A few stumbling blocks remained to be ironed out for the Israel/Vatican relationship to straighten out......
Netanyahu Picks A Fight With The Vatican
By Adel Darwish
Israel's right wing Prime Minister's Benyamin Netanyahu's list of enemies, or at least people with whom he picked a fight, is getting longer by the day. First it was his peace partners in the Palestinian National Authority, then neighbour who signed peace treaties with two of his predecessors. Internally the list included the peace camp, and the liberals not to mention the Labour Party and Arab and left wing members of Knesset, even President Ezra Weizman, who is neither a dove, or quick-tempered, fell out with Mr Netanyahu. Last month Ami Ayalon, the head of the secret police, Shin Bet, joined the list, as Mr Netanyahu picked fight with him. Mr Ayalon's assessment that there was a risk of violence, if the stalemate in the peace process is continued, has politically embarrassed the Prime Minister. He, reportedly, told Mr Ayalon to " start looking for another job in the new year." Mr Ayalon is in the habit of recording every meeting he holds with Mr Natanyahu, the latter's annoyance. The membership of Foreign non-Netanyahu fan-club has grown fast from just a few hardline Arab leaders, still entrapped in their ideology of rejection, to include the rest of Arab leaders. High profile western statesmen have been added to the list, like President Jacques Chirac of France after his last year visit to Jerusalem, as well as many European Union's top officials, who were accused of "unhelpful meddling in the peace process," as they caught the Israelis red handed in violating trade agreements.
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was among those who joined the club, just about the same time as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright applied for membership.
Now Mr Netanyahu has picked a fight with the Vatican at a time when hopes were raised among Catholics that Pope John Paul II would visit the Holy Land for the millennium. Mr Netanyahu was trying to block the appointment of Palestinian Archbishop Pierre Mouallem, to lead mainly Arabic-speaking Melkite Christians in the northern Israeli region of Galilee last month.
On August 6 the hardline Israeli leader charged that archbishop Mouallem, who until his appointment was a bishop in Brazil, had been chosen under pressure from officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization like Farouk Kaddoumi and Palestinian supporters in the Catholic Church. He angered the Vatican by naming Hilarion Capucci, a former Melkite archbishop of Jerusalem, as the one responsible for influencing Mouallem choice. Rev. Capucci was convicted of smuggling guns from Lebanon to Israel in 1975 and spent two years in an Israeli prison. Pope Paul VI won Capucci's release by promising that the prelate would never return to the region.
The Vatican made it known in July that the pope appointed Mouallem archbishop of Akko, a diocese of 45,000 Melkite Christians in Galilee. Melkite Christians follow an Eastern Rite liturgy of Roman Catholicism and accept the authority of Rome.
Israeli officials told reporters that Archbishop Mouallem, a 70 year old Arabic-speaker who was born in Ailaboun near Nazareth and became a refugee during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, harbours PLO sympathies.
"We think there should not be any politicization of the choices of emissaries on the part of the church," Mr Netanyahu told reporters. The Vatican was quick to rebuff Mr Netanyahu's efforts and made a terse, swift and uncompromising response within hours of his remarks.
"In the nomination of His Excellency Mouallem, the synod of the Greek Catholic Church carried out its duties free from any external pressures," a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said in a written statement.
"The fundamental accord existing between the Holy See and the state of Israel", the statement went on," provides for the autonomy of church and state, each in its own sphere."
Israeli newspapers reported, on the same day as the Vatican response was made public, that Mr Netanyahu had suggested a different candidate, the Rev. Emile Shufani, viewed by the Israelis as more moderate. The Prime Minister's office confirmed that Mr Netanyahu had met with Rev. Shufani, and other leaders of the Greek Catholic Church.
Asked whether the Vatican had any intention of changing the nomination to meet to avoid politicising the issue, Rev. Benedettini replied, "On the contrary."
This is the first open confrontation between the Holy See and the Jewish State since they established diplomatic relations in 1994, an historic step, initiated by the pope as he intended to end 2,000 years of hostility between Catholics and Jews.
Western diplomats in Jerusalem questioned the motives behind the Israeli leader's move. Describing the move as " unwise," one Western diplomat said that the dispute was the product of Israeli politics. "It could have repercussions on Israel's relations with the Vatican", he said.
Pope John Paul II has long hoped to visit the Holy Land for the millennium, and any serious dispute with the Israel could jeopardize the plans.
The pope, who in March took the unprecedented step of issuing an "act of repentance" for the failure of Catholics to deter the mass deportations and killings during the Holocaust, has devoted much of his papacy to seeking reconciliation with the Jews.
He met with Mr Netanyahu for the first time in February 1997 and accepted his invitation to visit Jerusalem for the millennium. But one obstacle to a papal visit to Jerusalem is the debate over the status of the city. The Likud government stresses in every opportunity that the city is "united and eternal capital" while the Vatican has pressed for recognition of its special status as a city holy to Christians, Muslims and Jews alike. But that is not the only sign of tension between the Vatican and the Netanyahu government. In his last Easter message, the pope said peace in Jerusalem "is put at risk by dangerous political decisions." A Western observer agreed at the times that it was an apparent reference to the building of Jewish settlements in largely Arab East Jerusalem.
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