Just The Facts, Your Holiness

Boy, everyone's trying to make friends these days -- even the new Pope. I was initially concerned when the Cardinals elected a German pope, but good ole Benny 16 has put my fears at ease by snubbing Israel at his earliest convenience. It seems that when 16 listed recent terrorist attacks, he mentioned the countries of Egypt, Britain, Turkey and Iraq, but inexplicably left Israel off the list.

The right thing to do would just be apologize and move on, right? Nope! Benny decided it was in everyone's best interests if he nitpicked with Jerusalem for a few days. From the Jerusalem Post:

"The two sides publicly traded tit-for-tat pronouncements that culminated with a harshly worded Vatican statement saying the pope couldn't condemn every Palestinian suicide bombing because Israel would so often retaliate with illegal actions that would also have to be condemned."

Nehmen Sie das, Israel! That will show those whiners. Nice work, Benny. Of course, we aren't talking about Israel's "so often" reaction, we are talking about their reaction to the July 12 suicide bombing in the Israeli city of Netanya, which was metered and not at all illegal. So did that attack not happen, Benny? And if it did, did you list it? And if not, why not? How on earth did the Vatican *not* expect this to be taken as a snub?

Some free advice, 16: When you are a German pope, have a quick think back 60 or so years and then decide how petty and argumentative a stand to take with the people of Israel. Apologize and make it right, like an adult.