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 :Before the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel, there were no ""relations of a special nature"" such as now exist with Russia, with a nuncio in Moscow who is not a full member of the diplomatic corps and a Russian ambassador sent to the Holy See without being a full member of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.  An apostolic delegation - you can read towards the end of the ""Terminology and History"" section of the Nuncio article about what an apostolic delegation is - was set up for ""Jerusalem and Palestine"" on 11 February 1948.  It still exists.  It obviously was not set up specifically for relations with Israel.  At one point of time, before diplomatic relations with Israel were set up, there was a campaign in the United States to get people to write to the Pope to complain that the Holy See did not recognize Israel.  That claim was of course baseless.  The Holy See recognized Israel, for instance by receiving in official visits Israeli prime ministers, without having diplomatic relations with the state.  The situation was exactly as it is now between the Holy See and, for instance, Saudi Arabia.    "