VATICAN DENOUNCES ISRAELI "RETALIATION"

Vatican Denounces Some Israel Retaliation
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Thursday denounced some Israeli retaliations against past terrorism as a violation of international law in an ongoing spat over Pope Benedict XVI''s failure to specifically condemn terror against Israel in recent remarks.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican envoy to Israel on Monday and complained that Benedict "deliberately" didn't mention a July 12 suicide bombing in Netanya while referring to recent terror strikes in Egypt, Britain, Turkey and Iraq.

"It's not always possible to immediately follow every attack against Israel with a public statement of condemnation," a statement from the Vatican press office said Thursday night, "and (that is) for various reasons, among them the fact that the attacks against Israel sometimes were followed by immediate Israeli reactions not always compatible with the rules of international law."

"It would thus be impossible to condemn the first (the terror strikes) and let the second (Israeli retaliation) pass in silence," said the statement, which had an unusually blistering tone for the Holy See.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the Vatican statement.

On Sunday, as Benedict addressed pilgrims while on vacation at his Alpine retreat, he prayed for God to stop the "murderous hand" of terrorists. He denounced as "abhorrent" the terror strikes at a Red Sea resort in Egypt, the mass transit attacks in Britain and other terrorism in Iraq and Turkey.