolled in from Jewish groups, Holocaust survivors, U.S. legislators, Israeli leaders and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as from elements within the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican point man on relations with the Jewish world, complained that he had not been consulted about the matter and did not know about it in advance.

Even more remarkably, the Vatican said the pope himself had not been aware of Williamson’s views.

In a frenzy of damage control, the Vatican issued statements trying to clarify the issue and eventually ordered Williamson to recant his remarks on the Holocaust. Williamson apologized for causing the pope “unnecessary distress and problems” with his “imprudent” statements – but to date he has not retracted his stated views.

On Feb. 12, the pope met at the Vatican with a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, his first meeting with Jewish leaders since the crisis.

Any denial or “minimization” of the Holocaust, Benedict told them, is “intolerable and altogether unacceptable.” The Church, he said, is “profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism, and to continue to build good and lasting relations between our two communities.”

Benedict also personally announced his upcoming trip to Israel, which also will include stops in the West Bank and Jordan.

Some Jewish representatives at the meeting hailed the pope’s words.

“We came a long way,” Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the Park East Synagogue in New York told reporters after the meeting. “We traveled to share our pain, to share our disbelief, but we are leaving with renewed hope of stronger bonds between Catholics and Jews.”

Others were more circumspect.

“This meeting was an effort to reconcile, to bring closure, but it didn’t lay this issue to rest,” Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman, who also attended the meeting, told JTA.

“You cannot say that we oppose anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial and then reinstate a denier,” Foxman said. “Every day that Williamson remains” a member of the Church “is an affront. There needs to be action on Williamson, so we know that there are no Williamsons in the Church hierarchy.”

Vatican-Jewish relations have been under close scrutiny since Benedict was elected pontiff in April 2005. His predecessor, the Polish-born Pope John Paul II, made fostering Jewish-Catholic relations and promoting awareness of the Holocaust a major focus of his reign.

Benedict was John Paul’s “most trusted theological right hand,” Rosen said.

From the beginning, Benedict indicated he would continue John Paul’s policy toward the Jews. He met with Jewish leaders and made historic visits to synagogues in Germany and the United States.

His own history played a role: Benedict grew up in what he has described as a staunchly anti-Nazi family, but like other German teenagers he was forced to join Hitler Youth. He deserted the German army before the end of World War II.

Now 81, Benedict undoubtedly is the last pope who will have witnessed the Holocaust era firsthand.

While welcoming his synagogue visits, the Jewish community has chafed at some of Benedict’s policies.

The most persistent thorn in the community’s side has been the ongoing controversy over the role of the wartime pope, Pius XII, whom the Vatican plans to beatify. Many historians say Pius turned a blind eye to Jewish suffering during the Holocaust, but his defenders say he worked behind the scenes to save Jews.

Jewish groups have called on the Vatican to open its archives to resolve the issue.

Another rift occurred last year when Benedict reinstated a Latin Mass for Easter that includes a prayer some understand as calling for the conversion of the Jews. The Vatican amended the prayer somewhat after Jews voiced concern.

“Decisions that the Church is making for its own use and needs are having unintended consequences and spilling into Jewish-Catholic relations,” Foxman observed.

Many Jews remain unsatisfied. Last month, Italian Jewish leaders took the extraordinary step of boycotting the Church’s annual celebration of Judaism.

In this context, Benedict’s trip to Israel will be watched closely.

It will be the first papal trip to the Holy Land since John Paul II’s historic five-day pilgrimage in 2000. Memorably, he placed a prayer note in the Western Wall asking for forgiveness for Christian persecution of Jews over the centuries and pledged Catholic brotherhood with the Jews.

(JTA)