The Roman Catholic pontiff has commented on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
There are no winners in war, Pope Francis said on Wednesday in an interview with the Italian broadcaster RAI, urging the Israelis and the Palestinians to live together in peace as neighbors.
“In war, one slap causes the other. One strong and the other even stronger and so it goes on,” the pope said, addressing the October 7 attack by Hamas and Israel’s retaliation against Gaza in a lengthy feature that aired right after the evening news.
The solution to the cycle of violence, the 86-year-old Jesuit argued, is to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
“Two peoples, who have to live together. With that wise solution, two states. The Oslo Accords: two well-defined states, with a special status for Jerusalem,” the pope told RAI.
The Oslo Accords were a 1990s US initiative that envisioned the establishment of a Palestinian state, but collapsed by 2000 in the Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel could not agree on territorial demarcation, the fate of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, the “right of return” of Palestinian refugees, and the status of Jerusalem.
Israel has rejected all calls for ceasefire and declared a “total blockade” of Gaza, vowing to eradicate Hamas once and for all. Some Israeli politicians have even advocated the expulsion of all Gaza residents to Egypt and “razing” the enclave to the ground.
“Every war is a defeat. Nothing is solved with war. Nothing. Everything is gained with peace, with dialogue,” the pope told RAI.
“The hour is very dark. One cannot find the ability to think clearly,” the pontiff said in the interview, describing the world as enveloped in darkness since 1945, because the wars did not stop after WWII. He blamed the military-industrial complex for this.
“The most serious problem is the arms industry,” the pope argued. “A person who understands investments, whom I recently met with, told me that the most profitable investments today are the arms factories.”
Image credit: Ashwin Vaswani
He is a antipope, because his election is invalid going by canon law.
Israel is finished. The best it can hope for is a single state with universal franchise after proper reparations are bestowed on the victims of the Nakba – whereupon most zealots will go back to where they came from. The rank hypocrisy of pretending that History begins with the most recent Israeli death or injury is now exposed. More young American Jews now support Palestinian rights than support Israel. In London, huge “free Palestine” protests. https://twitter.com/i/status/1718251314264650059
I have written thousands of posts on blogs and articles comment sections. When I began, in the 90s (inspired by the “New Historians – Pappe, Morris, Avi Shlaim, Simha Flapan et al as well as Fisk and John Pilger), the odds were about 100 to 1. We were a tiny minority pointing to the the most blatant and brutal colonial project in History. Today is entirely different. All the old tropes: “A land without a people for a people without a land”, “The Arabs were newcomers”, “The Arabs ran away”, “Historic Homeland” etc are rarely mentioned. Their very obvious falsity is now almost universally recognised and the ongoing ethnic cleansing, land theft and occupation are now established fact.
There are no winners in war, Pope Francis said.
What utter and absolute BS!
War is a business, and THEY invest other peoples’ sons.
The Military Industrial Congressionl Bankster Complex wins with every round ‘donated’ to instigated wars in Ukraine, Israel, Syria, etc..
Then look at who owns/runs this Complex and you know where the wind blows from.
Zionism is the plague of the planet.
“There are no winners in war …”
It worked OK for the Allies when we got rid of the Nazis.
It worked OK in 720 A.D. when Muslims invaded through Spain into southern France to just south of Tours when they came across Charles Martel (a.k.a. “The Hammer”) and his army: The Muslims were pushed back into Spain.
It also worked in 1687 A.D. when Muslims invaded into east Europe and got to just south of Vienna when they were met by a rather large European army: The Muslims were pushed back into Turkey.
https://www.firstpost.com/world/latin-american-nations-sever-diplomatic-ties-with-israel-over-gaza-conflict-13330442.html