Pope John Paul II expressed sympathy with Israel on Wednesday after the third and deadliest Iraqi missile attack on the Tel Aviv area in less than a week.
During his weekly public audience, the pontiff said he felt “solidarity with how much they are suffering in the State of Israel for the contemptible bombardments of recent days and yesterday.”
His remarks were the first specific papal condemnation of the Iraqi SCUD missile attacks on Israel that have injured over 100 people since they began on Jan. 18 and caused seven fatalities.
The pope also expressed solidarity with the people of Iraq and of the other countries involved in the conflict.
His remarks, however, were the first time he has referred specifically and by name to Israel, although he has made several ardent appeals for peace since the Gulf war broke out.
The latest papal comment followed the release Tuesday of a strongly worded public statement by Rome’s 2,000-year-old Jewish community — the oldest in the Diaspora — taking John Paul severely to task for his failure until then to voice sympathy for Israel under attack.
The statement also urged the pope to use the present occasion to announce Vatican recognition of the Jewish state, which it has withheld for the 43 years of Israel’s existence.
The Jewish community’s statement was strongly backed by some leading Italian political figures.
A group of Liberal Party and Radical members of Parliament introduced a motion asking Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, a Christian Democrat, to publicly propose that the Vatican recognize Israel.
The motion in Parliament expressed hope “that Vatican City wants to add itself to the states that recognize Israel and not to number itself any longer among those, like the Arab dictatorships, who deny even in a diplomatic way its right to existence.”
The Jewish community said that “more than 40 years after the foundation of Israel, the Holy See and John Paul II avoid even pronouncing the name of the State of Israel.
“For this reason, many Jews feel that the Holy See does not recognize the State of Israel because of theological prejudice.”
The Jewish community’s statement said, “We Jews of Rome have awaited with hope the great commitment of John Paul II in recent weeks in search of a peaceful solution for the Gulf region after the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.
“Still we have remained waiting for John Paul II to condemn in clear terms Iraq’s repeated threat that it wants to destroy the State of Israel, and still more, we would have wanted to hear clear words on the successive bombardments against Tel Aviv and Haifa,” the statement said.
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