In a triumph for  "Palestinianism" -- which Bat Ye'or thumbnails as "a replacement theory whereby Palestine replaces Israel" (her complete definition here) -- Pope Benedict wholly swallowed and regurgitated the PA narrative in his disgracefully contextless lamentation over the separation fence Israel built to keep PA suicide bombers from exploding in Israel's grocery stores, cafes and buses.

"Just yards from the barrier separating Israelis and Palestinians,"  as the New York Times put it, the Pope "expressed solidarity on Wednesday with `all the homeless Palestinians who long to be able to return to their birthplace, or live permanently in a homeland of their own.' "

Sounds as if the pontiff is pushing the Israel-finisher of so-called  "right of return" to boot. The Times report continued:

Speaking before the "towering" background of the "concrete-and-barbed-wire barrier and checkpoint   ... deliberately chosen to strengthen his case," Benedict decried the barrier as "a stark reminder ...  "

Let's pause. A stark reminder of what? The perpetual jihad waged against a former dhimmi population (in this case, the Jews)  for the  audacity of reclaiming their ancestral homeland  from former Muslim masters? Nope. The pope called the barrier a "stark reminder of the stalemate that relations between Israelis and Palestinians seem to have reached."

Just like that. "Stalement." "Seem to have reached." Benedict went on:

"In a world where more and more borders are being opened up -- to trade, to travel, to movement of peoples, to cultural exchanges -- it is tragic to see walls still being erected."

Voila. The Pope has just given the post-modern gloss to the separation fence. He has denuded it of its purpose, and depicted it as an arbitrary, context-less piece of miserable bric a brac.

Is it really "tragic" to see a wall that stops mass murder? It is the mass murder that is tragic -- indeed, that is an abomination. But the pope ignores this. The human life lost without the wall --  indeed, the human life saved by the wall -- has become invisible to Benedict. For the pope, all of these lives have been replaced with Palestinianism, the amoral, ahistorical creed that is driving Israel out of existence.  

The article continues, explaining that the PA had invited Benedict to Aida,  a refugee camp, "because its proximity to the barrier would give it s `a political message,' said Issa Qarage," a Fatah MP.

And the pope complied. Later, "the children of parents of prisoners in Israel presented him with gifts....Speaking before the Pope, Palestinian officials noted that his visit coincided with the 61st annniversary of the 1948 war leading to the creation of the state of Israel, which several officials referred to as `the naqba,' or `catastrophe.' "

Just fyi: The UN creation of the state of Israel triggered the 1948 war; not vice versa. But that's small potatoes next to the grotesque thought of the leader of the Catholic church, in possession of "gifts" from jihadists' children, sitting through "several officials" ranting about the "naqba" -- the catastrophe of the state of Israel.