The De La Salle Christian Brother is assistant to the secretary general of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and an adviser to the Holy See's permanent observer mission to the United Nations on Middle East issues. He spoke to Register staff writer John Burger about how he became interested in Middle Eastern affairs and about current problems there.

You started your career studying math and physics. That's a long way from where you are now.

I started a data processing system for Cardinal Terence Cooke [archbishop of New York], in 1968. He was an adviser to many Vatican agencies, and he volunteered my services to install computers for the Holy See Mission to the United Nations. He was also vicar of the Military Ordinariate and was looking for someone with knowledge of nuclear physics. That was a big topic in the 1980s. [The U.S. bishops issued “The Challenge of Peace,” a pastoral on nuclear weapons, in 1983.] That's how I became director of research for the Pope John Paul II Center of Prayer and Study for Peace. Many of our programs focused on the Middle East because Cardinal Cooke also was president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association.

The next thing I knew, I was a Middle East adviser to the Holy See Mission.

My avocation was reading history books. The then Msgr. Giovanni Cheli, who was permanent observer of the Holy See at the United Nations at that time, saw that I knew more than computers. He said, “You are well-versed in some of these areas that are of concern to us.”

Also, as an undergraduate at Catholic University, I did my senior religion paper on Churches of the East because we once had some Ukrainians come in to do the liturgy. I was attracted to the Byzantine style. I began to learn a tremendous amount about Eastern Christianity. We are basically an Eastern religion. Christ came from Palestine, a land in the East. He never went to Rome.

What have been some of your most interesting experiences with Catholic Near East Welfare Association?

My work brings me to many of the countries where we have projects and programs, so I've had the opportunity to be in the Middle East. For my annual retreat in 2000, I made a walking pilgrimage in Jordan, Palestine and Israel. We walked from Bethany to Jericho along the road of the Good Samaritan, up Mount Machaerus, where John the Baptist lost his head in Herod's palace, through Jerusalem and Nazareth.

Also, I've been to India on a couple of occasions, where we have a dynamic Catholic Church. They're very mission-minded. It's a very different kind of Church from here — small but with a strong witness to Christianity.

On trips to the Holy Land or here at the United Nations, I've met with Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, several presidents of Lebanon, Prince Hassan of Jordan, Hosni Mubarak. As part of the work at the Holy See Mission, you meet with leaders who have great respect for some of the positions of the Holy See.

At an American Jewish Congress meeting here I met with Yitzhak Rabin. As minister of defense during the first intifada, he took the attitude that if youth were throwing stones, the solution was to break their arms. Even though he was known as the breaker of bones, I could see that he could become a broker of peace. I sensed in him a man you could talk with, willing to craft a deal, given the right circumstances. He was looking beyond the intifada.

I reported to Archbishop [Renato] Martino, the Holy See's permanent observer at the United Nations, that Rabin wasn't a politician, he was a general, so he was more blunt. It was obvious that he was not happy with what he had to do in the occupied territories. You could see that he was thinking ahead, planning.

And it turned out that he was a broker of peace. He negotiated with Arafat, beginning with the Madrid Process and later the Oslo Agreements, resulting in his assassination.

In talks you've given, you seem to be sympathetic to the Palestinians. Are you still, despite all these suicide bombings?

There are human rights issues that are often neglected by the larger community. Because of the support by the United States of the position of Israel it doesn't allow for a full exposition of what some of those issues might be. The European Union has become more active. They brokered the settlement at the Church of the Nativity and received the 13 alleged terrorists [that were deported from Israel]. They did that because they were unhappy with the United States' efforts, which were not getting anywhere. Also, [on June 29] the European Union approved a 5 million euro grant to replace the electronic equipment that was destroyed by the Israelis in the Palestinian Authority complex in Ramallah. They're making a statement that they're not sure all the fault lies on one side.

You have to factor in that there must be a reason why these suicide bombings are happening. When you have a people who are literally hostage to a more powerful people you have to expect that things will occur. In the first intifada they were throwing stones. That was significant because in the Old Testament, the method of execution was stoning. In trying to roll over from the occupation of 1967 — and that's what intifada means, to roll over and shake off the dust — they were trying to make a statement.

Now, in the second intifada, arms are common on both sides. They can be purchased on the black market. We've lost the Code of Hammurabi, which called for an eye for an eye. Now it's two eyes for an eye and two teeth for every tooth. I'm not trying to assess blame on either side. Neither side is responding in what we would call a Christian manner, and the concept of reconciliation and forgiveness has been lost.

Pope John Paul II has said that the region is awash in weaponry. How did they get there? Who is supplying these weapons? The largest arms supplier in the world is the United States. Whose surrogate war are we involved in? In other words, is war good business? Do we need a couple of wars going on in the world to keep our arms business busy? Could we stop the war by not selling the weapons?

Maybe we think, “We're not being damaged here,” so we let it go on. They go through the black market. A lot of this is left over from previous conflicts. In the past, we helped Afghanistan fight off the Soviets. Now those guns are pointed at us. We dump stuff there and run away. At one time we supported Iraq against Iran.

On April 2 Israeli soldiers came onto the campus of Bethlehem University. They shot at a 75–year-old [Christian] brother because he opened the door to see what was going on.

You have them shooting an American citizen with what are probably American weapons.

The Israelis were occupying Bethlehem. Our university is on a high point; it's a good strategic place to be. About 100 soldiers occupied the campus for six days. Their claim was that gunmen were shooting from our place, which was a lie. They never found anyone. We told them there was nobody on campus shooting at them, but they insisted on occupying it. The brothers saved the weapons that were used against the university.

Christians have been leaving the Holy Land in large numbers for some time. What is the situation today?

We're down to 2% of the population in both Israel and the West Bank. Christianity was born in Jerusalem. Yet we [Christians] are a fragment, a remnant in our own birthplace.

People with an education are finding other opportunities and leaving. They are by and large the Christians because the Church has been very good in setting up schools. People aren't going to stick around when people are shooting at them or they can't get to their work because of closures of territory or checkpoints.

Do Christians still have a voice there? Are any working toward a solution to the conflict?

Christians are working toward a solution. The Latin patriarch, Michel Sabbah, has been very outspoken in trying to bring about some kind of dialogue, but the frenzy of attack and counteract precludes any voice saying, “Wait, this is ruining the economy of both countries. People can't work.”

There are peace activists going into the more difficult areas like Hebron and standing up in front of Israeli Defense Forces tanks. Some are Israelis. There's the group known as Women in Black, who are Israelis, who for years have been protesting the violence against the Palestinians.

What do you think of President Bush's proposed plan for a Palestinian state?

The conditions he lays down are quite ill-informed and will lead to more problems. I don't believe he read the Mitchell Report from May 2001. His speech went contrary to that report and opened up future possibilities for deeper tensions. I can well see the Palestinians re-electing Arafat because he's opposed by Bush. It will add to the fire of resentment that is still there.

To assess blame on one person is to fall into a trap. When you have groups like Hamas and Hezbollah going around, and you say that one man must control the situation, that's very naive. You're dealing with tremendous forces within a people and taking away all his tools — the house arrest, the destruction of the Palestinian system by the Israelis.