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The Pope: Two-state solution necessary, along with agreement on borders and a special status for Jerusalem.

For Pope Francis, a global escalation of the war that broke out in Israel and Palestine “is a possibility” but he hopes it does not happen by trusting in “human wisdom”. The Pope’s remarks came during a long interview with Gianmarco Chiocci, director of the Italian news program Tg1, which was broadcast Wednesday on Italy’s public broadcaster RaiUno.

Israel and Gaza

Regarding the situation in the Middle East, the Pope affirmed once again, “Every war is a defeat. Nothing is solved with war. Nothing. Everything is gained with peace, with dialogue.” He continued, “They entered the kibbutzim, took hostages. They killed someone. And then the reaction. The Israelis go to recover those hostages, to save them. In war, one slap provokes another. One strong and the other even stronger, and so it goes on. War is a defeat. I felt it as one more defeat. Two peoples who must live together. With that wise solution: two peoples, two states. The Oslo Accords: two clearly delineated states and Jerusalem with a special status”.

Recalling last week’s prayer for peace, Pope Francis reiterated that the world is going through a “very dark hour.” He added, “One cannot find the ability to reflect clearly and at the darkest hour I will add: one more defeat. It has been like this since the last world war, from 1945 until now, one defeat after another, because the wars have not stopped. But the most serious problem still is the arms industry. A person who understands investments, who I met in a meeting, told me that today the investments that generate the most income are weapons factories”.

The Pope said he speaks every day by telephone to the religious who are in Gaza. “I call the Egyptian assistant parish priest, Father Yussuf, every day and he tells me, ‘In the parish we have 563 people, all Christians and also some Muslims. Sick children cared for by Mother Teresa’s nuns’. In this small parish, there are 563 people! Every day I try to accompany them. For the moment, thank God, the Israeli forces respect that parish.”

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