And the most insane sentence I have heard all week (and mind you, it’s a week of a Republican debate) also appeared in the NYTIMES:
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, called Pope Francis to brief him on the “ongoing Israeli aggression in occupied East Jerusalem, and particularly against Al Aqsa Mosque.”
This is the only time the Pope appears in the article, and the reasons for his appearance remain forever shrouded in mystery. The words “brief” and “particularly” are especially mystifying.
Clarissa's Blog 
Mahmoud Abbas would like the Pope to say something supporting the Palestinian claims of oppression, in effect taking sides and condemning Israel. I don’t think the Pope will be stupid enough to take the bait.
When Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998, Castro repeatedly tried to bait that Pope into publicly condemning capitalism, and Pope John Paul wisely ignored him.
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Given that a large number of Palestinians are Catholic he may very well say something. The only Israeli citizens that are Catholic are non-Jewish and most of them are Arab. I knew some Greek Catholic Palestinians from Jeruasalem when I went to SOAS.
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Isn’t the percentage of Palestinian Christians in the occupied territories down to about 2%?
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There is no way of knowing. But, since there is only one Palestine and one Palestinian people one has to include a lot more than the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There are a lot of Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem, the Little Triangle, and the Galilee. Then there are places like Chile, the US, and Australia with large Palestinian Christian populations.
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Very interesting. I had no idea. Maybe Abbas called the Pope in their name.
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Hmmm, so “there is only one Palestine and one Palestinian people” worldwide — very interesting analogy to the Jewish diaspora. I’ve never heard the Palestinian situation described like that before.
If the Pope also thinks along those lines, he might be willing to make a public statement, although he has to know that his words will be interpreted as antagonistic to Israel.
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This Pope can’t afford to become suspected of antisemitism. He’s from Argentina, a country that offered a warm welcome to the German Nazis.
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