A Jewish state must defend Jewish life. But the moment force begins to sound self-justifying, something has already gone wrong.

Jewish history does not grant Jewish power innocence. It should make Jewish power more suspicious of its own sacred alibis, not less.

That is why Leo XIV matters right now. On Palm Sunday, he said that God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war. And in the Good Friday Way of the Cross meditations read at the Colosseum, the warning was made explicit: every person in authority will have to answer to God for the way power is exercised, including the power to start or end a war.

The issue is not papal authority in the old sense. It is whether political power still recognizes any limit outside itself.

Modern states do not fear religion when religion blesses flags, enemies, emergency powers, and the grammar of necessity. They fear religion only when religion refuses annexation by the state and reminds rulers that they may answer to a judgment they did not create and cannot administer. That is........

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