Benedict XVI on the Shoah

1. "Pope, Expressing Solidarity With Jews, Reacts to Uproar Over a Holocaust Denier"; By Rachel Donadio; A6
2. "U.S. Envoy Urges 2 Sides To Fortify Gaza Truce"; By Isabel Kershner; A14

The statements of Pope Benedict XVI are welcome, considering the role that the Catholic Church played in abetting and failing to stop the Shoah. 

That said, accompanying his statements should have been a policy reversal wherein Holocaust-denier Bishop Richard Williamson - may his name be blotted out - remains excommunicated. 

Director General of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, Oded Wiener, is to be commended for his call to postpone a meeting between Israeli rabbis and the Vatican in March. 

The fact that Benedict XVI did not consult Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Commission for Religious Relations With Jews, before revoking Bishop Williamson's excommunication demonstrates willfulness and insensitivity.  

In an article about US envoy George Mitchell's visit to Jerusalem, Isabel Kershner once again refers to "the reopening of the Gaza border crossings" as a "Hamas demand." Hamas, which is a terrorist organization with a strong social services network, is in no position to make demands since it is not a member of the international community.

One of Mitchell's recommendations - "an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza" - is aligned with Israel's objectives. The other - reopening border-crossings based on a 2005 agreement - does not meet the newly articulated Israeli demand for the release of Gilad Shalit in exchange for the crossings' reopening. 

Kershner mentions Mitchell's role "as chairman of an international fact-finding commission" in 2001, which made an equivalence between settlement-construction and terrorism. On its face, this equivalence is problematic, as it identifies a non-violent action with one that is violent. 

Kershner's reporting suffers at the very end of the article, where she refers to the terrorism following the fallout of Camp David 2000 as "the second Palestinian uprising" even though evidence abounds that Yasir Arafat orchestrated Palestinian attacks on Israelis. That is hardly an "uprising."