Le Vatican et l'Islam - Les Papes et la Palestine

"Il semble que le Vatican est conscient que la décroissance démographique de la minorité chrétienne en  Terre Sainte est bien davantage une conséquence des actions préjudiciables à leur encontre de la part de la majorité musulmane. Il ne fait aucun doute que l'émigration de masse continue des chrétiens de Terre Sainte est un objectif des dirigeants palestiniens. Ils veulent évidemment, en plus d'une zone exempte d'infidèles, s'approprier des terres, des immeubles et des entreprises chrétiennes. [...] Il y a une distinction fondamentale entre la façon dont les chrétiens sont traités en Israël et dans la plupart des Etats arabes et musulmans. Dans les Etats arabes et musulmans les chrétiens vivent dans la peur. En Israël, ils pratiquent leur foi ouvertement, des messes catholiques sont célébrées en arabe et en hébreu, la liberté de religion est célébrée et garantie pour tous, y compris les Arabes israéliens qui représentent environ 20% de la population du pays. Le Vatican est très conscient de la fracture:  comment les minorités religieuses sont traitées en Israël et en Palestine arabe."

The Vatican and Islam par Lawrence A. Franklin @ Gatestone Institute.  Extraits:

The Popes and Palestine

Pope Benedict may be relying less on the counsel of the Vatican's individual Papal Nuncios, especially with papal representatives in Palestine. This is a diplomatic "lesson learned" for the Vatican, since a few delegates seem to have been unduly influenced by militant anti-Israel positions by Arab states in the Levant. Some of the pro-Palestinian pronouncements by Church officials are motivated by genuine concern for the plight of the Palestinian people. Others are more polemically motivated. It is an open secret, for instance, that within the offices of the Vatican's Secretariat of State, the Latinate Patriarch to Jerusalem, Michel Sabah, has been a virtual mouthpiece for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and has supported the legitimacy of the role played by the terrorist group Hamas in the governance of Gaza. Sabah's relations with Israel are at best coolly correct. [...]

Despite local misunderstandings in Palestine, the Vatican maintains many direct avenues of communication between religious and secular Jewish organizations. For instance, the Holy See's "Committee for Religious Relations with the Jews" held its 10th meeting with Israel's Chief Rabbinate last year in late March. The Vatican apparently realizes that the Holy Land's dwindling minority of Christians is much more a consequence of prejudicial actions against them by the Muslim majority. There can be no doubt that the continued mass emigration of Christians from the Holy Land is an objective of Palestinian leaders. They evidently want, in addition to a region free of infidels, Christian land, homes, and businesses.

A few recent administrative decisions by the Vatican are congruent with the Holy See's decision to project a more balanced approach on the Arab-Israeli divide. Benedict named the former Papal Nuncio to Israel, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, to the Nunciate Post in Washington D.C. The Archbishop had earned a reputation among Israeli and Palestinian alike for being tough but fair. Sambi, a realist when it came to Vatican dialogue with Muslims, has said that the Holy See must approach such discussions with an open heart but without naivete. In private discussions at another time, Sambi echoed the Pontiff by welcoming inter-cultural dialogue with Muslims, but not theological dialogue. [...]