On April 21, Warren Goldstein, chief rabbi of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues of South Africa, spoke at a commemoration service in Johannesburg on Yom HaZikaron—Israel’s day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. Considering the Israeli blood that has been shed because of the ongoing terror campaign to cleanse every ethnic Jew from the land of Israel, there are thousands to be remembered on the solemn day of Yom HaZikaron.

In his sobering and heartfelt speech, Rabbi Goldstein referenced a sermon given by Pope Leo XIV a few weeks earlier on Palm Sunday in St. Peter’s square. Speaking of Israel’s war on terror, the Holy Father proclaimed that God “Does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” The prooftext for his proclamation was Isaiah 1:15: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.” Rabbi Goldstein had this to say about Pope Leo’s condemnation of Israeli and American forces who are fighting radical Islamism:

How dare he. His hands are dripping with blood because he makes no distinction between good and evil. He makes no distinction between the barbarians of Hamas, the genocidal maniacs of Tehran, and the noble and brave soldiers of the State of Israel who are defending civilization itself. To lack a moral insight to see a difference between good and evil is to disqualify yourself from religious leadership. They [Israeli soldiers] are holy and they are pure—those who fell—because they fell in a just war. If people are not prepared to bear arms, to defend civilization, then we hand the world to the barbarians. If the brave allied forces had not fought against Nazi Germany, the world would be engulfed in darkness forever. If the brave forces of the IDF together with the armed forces of the United States are not fighting the genocidal evil of Iran, there would be—G-d forbid—another Holocaust. Who can say that those who wage war have hands that drip with blood? There is a difference between good and evil.

Perhaps Rabbi Goldstein’s righteous indignation over Pope Leo’s charge against Jews who are defending themselves against religious zealots is a result of his knowledge of the long, brutal history of the unjust war the Catholic Church waged against the Jews of Europe—a history so ripe with murderous........

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