Pope Warns Mideast Conflict Could Spread
Pope Benedict Image by getty images
Pope Benedict on Wednesday urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make “courageous decisions” to end the Gaza conflict, saying it risked spilling over into the rest of the Middle East.
He told pilgrims and tourists at his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square that he backed efforts to negotiate a ceasefire.
“I appeal to the authorities on both sides to take courageous decisions in favour of peace and bring an end to a conflict with negative repercussions on the entire Middle East, which is already tormented by too many conflicts and so in need of peace and reconciliation,” the pontiff said.
“I feel the need to once again say that hate and violence are not solutions to problems. I also encourage the efforts of those working for a truce and to promote negotiations,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was on Wednesday trying to seal a Gaza truce, with Israel and Hamas still at odds over key terms. Israeli air strikes shook the enclave and Palestinian rockets struck across the border.
Israel has carried out more than 1,500 strikes since the offensive began. Medical officials in Gaza say 139 Palestinians, most of them civilians and including 34 children, have died.
Nearly 1,400 rockets have been fired into Israel, killing four civilians and a soldier, the Israeli military said.
The pope made a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2009 but did not visit Gaza. In September, he visited Lebanon, where he appealed for peace in the region, including an end to the civil war in Syria.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
