Provocative piece by Sandro Magister arguing that the Vatican’s treatment of Israeli-Palestinian issues remains consistently lopsided.

A key passage:

“Of course, the authorities of the Catholic Church do not defend the existence of Israel – which its enemies want to annihilate, and is ultimately at stake in the conflict – with the same explicit, powerful determination with which they raise their voices in defense of the ‘nonnegotiable’ principles concerning human life.

“This has been seen in recent days. The authorities of the Church, and Benedict XVI himself, have raised their voices in condemnation of ‘the massive violence that has broken out in the Gaza Strip in response to other violence’ only after Israel began bombing the installations of the terrorist movement Hamas in that territory. Not before. Not when Hamas was tightening its brutal grip on Gaza, massacring the Muslims faithful to president Abu Mazen, humiliating the tiny Christian communities, and launching rockets every day against the Israelis in the surrounding area.”