BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Pope silent as Assad recycles
Christ-killer charge against Jews
By Michael J. Jordan
NEW YORK, May 8 (JTA) –
When the Western-educated Bashar Assad succeeded his father,
Hafez Assad, as president of Syria last summer, Israeli
officials hoped the changing of the guard from the Lion of
Damascus to the Optometrist of Damascus would usher in a
gentler approach toward Israel.
Young
Assad has lost no time in establishing his bona fides as an
Israel-hater, however, greeting Pope John Paul II to Syria
this week by resuscitating one of the great anti-Jewish
canards: the accusation that Jews killed Jesus.
Even
more galling to many Jewish leaders, however, was the pope’s
silence in the face of the Christ-killer charge, as well as
Assad’s call for Christians and Muslims to unite against
Jews and an apparently novel claim that Jews even tried to
kill the Prophet Mohammad.
The
following day, Assad’s minister for religious affairs
weighed in by warning the pope: "We must be fully aware
of what the enemies of God and malicious Zionism conspire to
commit against Christianity and Islam."
As
is his policy, the octogenarian pope stuck to his script and
did not attempt to counter his hosts’ harangues.
To
some Jewish leaders, the pope’s silence raises the question
of whether a man often hailed for his moves toward
Jewish-Christian reconciliation really is committed to
stamping out the insidious anti-Semitism that the Roman
Catholic Church helped propagate through the ages.
Jewish
leaders note with alarm a shift in the Arab world over the
course of the seven-month intifada from anti-Zionist and
anti-Israel sentiment to flat-out Jew-hatred.
Assad’s
defense minister, for example, has written a book that
purports to detail how Damascene Jews killed gentile children
to use their blood in Passover matzahs. Egyptian producers are
trying to make the book into a movie, which they claim will be
the counterweight to "Schindler’s List."
Assad’s
comments also come just weeks after Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah Party first took the
Christ-killer charge out of mothballs, comparing Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon’s actions against the Palestinians to
the ancient Jews’ alleged persecution of Jesus.
Assad,
for his part, said Tuesday that he cannot be accused of
anti-Semitism, since Arabs are themselves Semites.
The
anti-Jewish trend also includes a surge in Holocaust denial,
which Jewish leaders say is part of a wider campaign to
undermine Israel’s legitimacy and international support.
Moreover,
world political and religious leaders seem generally
indifferent to it – like U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
who appeared at the Arab summit in Jordan in late March and
stood silently while Assad denounced Israel as more racist
than the Nazis.
And
now the pope – whose reign has seen international criticism
of the Vatican’s silence in the face of Nazi atrocities –
also held his tongue while Assad picked up a theme that the
Catholic Church itself finally repudiated in 1965.
"If
you needed a model for group hatred and group libel, what
Assad said is it, and in some countries it would probably be
against the law," said Rabbi A. James Rudin, the senior
interreligious adviser to the American Jewish Committee.
"If
there’s one thing we’ve learned from the 1930s, it’s
that words – especially the words of leaders – have
consequences," Rudin said. "And these words should
not go unchecked or uncriticized."
A
spokesman for American Catholics responded that it’s not
necessary for the pope to criticize Assad’s comments.
"This
was an attempt to be political by using religious themes, and
I assume that Christians would understand this and put it into
a larger perspective," said Eugene Fisher, who directs
Catholic-Jewish relations for the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops.
Jews
agitated by the incident should "relax," Fisher
said.
"The
Catholic Church has stated that it is inappropriate and wrong
to say directly or indirectly that the Jews are to blame for
the death of Jesus. And nothing Mr. Assad says will change the
mind of the pope or of 1 billion Catholics," Fisher said.
"You
can’t taint the pope with someone else standing next to him.
The church respects the right of anyone to speak their
mind."
Fisher’s
words do not mollify Jewish critics, however. Several are
writing letters to the pope or issuing press releases.
After
all, they note, it was the pope’s high-profile visit,
covered at length by the world media, that provided Assad with
a rare international platform for his statements.
The
pope seemed to have three goals for his three-day visit to
Syria: retrace the path taken by the Apostle Paul, improve the
church’s ties with Islam and plead for Middle East peace.
"It’s
one thing for the Vatican to repair relations with the Muslim
world, as long as it’s not done at the expense of the Jewish
people," said Abraham Foxman, the national director of
the Anti-Defamation League.
"It’s
nonsense for the Vatican to say we had nothing to do with
this, because they provided a megaphone for this
bigotry," Foxman continued.
"It’s
critical for the Vatican to speak out now. The longer the
silence continues, the greater continues the legitimacy of
this hate."
While
the Vatican remains mum, Washington has denounced Assad and
his colleagues.
"These
comments are as regrettable as they are unacceptable,"
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday.
"There’s
no place from anyone or from any side for statements that
inflame religious passions and hatred," he said. "We
hold with the pope’s call for reconciliation. That is really
the only way forward, especially in these difficult times, and
the only way to achieve the peace that all parties profess to
want."
Still,
a papal clarification would help reassure Jews that this does
not mark a shift in Catholic-Jewish relations, according to
Mark Weitzman, who directs the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s
task force against hate.
"This
flies in the face of all their condemnations of
anti-Semitism," Weitzman said. "Is this going to be
a case of Vatican policy – to the West – of repudiation of
anti-Semitism, and to the Mideast, silence in the face of it?
A lesson they say they’ve learned is that the crime of
indifference is one of the greatest sins."
Fisher,
however, said it is customary for the pope to devise a
blueprint of what he will do and say during an upcoming trip,
and then not deviate from the script.
This
strategy allows the pope "to have control of what he
says" and avoid getting embroiled in a tit-for-tat with
his often roguish hosts.
"I
can understand the pope’s practices," said Seymour
Reich, the chairman of the International Jewish Committee for
Interreligious Consultations, an umbrella group of Jewish
organizations. "But I am a little disappointed that there
wasn’t some sort of diplomatic way for the pope to indicate
his annoyance and irritation – which he must have felt at
Assad for taking advantage of his pilgrimage."
The
price of the Vatican’s policy, Fisher conceded, "is
that the pope can’t respond when he disagrees at that
moment. But he’s perfectly free to go back to Rome and
clarify what needs to be clarified. On the charges of
Christ-killer, though, that’s very clear and doesn’t need
to be clarified. It’s one of the most solid building blocks
of church teaching today and everyone knows it. Every other
reading is misinterpretation."
Yet
Jewish observers suggest a teaching that for centuries was the
cornerstone of church attitudes toward the Jews will take more
effort to undo. And, they note, without a concerted campaign
to correct centuries of anti-Semitism, it may be a leap of
faith to expect average Christians to be familiar with the
change in church teaching. Therefore, they say, the lack of a
quick riposte to inflammatory comments such as Assad’s can
lead to misperceptions.
Reich,
indeed, noted that comments by professional basketball player
Charlie Ward and Republican activist Paul Weyrich – who both
referred to Jews recently as Christ-killers – indicate that
the Vatican’s teachings have not yet permeated the Christian
world, and need steady reiteration.
"One
would think we’d be past these things," Reich said,
"but obviously we’re not."
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Jewish Telegraphic Agency Inc. The above information is
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