Even those who are normally reliable defenders of Israel in Congress are getting worried about the new security wall that they are building to keep out Palestinian terrorists. Robert Novak reports comments by Rep. Henry Hyde who raised the possibility that the wall will prevent Christian pilgrims from reaching holy sites, even including cutting off some of the Stations of the Cross from each other. The Vatican has been very vocal on this issue and on related ones like a sudden change in Israeli policy on the renewal of visas to Catholic missionaries in the Holy Land. At least 130 priests and religious are now living in Israel without legal permission because Israel has stopped issuing renewals. It could be part of a pressure tactic against the Vatican, which has also been very vocal about the security wall.
I can understand Israel’s desire to protect itself from suicide bombers, but the Sharon goverment is acting more irrationally of late in some ways. It would be especially bad if Christians were to suddenly find themselves cut off from their shrines in the Holy Land.
