Sometimes ‘no comment’ is a much better answer

It was wrong for Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a hawkish hardliner at best, to have barred the Palestinian Authority’s Yasser Arafat from making his annual pilgrimage to Bethlehem to attend the Midnight Mass there commemorating the birth of Christ.

The Israeli government’s harsh contention was that Arafat had not yet arrested the murderers of the Israeli Tourism minister, and so he didn’t deserve to go to prayer. This is nonsense. It reminds all of us in Christianity of the hard-heartedness of the Sanhedrin when the High Priest decided that Jesus, the upstart "Rex Judaeorum", had to be seized and nailed to the Cross lest His heretical preachings spread among the population.

Even the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, seeking to wash his hands of the blood of "this innocent man", tried to save Jesus, but he was stymied when the Jews cried out that, by acknowledging Christ, he – the Roman governor – would be putting a god before his own Caesar. Pilate caved in.

Now, Yasser Arafat, a former terrorist in his younger days, is no plaster saint. But his annual pilgrimage to Palestine-controlled and largely Christian Bethlehem has, for the past several years, been a symbol of reconciliation and love between Muslims and Christians (something rather cosmetic, of course, because it simply doesn’t exist.) In short, Arafat’s symbolism performed a useful function. But no, the adamant Israelis snapped: "No way!"

The Holy Father in the Vatican has condemned this high-handed act, as well he should. Who are the Israelis, who demand a homeland for themselves and their faith, to deny a man where he can worship God and petition for His grace? Even two of Sharon’s Cabinet members publicly disagreed with their Prime Minister’s twisted idea of punishing Arafat by blocking his travel to Bethlehem, because – Sharon snarled – the PLA leader had failed to seize the murderers of an Israeli Cabinet minister on Mount Scorpios. What form of sordid blackmail is that?

It is unbecoming of a head of state, particularly one that needs the sympathy and understanding of the world because it is besieged and fighting for its very life!

What would it have cost Gen. Sharon to have permitted Arafat to go to Bethlehem to pray? Nothing, not even "face." But remember what this writer said of Sharon in an earlier column: All balls and no brains. Heaven help the Chosen People for having chosen Ariel Sharon, the Butcher of Beirut.

Arafat, of course, has failed to curb those extremist groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and halt them from sending waves of suicide-bombers into Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa.

Have the Israelis ever considered that he may have the trappings of PLA authority, but not the armed capability to do so? If Arafat had persisted, he might instead have ended up on a marble slab in the mortuary.

Sharon’s government has all but dismissed Arafat as "irrelevant." If so, what harm could Mr. Irrelevance do by going to Bethlehem to worship? Bethlehem, mind you, is in Palestinian territory. All Arafat had to do was cross a small strip of land controlled by an Israeli checkpoint. Yet, this they denied him.

I’ve been an admirer, since my first coverage of the area in 1966 of plucky Israel – surrounded by millions of armed and hostile Arabs. David versus Goliath. But now, the Israelis, buoyed up by billions of dollars in aid from America, is a David with helicopter gunships, naval attack craft, speedy jets, and almost limitless ammunition and rocketry. The transformation from underdog to bully is now complete.

How do the formerly persecuted act when they, in turn, acquire the power to persecute? In much the same way the Nazi storm troopers did, with a bootheel on the neck, I’m afraid. Do we never learn compassion from history? I know what will happen when these words are read by Israeli embassy. It will throw the horrors of "The Holocaust" at me and cry out that I’ve insulted the memory of the six million Jews who were starved, tortured and put to death in the gas ovens of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald and Klooga. (Four million Christians and gypsies died, too, in the same horrible manner).

Some years ago, in a similar vein, I condemned Israeli atrocities in Lebanon. The Israeli ambassador in a fit of rage immediately canceled the supplement on Israel National Day scheduled for the STAR the following morning, and our newspaper lost P300,000 in a blink. What is the cost of truth? Not even P300,000,000 – or $300,000,000. Fair is fair. We must not only be correct, we must be just.

By the way, Mr. Sharon, I didn’t kill those six million Jews. Send the bill of accounting to Adolf Hitler in hell. That requires only local postage.

* * *

We are a nation, alas, of talkers – not doers. That’s why we have so many talking heads on television.

For instance, two lawyers involved in the Estrada plunder cases before the Sandiganbayan – Leonard de Vera and Raymund Fortun – are practically litigating the cases before media. In an interview by TV newscaster Pinky Webb, the two lawyers have been daring each other to fasttrack the trial of the Estrada plunder cases. Fortun doubts if the cases can be submitted for decision before the 2004 presidential polls, while De Vera is saying that the trial could be speeded up if both sides manifest before the anti-graft court that they are willing and ready to speed up the trial by agreeing to hold hearings more than twice a week.

Over at the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), two Commissioners have been noisily bad-mouthing the Estrada-nominated directors in the San Miguel Corporation and the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB), calling them "kapal-muks" (shameless) for refusing to vacate their posts. Instead of going to media, why don’t these two PCGG Commissioners just do what they should do under the law and what has been ordained under the recent Supreme Court decision reversing the Sandiganbayan ruling? The High Tribunal has given the government the green light to nominate new Board members.

Then we have a National Security Adviser who loves to appear on television and speak at length over the radio. A National Security Adviser should not be a media personality, but instead a low key "spook" and operator who preempts the enemy by effective sleuthing. The same thing goes for Gen. Eduardo Ermita who is again predicting success in his peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF) early next year.

This goes, too, for our military commanders in Mindanao who have been predicting the release of the American hostages, the Burnhams, and captive Deborah Yap before Christmas. Well, Christmas has come and gone – where are they?

The late Senator Genaro Magsaysay was regarded by some of his colleagues as nutty as a fruitcake. But Gene did have some words of wisdom in his arsenal. He would quip: "Much talk, many mistakes. Less talk, less mistakes. No talk, no mistakes." When he went to Heaven, St. Peter met the affable Gene at the Pearly Gates.

"Why," he asked, "my son, do you think you have the right to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?"

To which Gene cheerfully replied: "No comment."

"You are indeed a rare Filipino," St. Peter exclaimed. And he opened wide the gates for Magsaysay to pass.