A nuclear free Middle East is not a new idea, Arab nations have pushed for this before with a little encouragement from the Vatican I’m sure.  But now the Vatican has put a new push on the idea.  The notion of a “Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons” sounds full of love and peace, really who would not want that?  Well... stand back and ask who has nuclear weapons in the Middle East?  There is not a long list really, just one, Israel and that is not confirmed nor denied by the Israeli government.  However while you are standing back and looking at the situation just recall to mind the history of the Jewish people and it becomes very obvious why they might want to carry a big stick.  This is a people that fought a war of survival every decade for the first forty year of its existence and prior to statehood endured almost 2000 years of dispersion and persecution.  There is no other nation with the national experience that Israel has.

It was thought to be in the sixties when Israel started full scale nuclear bomb production.  The story is that the first bomb produced had the words “never again” welded onto it.  If that is indeed true it underlines the reason behind Israel wanting the bomb.

It was General Moshe Dayan who said 'Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.'  Many will have heard of the “Samson Option,” which Wikepedia describes as “the name that some military analysts have given to Israel's hypothetical deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a "last resort" against nations whose military attacks threaten its existence.”  Deep in Israeli psyche is the idea that they will never again go quietly to their deaths as many did during the Holocaust.  In fact new Israeli recruits are taken to the top of Masada to remember the ancient defeat of Jews in that place; they are given a gun and a Hebrew Bible, and swear to never let Masada fall again.

From reading the Biblical prophecies it has long been expected that the Roman Catholic Church would oppose Israel at the time of the end. 

Please see the Bible Magazine Vol 22, Issue No. 3

The fact is that history gives us a clear picture of an enmity between the Jewish people and the Roman Catholic Church.  Much of the distain that the Roman Catholic Church has against Israel stems from the belief that the Jews killed Christ and therefore are cut off as a people and have been replaced by the church.

From the earliest roots of Zionism the Vatican has been deeply opposed to it.  In examining the relationship between the Vatican and Israel there is a most valuable book entitled “The Vatican and Zionism” by Sergio Minerbi, the information contained in that book is amazing. 

Minerbi writes of Theodore Herzl (Considered the father of political Zionism) that “he harbored no illusions about the Vatican but correctly identified the Catholic Church as the chief opponent of his vision...”

In conversation with Pope Pius X in 1904 Herzl was told the following:

“We cannot encourage this movement.  We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem – but we could never sanction it.  The ground of Jerusalem, even if it were not always sacred, has been sanctified by the life Jesus Christ.  As the head of the Church I cannot tell you otherwise.  The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.”

Herzl was also asked by the pope whether any thought was being given to the re building of the temple in Jerusalem, as issue that worried the pope.  Minerbi states that “politically, Zionism posed a greater threat to the Holy Places in Jerusalem then did the Islamic regime there.  In fact the pope stated to Herzl that “it is not pleasant to see the Turks in possession of our Holy Places.  We simply have to put up with that.  But to support the Jews in the acquisition of the Holy Places, that we cannot do.”  I think that this statement sums up the Vatican’s position today, they would much prefer to have a Palestinian state than the Jewish state.  This feeling is only going to become even stronger as Jewish groups in Israel talk of and prepare for the building of a third temple in Jerusalem.

From the same book quoting Chaim Weizman (President of the Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel) prior to the Mandate:

“Weizmann had to acknowledge that “the Vatican is moving Heaven and Earth against us, and the old fight between Judaism and Paganism has been renewed with vigour.”

“If the mandate does not go through this time it never will.  The Catholics have been chiefly responsible for uniting the Muslims and the Christians against us, because what the Vatican really wishes to have is something which amounts to power in Palestine, and it has been using various Catholic members of the League, such as Spain, Brazil, Italy, Belgium and France, in order to achieve its object, and this is really the inner meaning of its attacks against us.”

When one starts to understand the true position of the Roman Catholic Church toward the Jewish state historically, then you can understand the position today.  The Church realized that it needed to change its tactics, the days of openly murdering your opponents was not going to work in the 20^th century.  Instead Mother Teresa was dispatched and Church today seems not so bad.  Now old fashioned Protestantism and speaking out against the Church is frowned upon.  It is only when one looks at the Bible and specifically the prophecies in the book of Revelation that you realize that “she has repented not.”  Pope Pius XII signed a concordat with the Nazi’s and was silent about the millions of Jews being sent to the ovens, has that changed?  Well Pope John Paul II visited Yasser Arafat the terrorist leader and murder of the Jews more than any other world leader.  In 2010 Archbishop Cyrille Bustros said "We Christians cannot speak of the Promised Land as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people, this promise was nullified by Christ. There is no longer a chosen people – all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people."

With that in mind we look at the news of the Roman Catholic Church moving to remove Israel of her “Sampson option,” her deterrent for those around such as Iran to not get any ideas of Jewish annihilation.  There can be no good intent, no good motive in removing Israel’s military superiority, especially when we look at the Church’s history.  This is not just love and peace.  The scriptures tell us that you know a false prophet by their fruit.  The fruits of the Catholic Church has been deep rooted Anti Semitism for centuries and don’t be naive, nothing has changed.

This has been John Billington with you this week, please come back next week for another edition of the Bible in the News.