A Vatican friend offers a defense:
The terrorist line is a very political move by Israel. The Pope’s speech did not “leave out” Israel any more than it left out Thailand (which is also suffering terrorist attacks).
The Angelus speech was in response to the attacks in Egypt and the second bomb scare in London, but fearing multi-cultural backlash (since these attacks received press in Italy because they involve Europeans), they decided to include a few more countries. They picked a time frame (a week), and counted terrorist attacks to list. The Israeli bomb wasn’t within the time-frame. Period.
There was not intentional act to leave Israel out. The Israeli reaction was, let us say, somewhat extreme. Face it, they called the new Pope an anti-semite.
Why?
Because the same day they broke off negotiations – again – with the Holy See over the economic treaty which should have been finished years ago. They do not want to waive tax liability and give the Church access to the courts for property and other disputes (which are now handled administratively), but they had promised to do just that in previous agreements with the Holy See.
For the record, I, of course don’ think the pope is anti-Semitic. I also can understand the he-was-highlighting-the-last-few days argument–to a point. But I’m also of the mind that Jews are so hated by so many (this is not breaking newS)–by U.N. officials, by elites, by much of the Arab world, etc.–that I’d pray folks like B16 would just be constantly overly sensitive to that reality and make sure words always reflect that. World history and current realities beg for that.