Israel's Religious Crisis
As
Christian churches in Nazareth stayed shut in protest at Tuesday's
cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new mosque on the site where the angel
Gabriel is said to have told Mary she would give birth to Jesus Christ,
Le Figaro of
Paris led its front page Wednesday with the headline "Vatican-Israel: Open
Crisis." In a front-page editorial the paper criticized the Israeli
government's decision to authorize the construction of the mosque opposite the
Christian Basilica of the Annunciation. "To choose to build an Islamic
religious edifice on the precise spot where Gabriel appeared to Mary is
deliberately to overthrow the sacred order that everyone has respected for
centuries," the paper said. The Times of London said in an editorial that "relations
between Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land have suddenly sunk to their
lowest level for generations." The paper said, "Tensions have been stirred by
the Vatican's strong and unhelpful denunciation of the Israeli authorities and
by the decision of the Christian clergy to make a stand as a way of recapturing
dwindling influence. The result is an unholy and distinctly unseemly row that
threatens lasting damage to Christian-Muslim relations worldwide."
The
Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported
that the inaugural ceremony, which was attended by no representative of the
Israeli government, went ahead smoothly, despite the efforts of Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat to prevent it. The paper said Arafat's unexpected alliance
with the Christians was part of his strategy to win Christian support in future
negotiations with Israel over Jerusalem. "Arafat wants Pope John Paul II to use
his March visit to Israel to affirm that the Vatican does not recognize Israeli
control over East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of
their future independent state," Ha'aretz said. In interviews with
La Repubblica
of Rome and Corriere della Sera of Milan, the head of the Franciscan
order in Israel, which, since 1331, has been charged by the Vatican with
guarding the Christian sites in the Holy Land, said the land on which the
mosque is to be built was previously earmarked as a parking lot for buses
carrying Christian pilgrims to Nazareth during the millennium. Father Giovanni
Batistelli said Israel's reason for authorizing the mosque is "to divide the
Israeli Arabs, to foment disagreement between Christians and Muslims, thus
weakening both of them--perhaps to drive them all out of the Holy Land one
day." But Father Batistelli said the pope should not cancel his planned visit
to the region in March. "Canceling his visit to Nazareth would leave the city's
Christians even more alone, when they need all the support they can get," he
said. An opinion poll published in the Jerusalem Post Wednesday showed 32 percent of Israelis
in favor of the mosque and 68 percent against.
There
was widespread pessimism about the prospects for the forthcoming Seattle
conference of the World Trade Organization. Several European papers fronted the
failure of the WTO's 135 member states to agree on a joint declaration to
submit to the conference. The Financial Times fronted Clinton's failure to persuade other
world leaders to join him in Seattle. The FT also said that "big
divergences over agriculture and implementation of existing agreements finally
scuppered all chances of accord on a draft text, which would only have laid out
a set of choices for ministers to make on the scope and objectives of the
negotiations." It also quoted European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy
saying that the Seattle meeting might fail to launch a new trade round.
Le Monde of Paris
led its front page Wednesday with France's education minister denouncing the
United States for wanting to include education in the WTO talks. The minister,
Claude Allègre, told the paper that this represented America seeking hegemony
and that "uniform teaching would lead to a uniform world."
The
South China Morning
Post noted that Chinese President Jiang Zemin has uttered hardly a word
in public about the recent U.S.-China trade agreement. "Mr Jiang, normally
given to long-winded speeches, has maintained an eerie reticence," according to
a comment piece Wednesday. It attributed this to the
president's fears that WTO membership could precipitate an economic and
political crisis in China. In an editorial, the SCMP said that the front-runners in
the U.S. presidential race are showing a "reasonable perspective" on China
rather than going for quick political gains by demonizing the country in their
quest for votes. "Perhaps a stable realism will emerge once the elections are
over, permitting relations which lack the damaging mood swings of recent
years," it concluded.
Italian newspapers continued to debate the behavior of the Oscar-winning
actor-director of Life Is Beautiful , Roberto Benigni, who smothered
President Clinton with kisses during the Florence summit last weekend. The
Christian-Democrat Avvenire compared him to a woodpecker and said he should be
appointed state jester. Il Manifesto , a Communist daily, said it expected the
pope to be the next victim of "the little devil's" mouth-to-mouth kissing.
The official China Daily reported
from Sri Lanka Wednesday a ruling by that country's superior court that
elephants have a right to be happy. The case was brought by an animal lover
after the Sri Lanka national zoo sold a bull elephant that had killed two of
its trainers to a gem dealer for $113,000. The court ordered that before the
sale of an elephant is completed, the would-be owner must convince a
state-appointed official that the elephant will be given suitable shelter,
enough food, proper health care, and plenty of love. Keeping elephants as pets
is considered a status symbol in Sri Lanka, the China Daily said.
