Pope Francis’s sudden abandonment of the Jews could not have come at a worse time. The past 15 months have been marked by skyrocketing antisemitic hate crimes, the targeting of synagogues on four continents, the demonization of Israel by the large swaths of the international community and elite universities, and the normalization of Jew-hatred in leading democracies—all against the backdrop of Israel’s seven-front existential war, the hate fed by 24/7 attacks on social media. Each element contributes to how widespread and pervasive history’s oldest hate has become.

This was a moment that cried out for moral clarity from Pope Francis to explicitly denounce Hamas’s genocidal terrorism and the murderous Iranian regime. Instead, the pope in words and actions has demonized Israelis and provided succor to the enemies of peace.

It is not a turn that we saw coming. Pope Francis regularly denounced antisemitism at multiple audiences with the Simon Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish NGOs. He has Jewish friends in Argentina. His visit to Israel in 2014 included the Western Wall and Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

But since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Jewish concerns about the pope began as unease, grew to frustration and evolved into a feeling of betrayal.

The day after Oct. 7, he declared that “terrorism and war do not lead to any resolutions,” as if Hamas’s terrorism and the IDF’s anticipated response could be equated. This, before Israel had even entered Gaza to find a completely weaponized Gaza, above and below ground. The civilian infrastructure was included in the massive terrorist enclave.

By Oct. 29, Francis called for a ceasefire, saying:“Stop, brothers and sisters: war is always a defeat—always, always!” In effect, he was calling for Israel to leave Hamas in power in Gaza, from where, as they explicitly bragged, given the chance they would prepare for the next massacre.

From the beginning of the war, the pope never mentioned Hamas by name a single time (except for once in November 2024 in a report that the Vatican has not confirmed). While always urging Israel to stop, he never once called on Hamas to surrender, which would have ended the war, freed innocent hostages and allowed the people of Gaza to begin reconstruction.

It got worse. On Oct. 25, 2024, Pope Francis denounced Israel’s long-delayed campaign to dislodge Hezbollah from their illegal (see U.N. resolution 1701) positions in Southern Lebanon, from where it decimated Israel’s northern communities for a year, killing, maiming and exiling 60,000-plus civilians. His words didn’t address the plight of Israelis. But Pope Francis did say: “May the international community make every effort to stop this terrible escalation. It is unacceptable. I express my solidarity with the Lebanese people.”

Apparently, not the Jewish people.

On Sept. 29, 2024, he labeled Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza illegal and immoral, hinting that the cause of it was that Jews believed in their superiority. “When there is something disproportionate, it is evident that there is a domineering tendency that goes beyond morality. A country that does these things with its forces—I am talking about any country—in such a ‘superlative’ way commits immoral actions.” Even as Jews were targeted again and again by raging antisemitism, the Pope dumped more fuel on those out-of-control fires.