Anti-Semitism today the desire to murder Jews is directed mostly against Israel. If Nostra Aetate means anything, it is not Catholic theology, it is Church action against genocidal enemies of Israel.
Jews were not interested — or, at least, should not have been interested — in the radical revision of Catholic theology 50 years ago for Popes to be able to say that Jews were “their older brothers in faith” — as if Judaism or Jews needed the validation of Catholicism. No, the reason why Jews took a keen interest in the Catholic theological revolution was straightforward, historical and visceral: that Christians stop murdering us.
That blood libels stop.
That Crusades stop.
That expulsion into the sea in unseaworthy vessels stop.
That Inquisitions stop.
That burnings at the stake stop.
That mass murder, whether in 1648-1649 or 1939-1945, stop.
Whether Catholic Christianity needed to revise its theology or recover its original theology was strictly an internal Catholic affair of no meaning to Judaism. Whichever concept best soothed the Church in extirpating its penchant for mass murder of Jews was not germane to Judaism or Jews. Our interest was only this: That they do whatever they deemed necessary to stop killing us.
We raise this rather uncomplicated point at this juncture not because it is the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate — the Catholic theological revolution that declared the Jews not responsible for the murder of Jesus, and sterilized other murder-inducing clauses from official Catholic dogma or popular belief. Rather, we write now because of a terribly wrongheaded act by Pope Francis, and a terribly wrongheaded response to it in some quarters of the Jewish community.
Recently, Pope Francis embraced Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (now in the 10th year of his four-year term) and called him an “angel of peace.”
Whether this hyperbole was intended as praise of Abbas as he is, or as a hopeful expression of what he will be, is irrelevant. No such statement by the Pope has ever been made about the president or the prime minister of Israel, and no such embrace by Pope Francis of either Israel’s president or prime minister has, to the best of our memory, ever taken place.
The pro-Palestinian tilt in the Catholic Church is blatant. The reason seems clear: the Pope’s concern over the radical decline in the Christian population in areas under Palestinian control. The Pope would be better advised to salute Israel, which does not persecute Christians and extends them full civil rights, than to butter up to the Palestinian Authority, whose intolerant, non-pluralistic, radical Islamist rule has deliberately driven Christians out.
But the Pope’s gesture toward Abbas is far more than counterproductive for the Church, it is dangerous for Israel.Whatever else one might think about Mahmoud Abbas, he is a political partner with Hamas, which wants to engage in another round of the mass murder of Jews. The Pope’s dangerous gesture is totally at odds with Nostra Aetate.
How do some Jews respond? They distinguish between “Catholic-Jewish relations,” which, they say, remain on an even keel, and between “Catholic-Israel relations,” which become problematic, at least to an extent. To cite one representative example of Jews who draw this distinction, Abe Foxman, still the national head of ADL, says that Catholic-Jewish relations and diplomacy between Israel and the Vatican are “on different tracks.”
This is a false dichotomy. Fifty years ago, the main Catholic motive in Nostra Aetate stemmed from the mass murder of Jews that we know as the Holocaust. The Church felt the need to take steps to prevent this from ever happening again, to remove any Christian impetus for it. That threat in a European context has dissipated over the decades, even though in recent years it has, to an extent, reared its ugly head again. Now, in 2015, it is crystal clear that the main threat to Jewish lives is directed against Israel. That’s the primary, current context of anti-Semitism. That’s the locus of anti-Jewish hatred today.
That’s where the critical, essential focus on deterring anti-Semitism lies today. And that’s precisely what Catholic-Jewish relations need to focus on: Israel.
If, G-d forbid, there were a mass murder of Jews that Nostra Aetate was intended to prevent, it would be in Israel. There is no “different track” between Catholic-Jewish relations and between Israeli-Vatican diplomacy — none at all. The point of both remains: Stop murdering us.
We cannot escape the feeling that some Jews, in their dialogue with the Church, have missed this main point and instead have gotten enamored with the theological changes in the Church; some Jews have been overly taken by the theological compliments that the Church now pays to Judaism. However sincere these sentiments may be, woe betide Jewish integrity if it needs, or is buoyed by, validation from another religion — especially at the expense of the safety of the State of Israel. Different tracks? A dangerous distinction, we would say.
The point of the enemies of Israel — including Abbas’ partner Hamas — is to kill Jews, any Jews, inside Israel and out — it makes no difference to Hamas. Read its own literature. It makes its goal clear. It focuses on Israel because Israel has the greatest collection of Jews in one place, and because that place is under Jewish sovereignty.
Yes, it does make a critical difference in Catholic-Jewish relations if a Pope embraces the head of the PA, sending the message that he is, or can be, an “angel of peace,” while no such message is directed to Israel or any of its leaders.
At stake here is the future of Catholic-Jewish relations. The Jewish bottom line remains the same as it was 50 years ago: The mass murder of Jews, under whatever theological or diplomatic cover, whether advanced intentionally or unintentionally, directly or in stages, is unacceptable. Big brother in faith? We need to regard this as secondary. We just want the right to live, unmolested, anywhere, any time. Nothing more, nothing less.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
