Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) wrote to Pope Benedict XVI that he is concerned the pontiff excluded Israel from a list of countries recently hit by terrorist attacks. Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, sent a letter to the pope Monday, expressing disappointment at the omission of Israel from a list of countries the pope recently identified as being affected by terrorism, which included Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Britain. “As the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in the United States Congress, I know from personal experience the dangerous consequences when the world selectively ignores atrocities done under the guidance of a murderous ideology,” Lantos wrote in the letter. “I had hoped that those days were behind us.” A Palestinian suicide bomber killed five civilians in Netanya on July 12, and Israelis were killed and wounded in rocket and mortar attacks a week later. The pope’s pronouncement has sparked a war of words between Israel and the Vatican.
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