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NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > POPE’S APPEAL FOR MID-EAST PEACE FALLS ON SURPRISINGLY DEAF EARS

POPE’S APPEAL FOR MID-EAST PEACE FALLS ON SURPRISINGLY DEAF EARS

December 25 2008

Vatican City – Pope Benedict XVI replaced his traditional Christmas midnight mass with a plea to for new understanding and peace between Palestinians and Israelis. The pontiff’s plea also comes as an Egyptian brokered ceasefire nears expiration and violence between Israeli security forces and Palestinian militants increases. The Pope hopes to end decades of ethnic, social, and religious conflict by saying please during the peak of an exclusively Christian holiday.

“And speaking of the Child of Bethlehem, let us think also of the place named Bethlehem, of the land in which Jesus lived, and which he loved so deeply,” said the Pontiff. “And let us pray that peace will be established there, that hatred and violence will cease. Let us pray for mutual understanding, that hearts will be opened, so that borders can be opened. Let us pray that peace will descend there, the peace of which the angels sang that night.”

The appeal of course had no impact on the state of affairs in the Middle East. Unsurprisingly the Pope’s one paragraph was unable to accomplish what generations of diplomacy and war have failed to accomplish.

“The mass was all over the place, from the mid east conflict to child pornography, its seems like he tried to jam every single problem the world has into one ten minute speech. As a mass, it was mediocre. As an attempt at a cure all for the world’s problems, it was a joke. Someone should probably tell him that only Catholics listen to what he has to say, and even they don’t listen all that well,” said Scrape TV Religion analyst Bertram Gas. “His speech writers should have tried to pare the scope down a little and focus on more tangible goals, like say stopping sex abuse by priests or feeding poor people. The Pope and the Catholic Church have once again failed to engage in actions that would actually improve people’s lives, and instead focused on vagaries and unattainable goals in the hopes of looking like they are doing something. More and more the Pope seems to be just lying around on his gold encrusted couch telling people about what he’s going to do someday. The Germans are usually a lot more efficient than that.”

Both the Israeli’s and the Palestinians of course do not celebrate Christmas. Christians, for whom Bethlehem and Jerusalem are the holiest of sites especially at Christmas, seem to forget that on occasion, On Christmas day, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met to discuss increasing violence between the Jewish state and Hamas militants in Gaza. They did not discuss what they received in their respective stockings.

“It’s quite difficult for people in the west to comprehend this, but the reality is Christmas is outside the Americas, Europe, and Australia, Christmas is just another day. This year it was a Thursday,” said Scrape TV Middle East analyst David Gershwin. “There are a healthy number of Palestinian Cristians—somewhere around 13 per cent—but generally speaking Christian leaders have little to no influence in the region despite a certain level of respect for the Pope. Of course there hasn’t been a great deal of leadership in the region ever so most people living there have little concept of what respecting authority means in the first place.”

Religious issues aside, the greater problem of conflict between groups—whether a result of religion, ethnicity, land, money—has been an issue that has plagued mankind since the beginning of civilization. With dozens of conflicts currently blazing around the world the issue of man taking up arms against his fellow man is a long standing one that is unlikely to be undone with a single paragraph.

“I guess you never really get anything without asking so maybe that’s what he was trying. Well, lesson learned. Generations of hatred, violence, annexation, poverty, death, and just plain antagonism can’t be undone by just asking. Good to know,” continued Gershwin. “So now we can focus on issues like land division, economic participation, democratic elections, education, literacy, and healthcare. It’s not exactly an act of faith trying to engage those issues, but we’ve tried that, may it’s time to try something different.”

Reports from Israel indicate a mounting force primed to assault the Gaza Strip. The Pope is resting comfortably after delivering his Christmas message.  

Emil Uliya, International Correspondent

NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > POPE’S APPEAL FOR MID-EAST PEACE FALLS ON SURPRISINGLY DEAF EARS

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