Netanyahu, stop snubbing the Pope!

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's continued snubbing of the Catholic Church, including the complete absence of any statement by the Prime Minister's Office congratulating the new Pope Leo XIV, is a serious diplomatic error.

The diplomatic snub of Pope Francis' funeral, with only a low-level delegate attending while other countries sent their leaders or senior ministers, was bad enough. That, at least, was understandable - Francis had indeed made multiple statements that appeared to buy into Hamas propaganda way too easily and not take the hostages' plight into account enough. His seeming eliding of October 7 was also reason to be annoyed.

But failing to congratulate the Pope on the day he was chosen, and not issuing any statement welcoming him days afterward, is simply inexcusable, just as a matter of basic diplomacy.

Yes, it is true that the President and the Foreign Ministry congratulated Pope Leo and welcomed his arrival as the new leader of the Catholic Church. But Netanyahu - you are the real head of government, and your remaining silent on the matter, as opposed to your open welcoming of other leaders, says exactly what you think about the new Pope.

Snubbing the Catholic Church is a luxury the State of Israel simply cannot afford. Even thinking in terms of realist politics, especially in the United States: There are tens of millions of faithful Catholic American voters. They are about evenly split partisan-wise, and they absolutely love that they now have an American Pope. Social media is filled with pictures of the man at baseball games and pizza parlors.

Israel has already lost most of the tens of millions of voters who have no religious affiliation. Losing the support of Catholic Americans would put Israel in the danger zone. Evangelical Americans and Protestants generally are not the majority they were when you lived in the states. We need all the help we can get.

Bibi, for the sake of Israel: Congratulate the Pope!