Pope Francis: The key to Mideast peace?

Politicians have been fruitlessly tacking the political side of the conflict. Maybe its time for a man who gets the religious part — and believes in miracles.

Pope Francis
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia))

Pope Francis waded into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Sunday — and that may be the most exciting thing that's happened in the Mideast peace process since Bill Clinton's promising Camp David Summit in 2000 broke down with no agreement, amid mutual recriminations between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Now, perhaps it seems unlikely that the leader of the Roman Catholic Church can broker the end to one of the world's most intractable conflicts, between Jewish Israelis and Muslim Palestinians (primarily). After all, Pope Francis is the head of state of a sovereign city-state of about 800 people, and head of a religion that doesn't exactly have a historically amicable relationship with either Jews or Muslims.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.