Pope to demand control of Holy Land sites

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Israel at 11 AM as scheduled, on a direct flight from neighboring Jordan. On hand to greet him were President Peres and most of the government; the Chief Rabbis were not there.

The pope had said his visit was a personal pilgrimage, and Voice of Israel government radio talk show host Yaron Dekel said that the pope requested that the Israeli flag and anthem not be in evidence. However, the Jordanian plane carrying the pope to Israel flew flags of both Israel and the Vatican, and the anthems of both were played upon his arrival.

Pope Benedict XVI claims at least five Christian holy sites in Israel when visits the Holy Land next week. He is demanding them, not even just asking.

The sites include:
 The Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth;
 the Coenaculum on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, traditional location of Jesus' Last Supper;
 Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives;
 Mount Tabor in the Lower Galilee region; and
 The Church of the Multiplication which lies along the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

President Shimon Peres urged the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to turn the sites over to the Catholic Church in hopes of boosting Jewish-Christian relations.

Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said that if turning over the sites would guarantee a major boost in Christian tourism that would be one thing. But as Catholics have never been strong supporters of Israel, it would essentially amount to "handing out gifts."

Misezhnikov's remarks hit on a point on which most Israelis are typically unclear - Israel does indeed have vast Christian support that is worth bolstering even further, but it does not come from the ranks of the Catholic Church. Rather, Israel's strongest supporters are Evangelical Christians who belong to an array of Protestant denominations and non-denominational groups. – I sometimes get confused myself, as to which church or denomination is supporting Israel and which one doesn’t.

What arrogance of the Pope to demand these sites! Is he returning the treasures and possessions that belong to the Jewish People, held in the Vatican in Rome? Is the Catholic Church opening up the Vatican vaults and returning all the stolen Jewish property that they have confiscated over the centuries?

What happened to the vessels that were plundered when Titus burned the Temple? Did he take them to Rome? Are some of them hidden in the Vatican cellars in Rome? (What happened to the Menorah, the Laver Basin, the Table of the Showbread, the Golden Altar, the Copper Altar, and the Ornamental Curtain at the entrance to the Holy of Holies?) . The Talmud details a Sage who said that when he was in Rome, he saw the Kohen HaGadol’s (High Priest's) headband with the Divine Name inscribed on it.

What happened to various tractates of the Talmud, books of Maimonides, and around 7,500 works on Jewish philosophy and science that were stolen and remain in the Vatican library? Vast libraries of rare stolen Jewish books (and often unique manuscripts) exist in the Vatican. We know that because, occasionally scholars (Jewish or otherwise) are allowed access to them, to do research. The Vatican is so morally corrupt, that it's not even embarrassed to admit that they have the stolen goods, and even relishes the opportunity to show them off (to the "right" scholars) at times. - Shouldn’t these stolen goods be returned to the Jews, before they give more of their possessions to the Vatican?

Why are the Tanach in Hebrew and the writings of the first followers of Jesus are all of a sudden in Greek? Wasn’t he a Jew who spoke Hebrew and Aramaic?
For 46 years after Israel's rebirth the Vatican refused to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. What right does the Pope have to demand Israeli property? Doesn’t "Mr. Infallible" read the Bible?

One of the central themes in the Jewish and the Christian Bible is the fact that G-d gave His chosen people the land of Israel; - and the ultimate destiny of that Land is that the coming Messiah will rule from there. - The idea that pagan sojourners in the Promised Land have any claim to that property shows a lack of biblical grasp.