israelinsider: Bashar Assad's repugnant diatribe

Bob Westbrook, of Tampa, Florida, is a computer professional with his own consulting business. He writes commentaries from a Christian Zionist perspective, endeavoring to encourage Christian support for Israel. He is the Bible Prophecy moderator for the website Israel My Beloved and the author of Trumpet Sounds.

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Bashar Assad's repugnant diatribe
By Bob Westbrook May 6, 2001

When Pope John Paul II arrived in Damascus on Saturday, Syrian President Assad greeted him with these declarations: "There are always those who seek to recreate [Jesus'] journey of suffering and pain among people.... We see our brothers in Palestine being killed and tortured.... We see them (Israel) attacking sacred Christian and Muslim places in Palestine... They try to kill the principle of religions in the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ.... We expect you to stand by them against the oppressors so that they can regain what was unjustly taken from them."

As a Christian who is a supporter of Israel, I found the diatribe of Syrian President Assad at the occasion of the Pope's arrival to be doubly offensive. It was offensive because Assad viciously attacked Jewish people with the worst kind of anti-Semitism, and it was offensive because he, as a Muslim, arrogated the name of Jesus to make his attack. It is one thing to say that one disagrees with Israel's political policies regarding the Palestinians, but to equate those policies with the "mentality" that caused the death of Jesus is monstrously repugnant.

What is equally repugnant is the Pope swallowed this verbal swill with nary a wince. Assad did everything but yell out "Christ killers!", and the Pope assented to this by his silence. In effect, he endorsed it by his comments, which followed. Though a fair and genuinely holy man would not have allowed those kinds of statements pass without a reprimand, the Pope continued in the same vein, albeit in more diplomatically stated terms. He stated, "It is time to return to the principles of international legality: The banning of the acquisition of territory by force, the right of peoples to self-determination, respect for the resolutions of the United Nations organization and the Geneva conventions." It does not take a great deal of discernment to understand that each of those phrases was directed against Israel, especially given the context the President Assad had just provided with his outrageous statements.

President Assad is proving to be an equal to his late father in the vile use of language. Those who had hoped that this Western educated man would be more reasonable and rational can only shake their heads in disgust at what has been forthcoming from Damascus in the last 10 months. He seems to be quite capable of surpassing his father's degree of intransigent loathing for Israel.

Likewise, the Pope continues to demonstrate that the Catholic Church has not actually changed its long-standing stance regarding the Jewish people. Anti-Semitism has been deeply ingrained in Catholic thinking and practice, and notwithstanding their much-publicized campaigns to portray themselves in a different manner; the true nature of their feelings about the Jews and Israel is patently evident. Assad said he expected the Pope to stand against the "oppressors" - Israel - and based on the Pope's response, Assad got what he wanted. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls confirmed this later, reiterating that the Pope would not criticize Assad's odious diatribe: "The pope will absolutely not intervene. We are guests of this president and he has expressed his opinion."

Both these men invoke religious sentiments in their criticism of Israel. But I, as a Christian, know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom I worship, looks down with disdain on this religiously motivated animosity towards Israel. He has not removed His care and concern for Israel, nor will He. As He Himself says, "'for the mountains may be shaken and the hills may be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,' says the LORD, who has compassion on you." (Isaiah 54:10)