What Pope Francis Learned On His Holy Land Tour

Lessons The Pontiff Picked Up In Bethlehem and Jerusalem

aka: The Vatican Visit Between Walls

To remix The Band’s famous refrain from The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down
The day Pope Francis came to town,

and all the bells were ringin’,
The day Pope Francis came to town,
and all the people were singin’ …

For more editorial cartoons and comic chuckles, visit The Daily Dose

Apparently, even for Pope Francis, it’s not easy following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, especially such a short time after John Kerry made a mess on the path.

However, at least the leader of the Roman Catholic Church came under apolitical guise, though you might not have known it if you noticed where he went, whom he met with, and what he said. If that wasn’t a certain form of highly produced, well-polished theatrical politicking, then nothing is.

You might think that after such a visit to the security barrier in Bethlehem and the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Pope Francis would have realized how great the Jewish People are at architecture and construction for both practical and spiritual reasons.

Strange, then, that all he noticed was that the leaders of the Palestinians and Israelis were so desperate to get away for a few days in and around Rome, that they would even agree to go pray with him at his residence by St. Peter’s Square.

Which makes one wonder, why didn’t he just offer them to stay there for as long as they like, in exchange for hammering out a solid peace deal, and have it all paid for by the ill-gotten gains of the Vatican Bank?

Full disclosure: When not scoring public officials and other rarified leaders, Yasha Harari has fought for peace, built housing in Jerusalem and contributed to capitalism in internet, media and political organizations in the U.S., Europe and Israel.