[size=18pt]Vatican in new rift with Jews on racism conference[/size]
Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:11pm EDT
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, April 20 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's decision to send a Vatican delegation to a United Nations conference on racism has opened a new rift in relations with Jewish groups, which fear it will be used as a platform to attack Israel.

"By participating, the Vatican has given its endorsement to what is being prepared there (against Israel)," Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

The United States and some of its allies, including Italy -- a country which often sees eye-to-eye with the Vatican at international conferences -- are boycotting the meeting.

On Sunday the pope, who makes his first trip to Israel as pontiff next month, called the conference an important initiative and said he hoped it could help "put an end to every form of racism, discrimination and intolerance".

Shimon Samuels, head of the European office of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said the Vatican "is giving a seal of approval in the hate campaign" against Israel.

"This is not a position on which one can hedge," Samuels said. "You can't have it both ways. The Vatican is a powerful voice and (a boycott) could have had a strong demonstrative effect."

Chief Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi defended the Vatican's presence and said a disputed conference text had been improved in recent weeks.

"This is an international conference promoted by the United Nations and the Holy See. Just because some important countries are not attending does not mean that the Holy See cannot have a positive and constructive dialogue there," Lombardi said.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who is expected to hold his first meeting with the pope in July, said Washington feared the conference would be a venue for antagonism towards Israel.

Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland on Monday in protest. Diplomats walked out of the conference when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Israel of establishing a "cruel and repressive racist regime" over Palestinians.



HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS DISAPPOINTED

The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants expressed its "deep disappointment" that the Vatican did not join the boycott.

"Because the conference highlights the participation of Iran's notorious Holocaust-denier Ahmadinejad there was a particular obligation for the Vatican to have stayed away," said the group's vice president, Elan Steinberg.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League, said the Vatican should have boycotted the talks after it learned that Ahmadinejad would attend.

"There was no moral imperative for the Vatican to be present at this hate-fest," Foxman said.

Di Segni, the Rome rabbi, said the pope's decision was "the latest imprudent step" in his relations with Jews, which were severely strained earlier this year over the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of a bishop who denied the Holocaust.

The United States and Israel walked out of the last major U.N. race conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2001 after Arab states tried to label Zionism as racist. (Editing by Ralph Boulton)


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLK296957

Now the Zionists want to tell the Vatican what to do?

These people and their never-ending sense of entitlement!

You posted a two line to all of that? May be it would be worth it if you keep your views to yourself sometimes.

I suggest you do a bit of reading, have a better understanding and come out of your darkness of ignorance, then perhaps you may actually have the mindset to debate free without preconceived ideas etc.

ElRazur:

You posted a two line to all of that? May be it would be worth it if you keep your views to yourself sometimes.

I suggest you do a bit of reading, have a better understanding and come out of your darkness of ignorance, then perhaps you may actually have the mindset to debate free without preconceived ideas etc.

Ol boy, wetin I do you na?

So, I can't post my two cents lines?

What do you want from me? An article of equal length as the posted one?

Nna, biko o!

I think ElRazur is simply echoing my own thoughts . . . when are you copy pasters going to start thinking on your own? you've depended on conspiracy theorists for far too long.

RichyBlacK:

Ol boy, wetin I do you na?

So, I can't post my two cents lines?

What do you want from me? An article of equal length as the posted one?

Nna, biko o!

What did you do? Well, you are ignorant at a disturbing level. You have no idea of what is behind all of these. Further more, you appear to post this just to make a cheap point [an ignorant one by the way]. Only that you ain't prepared for the response from the like of me.

To give you a bit of insight, I suggest you look up the role of the Vatican during holocaust. Maybe if you understand that, perhaps you will be less ignorant and understand the issue at hand.

davidylan:

I think ElRazur is simply echoing my own thoughts . . . when are you copy pasters going to start thinking on your own? you've depended on conspiracy theorists for far too long.

So Reuters is misrepresenting someone or some group? What is the conspiracy theory here?

The article clearly implies that the Zionists are unhappy with the Vatican. How is that a conspiracy?

RichyBlacK:

So Reuters is misrepresenting someone or some group? What is the conspiracy theory here?

The article clearly implies that the Zionists are unhappy with the Vatican. How is that a conspiracy?

ElRazur gave you a clue . . . in his last post. Do some study . . . Reuters is not the begining and end of knowledge.

ElRazur:


What did you do? Well, you are ignorant at a disturbing level. You have no idea of what is behind all of these. Further more, you appear to post this just to make a cheap point [an ignorant one by the way]. Only that you ain't prepared for the response from the like of me.

To give you a bit of insight, I suggest you look up the role of the Vatican during holocaust. Maybe if you understand that, perhaps you will be less ignorant and understand the issue at hand.

This clearly shows that you're a Zionist.

ElRazur:


What did you do? Well, you are ignorant at a disturbing level. You have no idea of what is behind all of these. Further more, you appear to post this just to make a cheap point [an ignorant one by the way]. Only that you ain't prepared for the response from the like of me.

To give you a bit of insight, I suggest you look up the role of the Vatican during holocaust. Maybe if you understand that, perhaps you will be less ignorant and understand the issue at hand.

ElRazur,

You keep resorting to ad hominems because I disagree with you?

RichyBlacK:

This clearly shows that you're a Zionist.

Oh the irony. He accused ElRazur of using adhominems in his last post.

By casting the burden of their plight on the conscience of Europeans and the rest of the world, they are using the same approach as Ahmedinejad to score political loyalties. Ahmedinejad is differentiating, while the Zionists are associating. Vatican owes no obligation to any political seat of power . In fact, it is all obvious that the Zionists outcry is a false alarm. They are attacking governments that historically have maintained military nutrality in political conflicts - Vatican and Swiz. Although Bush is out of office but I hear that Bush jibberish all over again, this time coming from the Zionist camp - YOU ARE EITHER WITH US OR YOU ARE OUR ENEMY. World peace is run on prudence, not on discrete judgements.