Red carpet but little warmth for Pope in Israel

Israel rolls out the red carpet for Pope Benedict XVI next week, but the German Pontiff is unlikely to receive the warm greeting enjoyed by his predecessor on a landmark trip nine years ago.

The Pontiff arrives in Israel from Jordan on Monday for a five-day pilgrimage that will see him follow in the footsteps of Jesus and visit Jewish and Muslim holy sites in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

He will meet senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders, top Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious officials, and Palestinian refugees living near the spot where Jesus is believed to have been born in a Bethlehem stable.

His trip is a mainly pastoral visit aimed at encouraging the dwindling Christian population to stay in the Holy Land, as well as promoting peace and inter-religious dialogue in a conflict-ridden region sacred to the world's three main monotheistic religions.

Israel is hoping the tour by the Pope and thousands of accompanying pilgrims will further boost the number of Christian visitors, that has steadily grown over the past three years to nearly 1.8 million last year - representing almost two-thirds of all tourists to Israel.

"Because of the visit, more and more people will come to Israel and experience the Holy Land," said Rafi Ben Hur, deputy director general of the Israeli tourism ministry, still glowing after a phone call from a Catholic tour operator informed him of 10,000 additional visitors.

"At first we were afraid there weren't going to be enough people to come," he said. "But the phone call I got yesterday is great news."

But the unbridled enthusiasm that greeted Pope John Paul II's historic trip in 2000 - the first by a Pontifical since Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic ties in 1993 - is missing this time around. Although some say Jewish-Vatican relations have never been better, Israelis are ambivalent about the German Pope who was a member of the Hitler Youth and has stirred controversy by backing beatification of a controversial Nazi-era Pontiff and lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying British bishop.

"It's slightly less positive because of the personality of the Pope himself," says Yaacov Katz, a professor at Bar-Ilan University. "People are suspicious of his motives. They think he's hardline... conservative."

The Polish-born John Paul II on the other hand was much admired by Jews.

During his nearly 27-year papacy, the Vatican established diplomatic relations with Israel and he was the first Pope to visit a synagogue and the Auschwitz concentration camp. During his 2000 Holy Land trip, Jews were among the crowds that jostled to catch a glimpse of him.

Such near-adulation is not expected to greet Pope Benedict, an 81-year-old who has only been in office for four years.

"This visit is very important, but it doesn't compare to an event that had never happened before," said Rabbi David Rosen, chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Inter-religious Consultations, referring to Pope John Paul II's tour.