Bill Donohue, president of The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, says the Vatican should not have recognized a Palestinian state without giving the nod to Israel first.
"I'm disappointed with the Vatican response. The first thing you have to say is this: If you're going to talk about a Palestinian state, go ahead and do it. [But] make sure you recognize Israel before we ask anybody to recognize Palestine," Donohue said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
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Donohue noted that the Vatican has met with controversial world leaders before.
"I can only say this, that John Paul II was a good man. Pope John Paul II met 12 times with Yasser Arafat, who was an absolute terrorist without question," he said.
"Then, you had Pope Benedict XVI, who did refer to it as the state of Palestine. I personally have a problem with that.
"There is no such thing as a state of Palestine, and the idea of trying to force this by the international community now with the Pope in tow is not the way to go about it."
Last Wednesday, the Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine in a treaty that concerns the activities of the Catholic Church in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The treaty recognizes that the Holy See has switched its diplomatic recognition from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.
Donohue, author of
"The Catholic Advantage: Why Health, Happiness, and Heaven Await the Faithful," published by Image, insisted the Pope's motives are "benign."
"But the fact of the matter is, why couldn't he or somebody else in the Vatican say something to the effect that we've got to recognize the state of Israel because we recognize the state of Palestine and their right to exist?" Donohue said.
"We all know the history of what's gone on there. Israel has the right to exist. It seems to me that should be the beginning platform of every discussion."
Donohue's group, founded in 1973, is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization and "works to safeguard both the religious freedom rights and the free-speech rights of Catholics whenever and wherever they are threatened."
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