There will only be real peace in the Middle East when the Palestinian issue is addressed, 60-year-old Italian Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who many pointed to as a possible successor to Pope Francis, tells La Repubblica newspaper. “Until the Palestinian issue is addressed in a serious and radical way, any future regional arrangement,” the cardinal says, "will remain incomplete. The Arab world is connected: there are borders between states, but there are also very strong ties that go beyond borders. The Palestinian issue is one of these ties. It is not the first time it has been sidelined: it happens, there are ups and downs. Unfortunately, there is a lack of political vision". "We need new political leadership. There is not one capable of doing this now, on either side,“ continued the Patriarch, who then turned to the small Christian community in Gaza: “541 people who have become a symbol of resilience around the world. I am grateful for the witness they give, because they are in extremely difficult conditions but they continue to live in faith. The situation is also very complicated in the West Bank: there is a continuous deterioration of living conditions, checkpoints, work permits cancelled, villages constantly subjected to settler violence without anyone intervening. It is difficult to have a normal life, to work, to go to the hospital, to move around: and there is no telling how long it will last, if and how it will end. We talk a lot about the hunger in Gaza: but there is hunger in the West Bank too, because people have no money to buy food. Just think of the families, and there are thousands of them, who depended on the tourism industry”.