As tensions escalate between the Vatican and Israel over Pope Francis’s increasingly critical remarks about the war in Gaza, Israel’s president, Isaac Hertzog, is reportedly planning to pay the Holy See a visit. The trip, which is currently being negotiated, was proposed by His Holiness himself, Ynet News reported on Monday. 

It follows a meeting earlier this week between Israel’s foreign ministry and the Vatican’s ambassador to Israel, which was organized by Israeli officials seeking to express their disappointment with the Pope’s recent comments. The meeting, though, was not classified as a reprimand, Israeli press reports. 

The Pope drew ire from the Jewish state after he, during his annual Christmas address to the Vatican’s cardinals on Saturday, claimed that the conflict in Gaza is “cruelty” and “not war.” During a sermon on Sunday, His Holiness again accused Israel of acting with “cruelty” and lamented that Palestinian children were being “sprayed with machine guns.” 

Israel’s foreign ministry condemned the Pontiff’s comments about Israel’s purported cruelty, writing instead that “Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children; cruelty is holding 100 hostages for 442 days, including a baby and children, by terrorists and abusing them” facts which, the ministry claims, “the Pope has chosen to ignore.”  

The ministry continued by calling the Pope’s remarks “particularly disappointing” given that they are “disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel’s fight against jihadist terrorism — a multi-front war that was forced upon it starting on October 7.” While the ministry noted that “the death of any innocent person in a war is a tragedy,” they added that “the blame should be directed solely at the terrorists, not at the democracy defending itself against them. Enough with the double standards and the singling out of the Jewish state and its people.” 

Although His Holiness has met with the families of hostages held in Gaza and called for them to be released, in recent months, he has become increasingly critical of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas. Last month the Pontiff suggested, via excerpts published from his upcoming book, that the international community should investigate whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. He also sparked outrage when he celebrated the ​​unveiling of a nativity scene that appeared to present Jesus as a Palestinian. Such actions appear to indicate a shift in the Pope’s approach to politics, which he, and his predecessors, have historically avoided. 

Mr. Hertzog is not the only international leader planning a journey to the Vatican. President Biden, according to the White House, has “graciously accepted” an invitation by Pope Francis to visit next month in what is expected to be the final international trip of his presidency. While the official purpose of the visit is to discuss efforts to advance world peace, the American president, who is Roman Catholic himself, is reportedly hoping that his time at the Vatican will provide him with “relief” as his presidential tenure comes to a close, a source tells the New York Times. 

Mr. Biden’s trip corresponds with the beginning of the Catholic Church’s “Holy Year,” a years-long Jubilee that is celebrated every 25 to 50 years and is associated with forgiveness of sin. During this period, millions of Catholics will make a pilgrimage to the church, with some receiving a remission of their sins, known as an “indulgence.” 

His Holiness, meanwhile, has reportedly been in correspondence with the president for months. According to the same source, the Pope has become an “ally and sounding board” for Mr. Biden, with the two “trading occasional phone calls” including “casual check-ins.” Mr. Biden recently commuted the death sentences of more than three dozen inmates on Death Row, appearing to answer the calls of the Pope and other Catholic groups that oppose the death penalty.