A group of German bishops visited Israel and the "occupied territories" and expressed dismay at the fortifications and check-points that separate Jews from murderers. They didn't put it quite like that, though. In fact, they offered their piety and pity to terrorists who must climb fences and pass through check-points before they can detonate themselves along with Jewish men, women and children.
Everywhere they looked - Ach Gott! - Jewish soldiers!
One bishop compared those obstacles to the Berlin Wall. Another referred to Ramallah as the Warsaw Ghetto.
No mention, from these bishops, about the thousands of Palestinian Arab suicide bombers who made these barriers necessary. No mention that those barriers have saved countless Jewish lives. Jewish life has never been high on the German agenda. Likewise, nothing from these bishops about Arab school books that teach hatred of Jews and, yes, even Christians.
Since the Nuremberg Laws weren't enough, these bishops said they'd return to their pulpits to denounce the Jews. Since the Holocaust wasn't enough, the bishops declared that they'd remind the German people that the Jews must be punished all over again. Not an exact quote, but easily understood.
As reported in the UK Telegraph: "Bishop Gregor Maria Franz Hanke said he planned to amend this year's Easter message to German churches to include the delegation's impressions and to demand a change to the situation." Translation: "Hitler didn't finish the job."
The bishops, 27 of them on this tour, were evidently nostalgic for the good old days, when it was "Springtime for Hitler," and Jews throughout Europe had no choice but to submit for the cattle cars and crematoriums. These days, the Jews have a nation and an army. These days, the Jews can actually defend themselves.
That's tough to swallow for people who so fondly remember Wagner, plus an anthem that began like this: "Germany, Germany, above all; above everything in the world."
We can only imagine the frustration of these bishops, who had no Gestapo to call upon to solve the Jewish Question over in Israel. Everywhere they looked - Ach Gott! - Jewish soldiers!
Also, as far as the eye can see, Jewish shops and businesses, many hoisting Stars of David, and no one around to do a decent Kristallnacht.
Similarly, churches and mosques (and of course synagogues) are all over this land of Israel. There is freedom of religion for everyone. No word on whether the bishops are including in their Middle East itinerary such countries as Saudi Arabia where churches and Christianity are verboten.
The British - as we learn from recent headlines - are likewise nostalgic.
As for the UK Telegraph, reporter Tim Butcher favored his British readership with the observation that the barriers were "illegally built" and that the places toured by the bishops were "occupied Palestinian territory." The reporter was referring to Ramallah, which is fully populated and controlled by Arabs, and Gaza, which is also fully populated and controlled by Arabs.
Yes, all that is occupied territory - occupied by Arabs. The bishops, however, were only upset by Israel's "brutal manner" (Bishop Hanke again), but not incensed by such ethnic cleansing that forbids Jews from sharing Arab territories. Meanwhile, Arab citizens of Israel - some one and a half million - enjoy all the benefits of Israel's democracy.
Perhaps these German bishops thought they were still in Europe, back in the 1930s and '40s.
That's unlikely, given the German love of precision. Those trains to Konzentrationslager Auschwitz always left and arrived on time.
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