One letter for every presidential crisis

In the course of a very interesting one-on-one lunch with Mexican Ambassador, Enrique Hubbard Urrea two days ago, the envoy told me a "story" that is very popular in his country.

He recounted that an outgoing Mexican President had given his successor three sealed envelopes containing instructions or advice for each succeeding instance the incoming President encountered a "crisis."

The outgoing Chief Executive pointed out that, since Mexican Presidents usually depart after their terms expire and take up residence abroad, he might not be around for consultation or advice when a serious problem should arise. "And so," he told his successor, "I’m leaving you three letters. When the first crisis comes, unseal the first envelope and read what I think you should do. Don’t unseal or peruse the second envelope until the second crisis is at hand, and the same should hold true about the third. In short, don’t peek into the third envelope until the third crisis takes place."

Sure enough, when the first crisis of his Presidency occurred, the new President remembered this admonition and unlocked his office desk to secure and slit open the first envelope. Inside, his predecessor’s letter contained only two words of advice: "Blame me!"

Following this admonition, the President blamed the former President for everything that was going wrong, for the worst problems, for graft and corruption in the government he had "inherited" etc. Thus, the crisis was defused.

Then came the second crisis. The Chief Executive slit open the second envelope, and found written inside: "Fire your most notorious Cabinet member, and blame everything on him!"

This he did, and this resolute act of "reform" headed off a growing protest movement, appeased the public clamor for the punishment of wrongdoers, and averted any further damage to his government.

Next came the third crisis. Eagerly, the President grabbed the third envelope handed to him by his predecessor to see what words of wisdom the ex-President had left for him.

The letter said: "Start writing your three letters!"

Okay, so what Ambassador Hubbard recounted was a joke. (I don’t want to get him in trouble with his Distrito Federal.) But don’t you think something like those three envelopes should also be handed to our own incoming Presidents?

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Incidentally, don’t get confused. The Mexican envoy may have the same family name as a previous American ambassador (Tom Hubbard), but in Spanish it’s pronounced differently. (The Urrea appended to his name, i.e. Enrique Hubbard Urrea, is his mother’s family name. In Latin America they omit the "y" which the Spaniards use to distinguish the maternal family name when it follows the patronym.)

Since he arrived last July, Hubbard has gotten on very well , in our lawyer-dominated society, for he, too, is a lawyer. He graduated from the School of Law and Social sciences of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa. He can even speak with an American accent since he served in the Consulate General in Chicago, later in Brownsville, Texas; and finally as Consul General in Miami, Florida. He was also Consul General in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and then Ambassador in Belize on the Caribbean.

He can even get along with National Security Chairman Roilo Golez, Defense Secretary Angie Reyes and our military, since he holds a master’s degree in national security from the College of Defense of the Mexican Ministry of National Defense (1995-1998). But not, I’ll wager, in ransom matters.

Before I forget, and this has nothing to do with my talk with the Mexican ambassador, I must say that I’m amazed. The general and all other ranking officers accused of letting the Abu Sayyaf get away with all their hostages in Lamitan, Basilan, (with the exception of Reghis Romero, one lady and one boy "released" – uh, escaping?) have all been promoted.

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With all hell breaking loose between the Israelis and the Palestinians, it’s no longer, an intifada met by massive Israeli retaliation. It’s all-out war.

How else can we describe a bloody day like last Tuesday, when Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attacking in the West Bank and Gaza killed 31 Palestinians in a single day. The currently escalating engagement started Monday night when 150 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles, backed up by 20,000 IDF troops, smashed into the West Bank town of Rammallah and the adjacent Palestinian refugee camps, as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s response to mounting Palestinian suicide-bomber attacks, and the shooting down of Israeli civilians and military personnel by gunmen and snipers of the so-called "Al Aqsa" brigades. The death toll is certainly not one-sided. In 18 months, 339 Israelis have been killed against 1,168 Palestinians, and reports say that in the last ten days 50 Israelis have been slain and 180 Palestinians.

In this climate of violence and growing hatred, punctuated by weeping at daily funerals and cries for revenge, there’s no prospect of George W. Bush’s twice-foiled "peace" envoy, former US Marine General Anthony Zinni bringing either side to the "peace table" when he arrives for one more desperate try today.

Moreover, with even the United States of America conforming, the United Nations Security Council has just passed a resolution endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state – by a landmark 14-0 vote – for the first time. This is a gain for the harassed Palestinian chieftain, Yasser Arafat, and a hard blow to Sharon’s hardline tactics.

I’ve said it before – in 1996. I can sympathize with Israel, but what they’re doing reminds me, alas, of how the Nazis acted in occupied Europe.

When I visited Ramallah (yes, the same West Bank town now in the news) from Jerusalem – which, you’ll be surprised to know, is just ten minutes by car away – I found the Palestinians living just as the "occupied" people did when the Germans overran Europe. After several days of observing how Israeli border guards treated Palestinians trying to get through roadblocks and border crossings, I observed that, sadly, the IDF soldiers and border guards were acting very much like Adolf Hitler’s S.S. and Sturm Abteilung acted towards the Jews.

As Jose Rizal, our national hero, once wrote in his revolutionary novel: "Freedom? Why freedom when the slaves of today will only be the tyrants of tomorrow?" In reaction to what I’d written about this and about how the IDF had acted in Lebanon, the Israeli ambassador at the time had fumed that I had insulted the memory of the six million Jews tortured and killed in Adolf Hitler’s death camps.

On the contrary, we honor the dead of all faiths (millions of Christians, gypsies, Russians and other Untermenschen so-called were exterminated, too). And I’ve always defended Israel’s right to exist – but there can be no such thing as too savage a retaliation.

Even the "Chosen People" ought to know that.

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And the Palestinians have never forgiven Ariel Sharon either. In case you don’t remember, he has for decades been called the "Butcher of Beirut."

This dates back to June 1982, when, under the direction of Defense Minister (and General) Sharon, Israeli armed forces hurled themselves into Lebanon in a full-scale offensive dubbed "Operation Peace for Galilee." In two weeks of bitter fighting, the IDF crushed the PLO’s strongholds near Israeli’s northern border, devastated Syria’s forces in the Bekaa Valley, destroying air defense systems, tanks and fighter planes. The Israelis drove all the way to Beirut where they were joined by the hardline Christian Phalange militia. Surrounding West Beirut, the center of the PLO’s training camps, they "allowed" their Christian allies to massacre the Palestinians in two refugee camps.

No wonder, with Sharon in the picture, there can’t be peace.