Pope John Paul II is on his way to Malta, following his three-day visit in Syria that featured his failure to respond to what the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem termed the \"anti-Semitic invective and political manipulations of youthful dictator Bashar al-Assad.\"
The ICEJ today expressed \"complete rejection\" of what it called Assad\'s \"vicious anti-Semitic statements,\" as well as its \"disappointment at the Vatican\'s failure to timely rebut this immoral attack on the Jewish people.\" Assad had equated the conditions of Arabs in Judea and Samaria to the suffering of Jesus at the hand of Jews. ICEJ\'s Executive Director Rev. Malcom Hedding said, \"It was clear from the start that the Syrian Government was determined to exploit the Pope\'s visit for devious political purposes. The Vatican has no excuse for failing to foresee this and then remaining silent to Assad\'s pernicious charges against the Jews concerning the sufferings of Jesus. This repeats the Church\'s mistakes of the past…\" Regarding yesterday\'s papal visit to Kuneitra, which was destroyed during the Syrians\' attacks on Israel in the Six-Day and Yom Kippur Wars and which the Syrians purposely left in its desolation, Hedding stated, \"The setting negates the message [of peace], since the ruins of Kuneitra are primarily a testimony to Syria\'s undying animosity towards Israel.\"