Vatican denounces some Israeli retaliations
Courtesy:� The Associated Press
The Vatican on Thursday denounced some Israeli retaliations against past terrorism as a violation of international law in an ongoing spat over Pope Benedict XVI's failure to specifically condemn terror against Israel in recent remarks.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican envoy to Israel on Monday and complained that Benedict "deliberately" didn't mention a July 12 suicide bombing in Netanya while referring to recent terror strikes in Egypt, Britain, Turkey and Iraq.
"It's not always possible to immediately follow every attack against Israel with a public statement of condemnation," a statement from the Vatican press office said Thursday night, "and (that is) for various reasons, among them the fact that the attacks against Israel sometimes were followed by immediate Israeli reactions not always compatible with the rules of international law."
"It would thus be impossible to condemn the first (the terror strikes) and let the second (Israeli retaliation) pass in silence," said the statement, which had an unusually blistering tone for the Holy See.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the Vatican statement.
On Sunday, as Benedict addressed pilgrims while on vacation at his Alpine retreat, he prayed for God to stop the "murderous hand" of terrorists. He denounced as "abhorrent" the terror strikes at a Red Sea resort in Egypt, the mass transit attacks in Britain and other terrorism in Iraq and Turkey.
On Monday, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Benedict had been referring to the attacks of the last few days. He called it "surprising that one would have wanted to take the opportunity to distort the intentions of the Holy Father."
Navarro-Valls said then that the Netanya attack "falls under the general and unreserved condemnation of terrorism" by the pontiff.