Greek bishop doesn't hate Jews. Just Judaism. (And Zionists.)

I had missed this story in the NYT following up on the anti-semitism of Greek Bishop Metropolite of Piraeus Seraphim where he "clarified" his remarks:

In response to the outrage caused by his remarks, the cleric posted a statement (in Greek) on his Web site in which he stood by his theories and described himself as a friend of the Jewish people but an enemy of Zionism, a Greek newspaper, To Vima, reported.

Here is an English translation of the bishop’s complete statement, first posted online by John Sanidopoulos, a Greek-American blogger, and verified by a Greek-speaking reporter for The New York Times:

2. I respect, revere and love the Jewish people like any other people of our world according to the teaching of the incarnated Son of God and the true Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ the Savior and Redeemer, who was heralded by all the Prophets and was incarnated through the Jewish nation.

3. My public vehement opposition against International Zionism refers to the organ that is the successor of the “Sanhedrin” which altered the faith of the Patriarchs, the Prophets and the Righteous of the Jewish nation through the Talmud, the Rabbinical writings and the Kabbalah into Satanism, and always strives vigorously toward an economic empire set up throughout the world with headquarters in the great land beyond the Atlantic for the prevalence of world government and pan-religion.

So that means that the bizarre bishop is all for the Judaism that he thinks existed two thousand years ago, but not the Judaism that spawned the Talmud, Maimonides, Rashi, the Ibn Ezra, the Vilna Gaon, the Ba'al Shem Tov or any other Jewish leader since Old Testament times.

Not only that, but he equates normative Judaism of the past two millenia to be Satanism. Naturally, that Satanism is linked to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion where we evil Talmudists and our minions are controlling the world from New York City, in that great land beyond the Atlantic. So according to the Metropolite, every major rabbi of the past two thousand years has been a satanist, hell-bent on taking over the world.

How's that for an apology!