Of Apologies, the Pope, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Jonathan Tobin at Contentions argues that the Israelis' ire at Pope Benedict XVI, and particularly their disappointment with his address at Yad Vashem on Monday, is misplaced. True, he says, "many Israelis on both the left and the right expected the first post-Holocaust German Pope to apologize for his native country's heinous history as well as for the Catholic Church's own long tradition of anti-Semitism."

What's more, it's difficult not to compare unfavorably this pontiff's rather cool language with the fervent words of his predecessor.

Benedict:

I have come to stand in silence before this monument, erected to honor the memory of the millions of Jews killed in the horrific tragedy of the Shoah. They lost their lives, but they will never lose their names: these are indelibly etched in the hearts of their loved ones, their surviving fellow prisoners, and all those determined never to allow such an atrocity to disgrace mankind again. Most of all, their names are forever fixed in the memory of Almighty God. . . . One can rob a neighbor of possessions, opportunity or freedom. One can weave an insidious web of lies to convince others that certain groups are undeserving of respect. Yet, try as one might, one can never take away the name of a fellow human being.

John Paul II, same forum, same subject, nine years ago:

In this place of memories, the mind and heart and soul feel an extreme need for silence. Silence in which to remember. Silence in which to try to make some sense of the memories which come flooding back. Silence because there are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Shoah. My own personal memories are of all that happened when the Nazis occupied Poland during the War. I remember my Jewish friends and neighbours, some of whom perished, while others survived. . . . I have come to Yad Vashem to pay homage to the millions of Jewish people who, stripped of everything, especially of their human dignity, were murdered in the Holocaust. More than half a century has passed, but the memories remain.

But Tobin is persuasive: For all the Pope's ham-handedness during this visit, at Yad Vashem and on the subject of the suffering of the Palestinians, as well, "Like it or not, Israel and the Church are on the same side of a clash of civilizations in which radical Islam is a deadly threat to both Jews and Christians. Rather than bashing the Pope, Israelis and Jews need to embrace him as a friend, best as they can."

And after all, if there are apologies still to be made to the survivors of the Nazi extermination machine, why not demand them of the memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, so beloved of American Jews, who sat for years with the full knowledge of the catastrophe that was befalling the Jews of Europe, doing his damndest to keep them from trying to save themselves by reaching our shores.