Pope Francis’ talent for diplomacy was to the fore during his three-day pilgrimage. He secured an agreement for the Palestinian and Israeli presidents to join him in Rome to pray for peace He came to build trust in a land where peaceful coexistence has been so elusive for so long. And despite what the Vatican stressed was a “purely” religious pilgrimage, it was ­always going to get political in the Holy Land.So when Pope Francis electrified the Palestinians by making an impromptu stop to pray at the Israeli-built separation barrier in Bethlehem, he inevitably found himself caught in a propaganda war between two apparently irreconcilable sides.Francis had already made an unmistakable gesture by flying to the West Bank directly from Jordan, before calling for a two-st