Leo XIV's 'impossible' diplomatic action with Israeli Herzog. The audience with the Labour president to seek a road map in Gaza

The "resumption" of Leo XIV's international activity sees as its first major appointment the audience on Thursday 4 September of the Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who will then also see the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. The meeting falls in a very-sensitive moment, which coincides with increasing international pressure on Tel Aviv, acting on both fronts: increased military expansion in Gaza City action envisaged by the second phase of Operation Gideon's Chariots to realise the objectives of the war, and the approval of a new settlement in the E1 area that practically splits the West Bank in two, as well as the threat of annexation of Area C of the Palestinian Territories, which moreover is already under full Israeli control without ever having been formally annexed. By many observers, the meeting is seen as a 'mission impossible' by the American Pope, but perhaps one of the last cards of international diplomacy towards Tel Aviv-

The mission to Rome, according to what was initially reported by Herzog's office, was organised by the Holy See, in practice it would have been the Pope to "invite" the president, a circumstance in fact denied by the Holy See which recalled that it is the Pope who accepts requests for audiences. The little information short-circuit on Tuesday evening in itself changes little, but it certainly signals how the meeting was preceded by an intense exchange of diplomatic communications, which arrived not by chance after some tensions following statements by Leo against the bombing, the lack of food for the civilian population and the project of forced displacement of the population. In mid-August, an article in the Middle East Forum Observer went almost unnoticed, criticising an article by the Jesuit Father David Neuhaus - born Jewish, professor of Sacred Scripture at the seminary of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and in the past patriarchal vicar for Hebrew-speaking Catholics and for migrants - who in L'Osservatore Romano had addressed the issue "Reading the Bible after the destruction of Gaza", in which he stated that God's Word cannot be used to justify wars and occupations. In the commentary on the Middle East website, L'Osservatore Romano was called 'anti-Semitic'. But the sensitive issue arose after the article was relayed on X by Israel's ambassador to the Sanya Sede, Yaron Sideman. The fact had not triggered any reaction and the matter ended there, but certainly the agenda of diplomatic relations with Israel had to be taken up again.

The meeting between Leo XVI and Herzog "will focus on the efforts to bring back the hostages from Gaza, the fight against anti-Semitism in the world and the protection of Christian communities in the Middle East", and afterwards, the Israeli president will visit the Vatican Archives and Library, before returning to Israel in the afternoon. This is the second meeting between Pope Leo and the President: On 18 May, Herzog (Labour) had attended the new pontiff's inauguration ceremony, and on that occasion he said he was grateful that one of his first acts had been to call for "the immediate return of all hostages" still imprisoned in the Strip. It should be remembered that no prominent Israeli representative had attended Francis's funeral to emphasise that relations with the Argentinean pope were minimal, and the same with the Jewish communities of the diaspora (including the Italian one). Herzog's visit therefore had a "new direction" value, so much so that the president himself had said he hoped for the beginning of "a new era of cooperation between faiths" during his papacy and the contextual strengthening of "friendship between Jews, Christians and Muslims". On this occasion, Herzog had also invited Leo XIV to Israel.

But then things got worse and worse in Gaza, and Prevost's appeals, as well as those of the bishops of the Holy Land, headed by the Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and the Franciscans of the Custody, were added. At that stage there had been - on 18 July - a telephone call between the Pope and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following the military attack by the Israeli army that hit the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza, killing three people and injuring others, including some seriously. According to the communiqué issued by the Holy See Press Office, during the conversation (it was the Prime Minister who had called, of course) Leo XIV had renewed his appeal "for the momentum of negotiation to be restored and for a cease-fire and an end to the war to be reached". The Pontiff had also again expressed 'concern for the dramatic humanitarian situation of the population in Gaza, whose heartbreaking price is being paid especially by children, the elderly and the sick'. Finally, Leo XIV had "reiterated the urgency of protecting places of worship and above all the faithful and all the people in Palestine and Israel".

At the hearing on 4 September, therefore, the talks will certainly focus on the situation in Gaza, the settlement policy, the other fronts (Iran, Hezbollah, Houti) and the increasingly remote possibilities that we may gradually move towards a 'two-state' solution, retracing the path of the Abrahamic agreements whenever possible. But these are very remote prospects at the moment. A possible outline of the Holy See's agenda emerges from an article in the Vatican media by the editorial director, Andrea Tornielli: "The expansion of the settlements, the continuous and unpunished aggressions of the settlers, the public statements of some ministers of the Israeli government who hope for the end of the Palestinian Authority, the annexation of all the territories and the deportation of the Palestinians, in fact lead one to think that the objective goes far beyond the elimination of Hamas, or the guarantee of security for the State of Israel". And in Tornielli's editorial, published by Vatican News, he asks "that the hostages be treated in a dignified and humane manner, and at the same time that the Palestinians of Gaza be treated in a dignified and humane manner. We hope that no combat zones will be established in every part of the Strip, real free zones under international protection, where the sick, the fragile, the defenceless civilians can be welcomed".