Here I think we need to expand a little.
Israel has been engaged in a vast PR exercise throughout and Netanyahu has been one of the best man for the job among the gallery of Israeli PM. One very powerful Pm of great memory was Golda Meir.
Israel has been reaching to all international quarters from governments to interest groups , religious entities etc. as a relatively new strategy in the hasbarah we have been talking and so often complaining for negligence. A number of traditional barriers have been eliminated, even images of the known Jewish profile slightly “adjusted” to the point of a Jewish national leader sending all kinds of “best wishes” on religious occasions completely distinct from ours etc. This “apostolic” new approach by the Jewish identity needs to carry messages in attitudes, fashions, “languages” of the local mode of comprehension.
We are faced with a massive anti Israeli presence in all major points of influence, whether directly or by proxy, one by the mere presence and size of muslim communities in the old Western World and in others, such as Russia, by the vested interests of the powers to be with the powerful islamic world. Certain important sections of the American body politic an communal orgs. contain “factions” less than amiable to the comprehensive interests of Israel, hence the oft “interventions” the PM of Israel needs to make on Capitol Hill not to mention pressure groups. There is, therefore , a need for ad hoc adjustments in the Israeli rhetoric in accordance with the profile of each “audience”.
Must repeat, Bibi is doing a fantastic job.

Yet, the Church ( that is the Vatican) thrives on and demands a public spectacle of protocols of honours not matter how sincere because she knows that she’s been feeding the same stuff for millennia to urbs and orbis.
Netanyahu only obliged….

Dear Liat

let’s make a clear distinction between dogma, which in the case of the Church , stands unaltered and political choreography. Also, plays on semantics in the public-political forum must be seen as such and not mixed with serious considerations of theological issues.
The religion we are talking about holds that Jews are guilty and any so called qualifications cannot alter what they consider “gospel truth”.

I meant to include in my previous posting the fact that Jews should really acquaint themselves with more knowledge of the history of Christianity. I was staggered to read from Gil’s article that a guide at the Sydney Holocaust Museum was stymied for an answer to the question ‘Why don’t Jews just accept Jesus?’, the questioner associating that with forsaking the Torah for the New Testament. Even at the most basic level of Judaism and Christianity, that question should have been able to be answered with ease.

Dear Liat

No Pope or any other church leader or follower has ever absolved the Jews for the death of their messiah. As I mentioned earlier, the only “concession” found in “Nostra Aetate” is that only some Jews in Jerusalem, principally their religious leaders, were RESPONSIBLE for his death. In essence, that still makes the Jews responsible generically. This is the very tenet of church antisemitism.
Following Vatican II, SOME Catholic regional churches, mainly in the USA and we have seen moves in Rome, have made some “progress” in some kind of “reprochment” with the Jewish community, and even that only accepted at certain levels, obviously and for good reason, you would not find Charedi amiable to this. Otherwise you are absolutely right in as far as the heavy responsibility the Church has not just for its past antisemitic atrocities, but for CREATING the phenomenon, antisemitism, which is still very alive these days. We do see/hear voices of atonement and genuine ouvertures of support for Jewish and Israeli causes from a number of christian places and that is a good sign, a welcome sign of understanding and even fighting against current, perpetuated unwanted realities.

That a couple of Popes have attempted to redress this by admitting the Jews were not responsible for the death of Jesus, and that many Christians today might not hold such views, cannot undo that damage. Just as the efforts of today’s Germany to confront and address the Holocaust, while a good thing and recognised as such, cannot undo the damage. We cannot undo what has been done and we dare not forget it.

Danny Kidron says ‘It is a question of faith. Debate is mute.’ I agree with the fact that there are different beliefs and we must respect others beliefs. If belief stayed stationary at that point, I could do it. No matter how misguided I might think the beliefs of others. The problem is when it doesn’t stay still, when it imposes or misrepresents. Then, I think, debate is necessary.

The thing I don’t respect (and to a large degree that’s the writer in me, as well as the enormity of the situation) is the misappropriation and misuse of another’s ‘text’. Pauline Christianity has done just that and reviled the original – Judaism – as it took it for itself and added to it with the New Testament. Paul, aka Saul of Tarsus, is the biggest turncoat in history (personal, yet informed by study, opinion coming in here), not only turning against his own people and religion in a supposed epiphany on the way to Damascus, but also using his newly found religion as a political tool in an attempt to join the hi-jinks in Rome.

I wonder how many Christians know that there were three distinctive forms of early Christianity, each differing from the others in beliefs and practices:
1. The Jesus Movement – Jesus’ first Jewish followers under James in Jerusalem. Essentially a Torah-observant Jewish group that saw Jesus as the anticipated FULLY HUMAN Messiah or redeemer.
2. The Church of the Gentiles – the community of Gentile followers of Jesus, stemming from Mary the Magdalene (who was never a whore, by the way!!). This group paralleled the fully Jewish Jesus movement by preserving a more historical Jesus (rather than the mythical creature Paul was to invent). They did though introduce some non-Jewish ideas into the movement, such as elevation of Jesus from a human Messiah to some kind of divine being or ‘Son of God’, and likewise the elevation of Mary the Magdalene to some kind of ‘Bride of God’.
3. The Christ Movement – Paul’s congregations, based on Paul’s visions of the resurrected Christ, not the historical Jesus. This movement diminished the stature of Mary the Magdalene (that’s putting it mildly, as she goes from Bride of God to Whore).
[this specific information taken from ‘The Lost Gospel’, Simcha Jacobovici & Barrie Wilson, Pegasus Books, N.Y., 2014)

Christianity seemingly accepts the Old Testament (Torah) and yet has in reality usurped it for its own purposes, while using it to denigrate and negate Jews. This has been done, while at the same time by implication replacing the old with the new, however greedily embracing the Psalms in toto, which in reality can only be read and understood in their older Jewish context. The Ten Commandments, which are also accepted, become a problem due to the fact that G-d is only to be worshipped directly, not by way of an icon or a human being, such as Jesus was to become as the ‘Son of God’. (It is just possible that Jesus, as the Jew he was, might be turning in his grave right now at the ludicrous mis-use he has been put to.)

While I appreciate this is not a theological discussion as such, it needs to be borne in mind that if faith had indeed been kept to itself as far as Christianity is concerned and practised solely within its own confines, without seeking to damage others, we would not be having to have this discussion. I am afraid that Christians who might also object to the way their religion has been used, and yet feel absolved from that due to their different thoughts on the matter, will hopefully stand back a bit and understand this is not a personal attack on you.

Your anxiety caused by Gil Solomon’s comments/opinion and zeal in defence of your beliefs is well understood as well as the fact that you have missed completely the core message our own Gil was attempting to convey.
Major errors in details on both sides of the argument(s) aside, what Gill has emphasised are unquestionable, historical facts as well as some dogmatic details, in my view, not correctly presented. None of what we have seen from Gill could possibly seen as offensive by Christians and here’s why:

NO ONE can deny that the Church whether low o high, is responsible for the promulgation and practice of the most vile acts of anti Jewish racism we “casually” call antisemitism. Reasons are easy to define, but the practice by the Church of pinning much of its dogma and spiritual legitimacy on the “deicidi Rea’, the killing of the “king” by the Jews, in undeniable. Vatican II has come with the most transparent bigoted duplicitous stance on the subject by stating in the famous ” Nostra Aetate” that the Jews of today are not guilty for what their forefathers have….DONE. So, the Jews of today are not hated for what they have done but for what our ancestors have committed. So, let’s not skirt the issue here !!!
If you feel offended by being reminded that, in the name of the Church’s dogma , a perpetuation of Holocausts has been committed starting from YOUR Messiah’s altars and carried onto the streets of your urbs and orbis, then so be it. It is the slightest punishment you deserve and my heart is not bleeding for it.
We, the perpetual Jews have nothing to appologise for being massacred in the name of YOUR escatological concepts, particularly in respect of the totally farcical christian concept of who killed who. Because, if you still maintain that a man was killed while that man was the son of the Almighty , as we all accept in our shared monotheism that Hashem decides one’s fate, then you have serious problems understanding not just our religion, but your very own !!! Wasn’t your messiah who cried to his “father” something to the extent of ” Father why hast you abandoned me !!”. In our beliefs we DO NOT hold that we would be above G-d !! What He has decided and done is not for man to object to or undo !! Thus, it seems that you have serious problems of the highest order; on one hand you have contradicted your own beliefs, on the other you have persecuted the wrong people . The “third hand” is that, if anything , YOU need to apologise to us and we may accept it !!!!

No reasonable Jew will claim that Christianity is evil and no Christian theologian is needed to substantiate that point.

Christianity is essentially a religion built on Judaism by Jews and spread by the Roman empire. Judaism is a religion which values life and is based on the love of one’s fellow man on repentance and foegiveness. It respects the works attributed to the creator especially other sentient beings. Judaism is concerned for justice and prizes truth. Christianity has adopted those values.

At the same time Jews are accused by an increasing number of people of deicide, against all evidence, historical of theological. One cannot ignore that part of the Christian addition to the Bible that has the Jews cursing themselves forever by saying that may the sin of killing Jesus be upon Jews forever. It is up to Christian theologians to reinterpret that to bring it into line with 21st century values.

One can not forget that accusations of deicide led to massacres by the Crusaders, to various expulsions, to the Chmielnicki massacres, to pogroms and of course the Holocaust. But one must remember that what occurred was not because Christianity is evil, but because there were far too many who called themselves Christians chose to deafen themselves to the JudeoChristian message.

As there is an increased number of people who are again choosing to ignore the JudeoChristian message of love and forgiveness, it is important for all people of good intent to deal honestly with history and theology and to work together to counter the forces that would lead to another Holocaust, another perversion of the message that the Jewish Jesus preached.