I'm not much for organized religion for a whole host of reasons (starting with anti-feminist, anti-gay stuff). But, hell (ooopppssss, better not say that either), this is pretty cool.
Breaking now:
The Vatican said Wednesday that it had concluded a treaty to recognize Palestinian statehood, a symbolic but significant step welcomed by Palestinians but upsetting to the Israeli government.
Formal recognition of a Palestinian state by the Vatican, which has deep religious interests in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories that include Christian holy sites, lends a powerful signal of legitimacy to the efforts by the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, to achieve statehood despite the long paralyzed Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
It's even more timely given the recent elections in Israel and the formation of
an extremely right-wing, racist government:
This will be the most right-wing coalition in Israeli history. Not only is the government composed of conservative parties, but also those parties have become more hard-line than ever before. All of Likud’s senior leadership, starting with Netanyahu, is on record against the idea of a sovereign Palestinian state. To the right of Likud is the empowered Jewish Home party, with fewer legislators (eight, as opposed to 12 in the previous Knesset) but with Netanyahu completely dependent on every single one of them. The Jewish Home’s influence is likely to go beyond the Cabinet positions Bennett was able to secure
.
And particularly this is a delicious slap in the face to Netanyahu who appointed an avowed racist, who called for Palestinian genocide, as Justice Minister...you cannot make this up:
Shaked made her post the day before the Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and burned alive by six extremist Israeli Jewish youths. Her remarks are said to have contributed to the climate of revenge in Israel which led to this immolation murder and fed popular support, at least among Israeli Jews, for operations against Hamas in Gaza. These operations have been characterized as “collective punishment” against Palestinians living in Gaza and have triggered calls for a “war crimes” inquiry from top UN human rights official Navi Pilly.
Not bad for the Pope.