BYE BYE GAZA - Barry Chamish

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http://sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/04/06/international/i042224D46.D
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Peres Meets With Pope in Vatican Thursday, April 6, 2006
/ 8 Nisan 5766
Israel's indefatigable Shimon Peres met with Pope Benedict
XVI today, and submitted an invitation to visit Israel from
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The two met for 40 minutes in the Vatican, and the Pope said
he hopes to visit Israel sometime in the first half of next year.
They said afterwards that they had discussed Middle East
matters. "I definitely believe that a visit by the Pope can
influence the peace process," Peres told reporters.
Peres is reported, in 1994, to have promised the Vatican
official status in Jerusalem.
In February 2000, the Vatican and the Palestinian Authority
signed an agreement calling for an internationally
guaranteed special status for Jerusalem. The agreement
stated that a special statute would protect "equality before
the law of the three monotheistic religions [in Jerusalem], the
proper identity and sacred character of the city, [and]
freedom of access" to the city's holy sites.
Israel objected, saying that freedom of religion is already
protected throughout the country. It also opposed the
Vatican's treatment of the PA as an independent country.
Shortly afterwards, Pope John Paul II visited Israel, and -
unlike one of his predecessors, Pope Paul VI, who visited in
1964 - agreed to come to Jerusalem. Pope John Paul met
with the Chief Rabbis in their Jerusalem offices, and visited
Yad Vashem as well. Pope Paul, on the other hand, refused
to visit Jerusalem, leading then-Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Nissim
to boycott his visit altogether.