http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090122/local/thieves-help-themselves-to-cash-from-take-away-outlet

I couldn’t NOT comment. The guy was totally off subject to start with, which gives us great insight into his mindset, choosing instead to question the employment of a poor guy who’s just been robbed at knife-point while simply trying to make an HONEST euro! Incredible.

[Daphne – He’s a righteous Catholic, a racist, a Labour supporter, a homophobe, a xenophobe and anti-EU. The only thing missing from his comments is ‘respect’ for women of the sort that doesn’t want them going out to work biex ilahhqu mall-gholi tal-hajja meta posthom id-dar mall-familja qishom il-Madonna mqaddsa, and the picture of a Maltese rightwinger is complete.]

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090122/letters/language-question

He solidifies his pitiable arguments by resorting to the Constitution.

Without venturing into the greatly dubious role of Pius XII (we can debate this ad nauseum), the hostility towards Jews remains. Back to our times, the great liberal – Pope Benedict XVI, in 2007 relaxed various restrictions, including restoring prominence to a prayer for the conversion of Jews recited during Good Friday. Essentially the prayer maintains that Jews can only find salvation through the conversion to Christianity.

@ Corinne

I never made for such a simplistic distinction – the region is a melting-pot of intermingling peoples. I actually think of Jesus as a Jew usurped by the Christians and championed in their faith.

@ H.P Baxxter

The apologies, long overdue, are welcome.

Forgive my ignorance, but wasn’t that during Norman rule. The Jews were pretty much chucked off the island when the knights came. I’m not saying anti-Semitism is rooted in religion, but it has certainly not helped.

[Daphne – Nobody knows whether there was a Jewish community in Malta in the 11th/12th century. The expulsions didn’t occur during the period of rule of the Order of St John (Jewish families returned during that period). The difficult period for Jewish people in Malta was during Aragonese rule.]

Now, Pope John Paul II apologised to just about everyone on the planet. Jews, Muslims, Orthodox Christians, indigenous peoples, you name it. I suppose that’s the 21st century Catholic way.

The point that I wish to impress upon you, to come back to our topic, is that we have two truths which should not be confused here: 1) Igalea may or may not be an anti-Semite. That’s neither here nor there. And 2) criticism of Israeli policies is not anti-Semitism.

After the second world war ended , the state of Israel did not exist, there was only Palestine under British control.
The survivors of the Holocaust went on ships to land on Palestine,after a long standoff ,the first Jews were left to land on their ancestors’ soil, then there was Sabra & Shatila , then there was the bombing of the King David Hotel , then there was an exodus of Palestinians from their land.Hijacks by PLO members , suicide bombers , the wall ….. and the suffering of civilians who virtually do not have rights in their country, continues.
The Palestinians were lead by a corrupt leader who would not even consider changing his uniform and the Israeli soldiers continue to scare away the people.The same people who spontaneously rejoiced on 9/11, because a very loyal friend of Israel was successfully attacked.
I still think that Jews and Palestinians can live together , provided that no war mongering politicians are backed by other countries .
As long as millions of uncontrolled ‘aid’ money keeps pouring in the region there will be no peace.

“Jack, you’re absolutely wrong on that count. “Propagated by the Catholic Church”? Where exactly did you hear the Pope urging Catholics to hate Jews?”

In the past, the Catholic Church was in fact hostile to Jews, which is the reason why Pope John Paul apologised to them. This was however long ago and concerned the universal Church rather than the Maltese one. To find systematic persecution of Jews in Malta we have to go back to the time of the Knights and earlier.

I do not think our home-grown racists needed any promptings by the Church to be anti-Jewish. After all, they find it easy enough to target Somalis and other Africans. It’s a reflex action: as soon as they come in contact with anyone different, especially if weak, they gang up on them.