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The Israeli police’s decision to bar Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday sparked outrage from Rome to Washington — and rightly so. Pizzaballa, the Catholic Church’s top official in the Holy Land, was heading to celebrate a private Mass at the traditional location of Jesus’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection when armed officers turned him back. It was the first time in centuries that Catholics were prevented from marking Palm Sunday there.

The timing, one month into the U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran, could not have been worse. Officials cited safety concerns among the heightened Iranian threat. Yet no rationale could soften the optics: Israeli forces blocking a revered Catholic leader from one of Christianity’s most sacred places on a high holy day.

The ayatollah himself couldn’t have choreographed it any better.

The backlash crossed political lines. Even staunchly pro-Israel U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee called it “an unfortunate overreach.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reversed course the following day, granting the cardinal “full and immediate access” and insisting there was “no malicious intent.” President Isaac Herzog called Pizzaballa directly to express his “great sorrow.” 

But the damage was done. The impression of........

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