The war in Gaza, started after the October 7, 2023, attack of Israel by Hamas, is now in its fifth month.  Al Jazeera has been tracking casualties and damage.  As of February 25, at least 29606 people had been killed in Gaza, including 12300 children and 8400 women, and 69737 people had been injured, including 8663 children and 6327 women.  In the Occupied West Bank, at least 395 people had been killed, including more than 105 children.  In Israel, the revised death toll was 1139 people, and at least 8730 had been injured.

Furthermore, 360,000 residential units, more than half of Gaza homes, had been destroyed or damaged.  Also damaged were 392 educational facilities, and 132 ground water facilities were damaged or destroyed.  Out of 35 hospitals, 11 were only partially functioning.

The disproportionate violence perpetrated by Israel on Palestinians, not surprisingly, has led to condemnation by many throughout the world.  In particular, it is reported that Pope Francis met separately with Jewish relatives of hostages held by Hamas and with Palestinians with family in Gaza on November 22.  Later that day, he declared publicly that he felt the pain of both sides and said: “This is what wars do. But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism.”

The pope also asked for prayers that both sides would “not go ahead with passions, which, in the end, kill everyone.”

The next day, the Council of the Assembly of Italian Rabbis (ARI) accused the pope of “publicly accusing both sides of terrorism.” It also accused some “Church leaders” of not condemning the Hamas attack and of “putting the aggressor and the attacked on the same plane in the name of a supposed impartiality.”

In fact, it turned out that the pope had condemned the Hamas attack as terror but had also said that “terror should not justify terror.”  He had also used the word “genocide” to describe the situation in Gaza.  Following his comments, on November 22, the American Jewish Committee, in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), “thanked the pope for meeting the families of hostages and for his repeated calls to free those being held,” but added: “Later in the day, he described the Israel-Hamas war as ‘beyond war’ as ‘terrorism.’ Hamas’ butchering and kidnapping of civilians is terrorism. Israel’s self-defense is not. Vatican, please clarify.”

Clearly, the Jewish view on the events is that Hamas committed an act of terrorism and must, as a matter of justice, be destroyed by any means possible.  But this means huge numbers of innocent Palestinians who inevitably will die from Israeli acts of revenge should be seen as mere collateral damage.  Unfortunately Palestinians, understandably, will not see it that way and this will give rise to another generation of terrorists.  It is no secret that those who find themselves powerless victims of legalized state violence will often see terrorism as a last resort.  And the cycle of violence continues.

I will say at this point that the pope, as a follower of Jesus, cannot possibly align himself completely with the Jewish position on this matter since Jesus unequivocally condemned warfare when he said “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”  In the rest of this post, I will discuss the dialogue between Pope Francis and Jewish leaders that has been going on since November 22.

There is no doubt that the Roman Catholic Church has a deplorable history of antisemitism, and I intend to dive into the history of Christian antisemitism in my next post.

In past posts, I discussed changes introduced by Vatican II, including a more tolerant attitude towards other worldviews and rejection of antisemitism.  A declaration published in 1965, Nostra Aetate, specifically addresses relations with Moslems and Jews.  It states the following regarding Moslems:

“Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.”

The document also unequivocally proclaimed that the church was turning away from its antisemitic past:

“Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”

Pope Francis has been particularly committed to Vatican II reforms, and has been seen as a friend by Jewish religious leaders.  At the same time, those leaders have been paying close attention to everything he says and does, expressing their concerns whenever they see reason for doing so.  Indeed, in a previous post, I wrote about a Jewish reaction to a sermon delivered by the pope on the New Testament book of Galatians, in which Paul was telling Gentile converts to focus on living by the Gospel of Christ rather than by the Law of Moses.  Jewish critics thought the sermon was a return to supersessionism and a danger to the new relationship between Catholics and Jews.

Of course, the war in Gaza is a more serious issue than a sermon on Galatians, and some thoughtful Jewish leaders and scholars were genuinely troubled by the pope’s comments.  It was reported in America, the Jesuit publication, that “On Nov. 12, a group of five Jewish scholars, each deeply involved in Jewish/Christian dialogue, penned an open letter to Pope Francis and to the faithful of the Catholic Church. The letter quickly gathered more than 400 signatures, emanating from various corners of the rabbinic and academic Jewish world.”

The open letter is very carefully written, and I intend to reproduce most of its content here in order to do it justice.  It begins with the following statement:

“We write as Jewish scholars, religious leaders, and long-time practitioners in Jewish-Christian dialogue, in Israel, America, and Europe, to remind our brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church of ‘the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham’s stock’ (Nostra Aetate #4) in a time of distress and anguish for Jews all over the world.”

As an aside, it seems meaningful to me that the writers refer to Christians as the people of the New Covenant.  In so doing, they appear to legitimize the New Covenant.  In contrast, since Galatians contributes to the definition of the New Covenant, it seems to me that the objection to the pope’s sermon described above implied that the New Covenant itself was a threat to the Jews.

I now return to the letter.  After a brief description of the terrorist attack on October 7, the letter makes a serious effort to put the Israeli response and its repercussions in perspective.  The response is not merely an act of cold retaliation by a powerful nation against defenseless Palestinians.  It is in fact an existential struggle for Jews in a world that does not seem to understand the precariousness of Israel’s situation:

“Hamas’s genocidal crime, perpetrated on ground that is established Israeli territory since 1948, was celebrated by many people from all over the world, and justified as a legitimate act of resistance for Palestinian liberation. When Israel responded by entering Gaza to retrieve its hostages and defend itself against the existential threat of Hamas, as well as Hezbollah, Iran, the Houthis of Yemen, and their allies and supporters around the world, blame for the massacre and for the war became increasingly directed towards all Jews collectively. Many have gone far beyond the limits of political criticism against Israeli policy by voicing protest against Israel’s right to exist, and aligning with Hamas’ intentions to destroy Israel. The global surge in onslaughts against Jews since October 7^th – including killings, physical assaults, threats, harassment and vandalism– marks the worst wave of antisemitism since 1945.

This state of affairs shakes the ground beneath our feet. The heavy grief for the lives that were taken is joined by a sense of deep loneliness, and a loss of confidence in the possibility of a life of safety and freedom in the sovereign state of Israel and elsewhere. Most of all, the events invoke great anxiety among us for our future. October 7th will be forever marked in Jewish memory. The implications of this terrible day will impact our sense of who we are, how we understand ourselves, and our relationships with others in ways we haven’t even begun to fathom.”

Addressing the pope and Catholic leaders directly, the letter continues, acknowledging positive aspects of their public statements on the war:

“We acknowledge with appreciation that His Holiness, as well as some cardinals and bishops, have expressed themselves on this issue several times by reiterating their renunciation of antisemitism and affirming Israel’s right to defend itself. We also share the Church’s grief for Palestinian civilians who fell under Hamas’s rule against their will, and were killed as a result of the war without committing any crime. As His Holiness emphasized on October 8th, ‘every war is a defeat’ (Angelus Prayer), and the war’s most tragic cost is the loss of innocent lives. We also understand that the Church seeks to maintain political neutrality on the War in the Middle East, in which so many powers are involved, due to diplomatic considerations.”

In my opinion, the last sentence in the above statement is a misunderstanding of the pope’s position.  Indeed, “political neutrality” and “diplomatic considerations” cannot be the main drivers of the pope’s stand.  The New Covenant, unlike the Mosaic one, radically opposes violence.  The request that is presented in the next two paragraphs fails to recognize that reality.  The writers are asking the Catholic Church to turn away from politics, be faithful to the Gospel of love, remember the unbreakable bond between Jews and Christians and remain in solidarity with the Jews:

“Nevertheless, we, Jews of diverse political positions, national belongings and religious backgrounds, are not reaching out to you now as diplomats or politicians. The crisis we are facing transcends politics. Eighty years after the Holocaust, the threats facing Jews are once again truly and plainly existential. We therefore ask the Church to be “mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love” (Nostra Aetate #4). This commitment, first made in 1965 and affirmed by the Church time and time again, must not be marginalized in a time of crisis, but the contrary.

Putting our trust in the ‘strong bond of friendship between Jews and Catholics’ (Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, ‘The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable’, 2015) which we have been cultivating for decades, we ask the Church to act as a beacon of moral and conceptual clarity amid an ocean of disinformation, distortion and deceit; to distinguish between legitimate political criticism on Israel’s policy in the past and in the present and between hateful negation of Israel and of Jews; to reaffirm Israel’s right to exist; to unequivocally condemn Hamas’ terrorist massacre aimed at killing as many civilians as possible, and to distinguish this massacre from the civilian casualties of Israel’s war of selfdefense, as tragic and heartbreaking as they are.”

The last part of the above statement seems like a tough call.  It implies that Hamas is a terrorist organization whose intent is to kill Israeli civilians.  Civilian casualties on the Palestinian side are unfortunate but justifiable because the Jews are defending themselves.  But what happens when the civilian casualties on the Israeli side become just a small fraction of those on the Palestinian side?

On January 18, Dr. Karma Ben Johanan, who teaches at the department of comparative religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was the coordinator of the open letter, published an article with the title There is a Right and a Wrong Way for Catholics to Criticize Israel.  She describes herself as “an Israeli Jew who has studied Jewish-Catholic relations for many years.”  In her article, she expresses her disappointment at a Catholic friend of hers, Father David Neuhaus.  Father Neuhaus, an Israeli citizen, is a Jesuit priest who teaches Scripture in Israel and Palestine.  In an interview about the war in Gaza, Neuhaus made, in Ben Johanan’s view, some statements that indicated that he did not fully appreciate the current existential threat against Jews and Israel.

Ben Johanan, while providing, to the best of her ability, more clarity on the plight of the Jews and the constraints they are facing, explains that she has also been agonizing over the suffering of the Palestinians.  She writes:

“My stomach turns when thinking about the scope of the hunger experienced by Gazan civilians. It keeps me up at night. It is truly hard to breathe. Indeed, my own ‘Jewish fears’ and ‘historic traumas’ worsen this stomachache—I feel that my Jewish and human integrity is at stake in the conduct and implications of this war.”

The last paragraph of her article captures her conflicted state of mind and explains the kind of help she expects from her Catholic friends:

“Israelis, like all peoples, are both fragile and sinful, both victims and perpetrators, both reasonable and emotional. Like the citizens of other nations, they make terrible mistakes and are capable of horrible things, and they need their friends to tell them so and to help them get back on the right track. But these friends will usually try to see them as complex and intelligent people who can think for themselves and whose motives are multi-dimensional, not flat. They will usually understand the existential complexity in the situation of their counterparts and then offer advice, even critical advice, rather than paternalistically explain away their friends’ actions as driven by paranoid tantrums of wounded animals or brainwashed masses. This sort of advice is what we are still hoping to receive from our Catholic friends.”

Pope Francis’ response came in the form of a letter sent to Ben Johanan on February 2.  In his letter, the pope expresses his sorrow as he witnesses what he calls “a peacemeal world war with serious consequences on the lives of many populations.”  This, of course, is a reminder about wars in other parts of the world, including Ukraine.  But more specifically about Palestine, his “heart is torn at the sight of what is happening in the Holy Land, by the power of so much division and so much hatred.”  He acknowledges that the division and hatred have increasingly been expressed as anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism.  He remains firm in his solidarity with the Jews, but makes it clear that this solidarity should not negate his commitments to others:

“I can only reiterate what my predecessors have also clearly stated many times: the relationship that binds us to you is particular and singular, without ever obscuring, naturally, the relationship that the Church has with others and the commitment towards them too. The path that the Church has walked with you, the ancient people of the covenant, rejects every form of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism, unequivocally condemning manifestations of hatred towards Jews and Judaism as a sin against God. Together with you, we, Catholics, are very concerned about the terrible increase in attacks against Jews around the world. We had hoped that ‘never again’ would be a refrain heard by the new generations, yet now we see that the path ahead requires ever-closer collaboration to eradicate these phenomena.”

The pope’s hope is for peace in the Holy Land and “all the peoples who inhabit it, Israelis and Palestinians.”  His prayer is for the end of suffering brought about by war and hatred:

“I embrace each of you, and especially those who are consumed by anguish, pain, fear and even anger. Words are so difficult to formulate in the face of a tragedy like the one that has occurred in recent months. Together with you, we mourn the dead, the wounded, the traumatized, begging God the Father to intervene and put an end to war and hatred, to these incessant cycles that endanger the entire world. In a special way we pray for the return of the hostages, rejoicing because of those who have already returned home, and praying that all the others will soon join them.”

Given that Jews and Catholics have in common a faith in the biblical God, the pope emphasizes that hope for peace cannot be separated from reliance on God.  In fact, peace is only possible if humans recognize that they are all children of that God:

“I would also like to add that we must never lose hope for a possible peace and that we must do everything possible to promote it, rejecting every form of defeatism and mistrust. We must look to God, the only source of certain hope. As I said ten years ago: ‘History teaches that our own powers do not suffice. More than once we have been on the verge of peace, but the evil one, employing a variety of means, has succeeded in blocking it. That is why we are here, because we know and we believe that we need the help of God. We do not renounce our responsibilities, but we do call upon God in an act of supreme responsibility before our consciences and before our peoples. We have heard a summons, and we must respond. It is the summons to break the spiral of hatred and violence, and so break it by one word alone: the word “brother.” But to be able to utter this word we have to lift our eyes to heaven and acknowledge one another as children of one Father’ (Vatican Garden, June 8, 2014).”

The pope’s solution is not to win wars, but to build friendships and seek justice for all, a fact that, in my opinion, may not be obvious in the Hebrew Bible, but is quite clear in the Christian Bible:

“In times of desolation, we have great difficulty seeing a future horizon where light replaces darkness, in which friendship replaces hatred, in which cooperation replaces war. However, we, as Jews and Catholics, are witnesses to precisely such a horizon. And we must act, starting first and foremost from the Holy Land, where together we want to work for peace and justice, doing everything possible to create relationships capable of opening new horizons of light for everyone, Israelis and Palestinians.

Together, Jews and Catholics, we must commit ourselves to this path of friendship, solidarity and cooperation in seeking ways to repair a destroyed world, working together in every part of the world, and especially in the Holy Land, to recover the ability to see in the face of every person the image of God, in which we were created.

We still have a lot to do together to ensure that the world we leave to those who come after us is a better one but I am sure that we will be able to continue to work together towards this goal. I embrace you fraternally, Francis.”

Again, the pope is appealing to the common roots between Christianity and Judaism.  However, it is not clear to me that his vision of making the world better by abandoning violence and, instead, strengthening friendships and cooperation is as obvious in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament.  Sadly, most Christians do not even accept it.

On February 5, Rabbi Guy Alaluf, an Orthodox Israeli rabbi and teacher who researches the relationship between Judaism and the Catholic Church, published in Hebrew his reaction to the pope’s letter.  Alaluf’s article was translated into English and published in America by Father Neuhaus.

Alaluf starts his article by summarizing why the pope’s statements about the war in Gaza have been disappointing to Israelis:

“From an Israeli perspective, Pope Francis’ response to the Israel-Gaza war has definitely been disappointing. The pope, alongside constantly calling for the release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, has also called for an immediate cease-fire. Furthermore, he repeatedly compared the actions of Hamas to the actions of the State of Israel, even referring to Israel’s conduct as ‘terrorism,’ parallel to that of Hamas, and refused to retract this even when faced with the furious reactions of the State of Israel.”

However, it is clear to Alaluf that the pope’s comments about Gaza are not inconsistent with his statements about other conflicts:

“As someone who follows the activities and writings of the pope, I have not at all been surprised. Pope Francis takes a consistent line regarding violent conflicts around the world—a line that is completely opposed to any war and treats any action that harms body and soul as terrorism. Thus, for example, in the Russia-Ukraine war, the pope refused to support Ukraine’s offensive actions and called for an immediate end to the war. The Ukrainians were enraged at the pope’s position, which refused to distinguish between pure evil and unfortunate necessity, just like the Israelis who were enraged at him for similar reasons.”

As one who is familiar with the history of the Catholic Church, Alaluf also knows that the pope’s position is a departure from the Church’s previous endorsement of Just War Theory.  Pope Francis, like Pope John Paul II before him, does not accept Just War Theory and does not even think it can be applied today.  Obviously, that is a serious difference between the pope and his Jewish interlocutors.  As Alaluf puts it,

“At first glance, it seemed that in relation to the war in Gaza, the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the State of Israel was a conversation between two deaf partners. The Israelis did not understand why the pope was criticizing them, when in fact he was insisting on his opposition to all war in any form. It might indeed be possible to critique the moral position of the pope with regard to a just war, but his position should not be attributed to discrimination against the State of Israel.”

Alaluf then explains that Jews in Israel became increasingly suspicious of the motives behind the pope’s behavior, fearing a return to the antisemitic past of the Catholic Church.  It seems to me this is reminiscent of the Jewish fears about the pope’s sermon on Galatians.  It is also a reminder of the difference between Jesus and other competing forms of Judaism in the first century under Roman oppression: Jesus chose nonviolent resistance.  Others did not, and the result was the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD.  Today, Israel has military superiority over the Palestinians, but obviously that does not lead to a feeling of security.

Alaluf’s reaction to the pope’s letter is given in the next two paragraphs:

“In his letter to ‘my Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel,’ the pope has put an end to this supposed crisis. Pope Francis expressed empathy for the Jews living in Israel and their pain following the atrocities they had experienced on Oct. 7, 2023. Significantly, he proclaimed the continuation of an uncompromising war against anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism, and underlined the unique relationship that the Catholic Church has with the Jewish people, a relationship that is more precious than any particular political circumstance.

Of particular note was the fact that this personal letter was addressed to Dr. Karma Ben Yohanan at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She, together with colleagues, had drafted a painful letter, sent to the pope on Nov. 12, 2023. The letter was signed by about 450 rabbis and scholars from around the Jewish world. The pope chose to respond specifically to his Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel. I think it might imply a recognition of the Jewish people’s belonging to the Land of Israel—a belonging that both Jewish and Christian Scriptures attest to without a shadow of a doubt. Moreover, this belonging does not lessen the belonging of the Palestinians to this same land.”

I can’t help feeling that the last part of the above, “this belonging does not lessen the belonging of the Palestinians to this same land,” is at the core of the conflict.

Alaluf’s last paragragh should give his fellow Jews something to think about:

“The pope asks us, as Jews and Israelis, to differentiate between the religious, theological and spiritual dimensions of our relationship and the political, worldly and diplomatic dimensions. I am not sure whether Israeli society wants to do this or is even capable of doing it. However, at the very least we should allow him to make such a separation himself. It may not currently meet the immediate interests of the State of Israel, but it certainly does serve the long-term interests of the Jewish people.”

Like Alaluf, I cannot fault the pope for pursuing “the long-term interests of the Jewish people” rather than “the immediate interests of the State of Israel.”  In a previous post, I denounced Hamas’ acts of terrorism, but I also denounced Israeli state policies that denied justice to Palestinians and contributed to suffering and dissatisfaction among them.  My views are therefore fully aligned with those of Pope Francis on this matter.