| Israel's Gaza Ghetto
By Antonio C. Abaya Written on Jan. 12, 2009 For the Standard Today, January 13 issue The numbers are lopsided. In two weeks of fighting, Israel has suffered 13 dead, of whom three were civilians felled by Qassam rockets launched by Hamas into cities in southern Israel, while ten were soldiers killed in action in Israel's incursion into the Gaza strip. On the other hand, as a result of Israeli retaliatory missile attacks by helicopter gunships and shellfire from Merkeva tanks, more than 850 Palestinians have been killed, of whom one fourth, one third or one half � depending on who is counting - are innocent women and children. Because of the lopsided fatalities count, comparisons are being made between Gaza in 2009 and the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. By 1942, most of the Jews in Poland had been herded by the German Nazis into ghettoes, the biggest of which was the Warsaw Ghetto which was densely packed with 300,000 to 400,000 Jews. Of these, an estimated 300,000 were eventually shipped to the Treblinka extermination camp. Some one thousand of those who were left behind, armed with nothing more than pistols and revolvers, chose to stage an uprising against the Nazis, the biggest single Jewish uprising during the war. The Nazi reaction was swift and systematic. Two thousand Waffen-SS troops surrounded the ghetto in April 1943 and, in less than 30 days, methodically swept through the enclave, especially through its sewer network, and quashed the uprising. Some 13,000 Jews, mostly unarmed civilians, were killed. Is Gaza the Israelis' Warsaw Ghetto in reverse? Yes and No. The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rose in revolt against being sent to the Treblinka extermination camp. They were purely in survival mode. They did not daringly lob grenades at the Nazis outside the ghetto walls. They had no ambitions to throw the Nazi Germans to the sea, nor did they have any dreams of forming a separate state. By contrast, the Palestinians in Gaza, under the leadership of the Hamas militants whom they had elected two years ago to be their government, want to form a Palestinian state on the entire territory occupied by the Israelis, whom they have solemnly vowed to throw into the Mediterranean Sea. A goal that it shares with its main supporters, the Iran of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs. Not all Palestinians share the passion of Hamas. The Fatah organization, founded by the late Yassir Arafat, have arrived at a modus vivendi with the Jewish state and have accepted the existence of Israel as a fact of life. But in their civil war two years ago, the Fatah was driven out of Gaza by Hamas, which regards them as collaborators. Fatah's writ is confined to the West Bank. To accentuate its uncompromising attitude towards Israel and the hated Jews, Hamas has been launching Qassam rockets everyday into southern Israel for the past three weeks. More than 500, at the latest count, even after Israeli Merkeva tanks invaded parts of northern Gaza. For sheer chutzpah - ironically a Hebrew word - Hamas takes the cake. But are they realistic? Did Hamas really think they could fire 500 rockets into Israel without drawing retaliation from the Israelis?. Or, more likely, did Hamas expect Israeli retaliation but are cynically using their own people as baits to draw that retaliation so as to score points with world public opinion, especially with the liberals who will soon be in power in Washington DC. The question has to be asked because the main reason for the lopsided fatalities count is the total lack of preparations for war on the part of Hamas. As far as I can tell, Gazan towns and cities do not have air raid sirens and air-raid shelters.(Israeli towns and cities do) Their hospitals did not stock up on medicines and fuel for generators and promptly ran out of both. Their food, fuel and water sources were apparently not prepared for war. Add to this the fact that Gaza is densely populated. Throw a stone in any direction and chances are that stone will hit someone. Given these conditions, it is hard to understand the motivation of Hamas for starting a war situation that they know they cannot win. It seems more and more like a deliberate ploy to win some points with President-elect Barack Obama's liberal government, even if it means unnecessary death and suffering for hundreds of thousands of their own people.. Liberal critics point to the lack of proportionality in the casualties: 859 dead Palestinians compared to 13 dead Israelis. But how should war be conducted? Should the superior side (Israel) count its casualties at the end of the day and exact more or less only that many casualties the next day on the other, weaker side (Hamas)? Would that have convinced Hamas to stop firing those rockets at Israeli cities? When was the last time liberals fought a war? The Israelis claim that Hamas deliberately locate their arms depots and munitions factories under mosques, schools and hospitals, which made it necessary for them (the Israelis) to strike at these sites. The Israelis also claim that they are close to achieving their objectives, whatever those may be. I can only guess that this involves sending infantry into the heart of Gaza City and capturing intact those mosques, schools and hospitals under which they claim Hamas has located arms depots and munitions factories, in order to show the media and the world why it was necessary to hit those sites.. The Israelis do not want a repeat of their stand-off with the Hezbollah in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. After being on the receiving end of some 4,000 Katyusha rockets and Iranian-built Fajr missiles fired by Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon, Israel failed to destroy Hezbollah as a military force in their 33-day war. The impasse forced the resignation of the Israeli minister of defense and the army chief-of-staff and pushed down the popularity rating of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to zero percent. The Israelis apparently do not want that to happen again and will do their utmost to make sure that Hamas is destroyed as both a military and a political force, even if they are seen as revisiting the Warsaw Ghetto in reverse. Whether they will succeed or not remains to be seen. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in acabaya.blogspot.com, in www.tapatt.org. To subscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Subscribe. To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Unsubscribe. . OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to "Israel's Gaza Ghetto" The Jews and the Muslims The Gaza Solution On Major Marcelino I wonder if the Israelis are racing to achieve their objectives before Obama takes office? However lopsided casualties may be, what can one do about a neighbor who launches rockets into our backyard? Are we to avoid stopping him altogather? One Hamas leader who was recently been killed, surrounded himself by children from his clan, saying "Israelis will never fire on children", when he was in charge of indiscriminate shelling of Israel. Israel has to stop their (the Hamas') rabid aggression; it has a duty to do so for its citizens. What is happening to Gaza is appalling, but is there any other alternative? Tony Aguado, (by email), Jan. 13, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, The United Nations and its members, except the USA, it seems, have analyzed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in-depth, and the popular decision is for Israel not to stsge this carnage against Palestinians. Israel must cease taking advantage of the weaker opponent in ways that violate international laws and morals. Since you are comparing this Israeli persecution of Palestinians to the holocaust of World War II, I am sure you would not want the Israelis to be known in history as guilty of committing a second holocaust, this time they are not the preys, but are the predators. Israel should save its prestige which is associated with Biblical virtue. The Philippine voice of Arkibong Bayan, if you visit its website, narrates the historical reasons that started this mess, and you will understand the logical position of the United Nations now in demanding justice for all concerned. Lourdes Ceballos, (by email), Jan. 13, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww . Tony A, Hamas rockets were response to the siege of Gaza by Israel, blockade of Egypt/Gaza border giving Israel total control of air, space and trade coming and out of Gaza resulting to an impoverish and impossible humane condition inside Gaza. Any human community with this challenging condition will explode steam and without any preparation, food & medicine supplies where there is no hope than to fight. Children and teens are no longer interested in school instead they would rather dig tunnels for money paid by trade smugglers between South Gaza and Egypt borders. There is now an underground city going on where every neighborhood in the southern Gaza has tunnels going to Egypt to smuggle all kinds of merchandise from cigarettes, medicines, food, livestocks and ammunitions. Price are 10 times but that is the only lifeline and jobs of people living the area. There is industry so there is really no job in Gaza after the Israel shutdown the borders where many Palestinians were laid off from Israel industries then were returned back to their concentration camp called Gaza. Israel, EU, USA and the Arab world forgot or ignored the living conditions of the Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas winning the election should have been a indication that the conditions were worsening such that Palestinian Gaza now embraces any leadership to whoever can feed them. Life is miserable in Gaza, it's like hell ... no jobs, no safety, no money, poor medical services, inadequate medicines, inflated prices, etc. Many western journalists were prohibited to enter Gaza. For many Palestinian youth, war is the only voice to wake up the sleeping world to rally behind them. Later on Mindanao will be another Gaza if not taken seriously. Nonoy Ramos, (by email), Pennsylvania, Jan. 13, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Indeed this Palestinian and Israel conflict can be likened to ... "Both living in a house of glass not realizing they have been throwing stones." So fragile. AL Jose Leonidas, (by email), Quezon City, Jan. 13, 2009 Faculty Member Miriam College wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony In my earlier email " Training children under Hamas" it is noted that some of the children's headbands are in fact proclaiming FATAH. In view of this I find it a little difficult to accept that Fatah have ' accepted the existence of Israel as a fact of life'. Your observations on the lack of proportionality of casualties is well noted. You will however recall that in past exchanges of prisoners, Hamas has asked for at least 1,000 Palestinians to be returned for one Israeli. Apart from the inevitable civilian casualties which unfortunately is a fact of war, the proportion seems to be in keeping with past Hamas demands. Kindest regards Brian Harber, (by email), France, Jan. 13, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Tony Abaya, I always enjoy your erudite, perceptive and interesting columns, like this one on Israel's Gaza Ghetto. Your questions to the liberal critics of Israel should be discussed more by international media, for those questions are thought-provoking. Personally, I support the general idea that there should be an independent Palestinian state alongside a democratic Israel, in peaceful co-existence. Like much of the world, I am appalled by the humanitarian crisis now in Gaza, but I think Gaza today is very much different from the Warsaw Ghetto under the Nazis. The Jewish minorities of Europe persecuted by Hitler were not militants who fire rockets targeting civilians or support suicide bombers targeting civilians like Hamas do, modern-day Israel is a vibrant democracy fighting for its survival in a war of self-defense. Even the Egyptians and other Arabs do not support Hamas. I hope there shall be genuine and long-term peace in the Middle East. Happy New Year and thanks for your very interesting columns!!! I have always read you ever since I was a student! Wilson Lee Flores, (by email), Jan. 14, 2009 Columnist, Philippine Star Editor-in-chief, S magazine wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, Having been a first-hand observer of the Holocaust as a soldier in WW II Europe, I am only too aware of the horrific, inhumane brutality inflicted, and the depth to which mankind can sink as a result of hatred of other religions. The need for a Jewish homeland refuge where there can finally be protected and live in peace after so many centuries of persecution wherever they settled after being chased out of their home-land where they have now returned. This may in itself seem wrong to Moslems living in the area, who feel a section of their land has been taken over by another religion. However, looking back in history, most of which is written by the conqueror, this describes how civilization has spread to other less developed lands all over the world... The battle plans to ultimately destroy the state of Israel as drawn up by Hamas is to use people in the heavily populated areas of Gaza, including mosques and apartment buildings as a shield from where to fire rockets into Israel; stockpile weapons and emplace tunnels that enter and surface in the basement of apartment buildings. The rockets being developed are more powerful designed to eventually wipe out Israel which is fighting for its life. R. Stager, (by email), Quezon City, Jan. 14, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww This so-called "Gaza Ghetto" is the own-making of the Palestinians. The people of Gaza booted out from office the PLO moderates because of corruption and failure to deliver basic services and put into power the terrorist group Hamas which unfortunately has spent their resources in buying rockets and other military equipment with the sole objective of wiping out Israel from the face of the earth, instead of focusing on economic development . I believe that if the Palestinian people will reject terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah from taking control of their lives and force them to drop their evil desire of annihilating the Jews, the Israeli government would probably render economic assistance to them in order for the Israelis to live in peace. Let us not forget that Israel is a sovereign nation created and recognized by UN and the expansion of Israel was the result of the Six Day War when the Israeli Army won over the neighboring Arab countries. Narciso Ner, (by email), Davao City, Jan. 14, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I agree with your analysis that the Hamas provocation was a deliberate political and military ploy just to win world sympathy even at the expense of their civilian population. I can't find any other logical reason for the Hamas' latest shenanigans; and, it is unthinkable that they could treat their innocent countrymen expendable as long as they could turn the international opinion against their hated and avowed enemy. My heart bleeds for the plight of the innocent civilians in both fronts. Regards, Arcy F. Sibal, (by email), Sta. Maria, Bulacan, Jan. 14, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Copy furnished) Dear Noam , Judy, and Ed: What do you think of Tony Abaya's article - "Israel's Gaza Ghetto" - below about the ongoing carnage in Gaza ? It's a very powerful article! Shalom, George Patterson wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony: This is Dr. Noam Chomsky's response to your article. I wonder what you think about it. He really cuts through the tissues of deceit, the vulgar US-Israeli propaganda filled with falsehoods, omissions , and distortions. and noam's colleage, Dr. Edward Herman does likewise. We are so lucky to have them to know the truth. I'm sick and tired of my government feeing lies. distortions, half-truths, and omissions all the time just like what they did during the Indo-China War which Noam and Ed exposed so articulately and eloquently. Thus, please read Noam's and Ed's books so that will enlighten you further. Shalom, George Bradford Patterson II, (by email), Quezon City, Jan. 15, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww George Unfortunately, he's repeating vulgar US-Israeli propaganda. Hamas for years has declared its support for a two-state settlement on the international border in accord with the international consensus that has been blocked by the US-Israel. The press prefers to suppress the facts, which they know very well. Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Vulgar US-Israeli propaganda? As opposed to 'refined' Hamas propaganda? Tell us, Dr. Chomsky, what is your refined view on who owns or should own Manhattan? ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Sir Tony, keep on keeping on. nowadays its difficult to discern and live in style its either you live in style and don't care or you discern and curse and take your sentiment with you anywhere awake or asleep it's fun reading your articles and the letters sent to you for now im still numbed with our flood down here in mindanao and the drama with our justice system, joke joke bulate, Alab-ang voice, and other funny irritating frustrating scenarios of government when you don't hear from me it doesn't mean that i quit i'm just staying on the sides watching, surviving, keeping my skeleton intact till kingdom come God bless! More power! [email protected] wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The Jews and the Muslims The Global Islamic population is approximately> 1,200,000,000>> > ONE BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world's > population. > They have received the following Nobel Prizes: > Literature: > > 1988 - Najib Mahfooz > > Peace: > > 1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat > 1994 - Yaser Arafat: > 1990 - Elias James Corey > 1999 - Ahmed Zewai > > > Economics: (zero) > > > Physics: (zero) > > Medicine: > 1960 - Peter Brian Medawar > 1998 - Ferid Mourad > TOTAL: 7 SEVEN > ____________________________________________________________________________ __ > > The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000 > FOURTEEN MILLION > Or about 0.02% of the world's population. > > They have received the following Nobel Prizes: > > Literature: > > 1910 - Paul Heyse > 1927 - Henri Bergson > 1958 - Boris Pasternak > 1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon > 1966 - Nelly Sachs > 1976 - Saul Bellow > 1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer > 1981 - Elias Canetti > 1987 - Joseph Brodsky > 1991 - Nadine Gordimer World > > Peace: > > 1911 - Alfred Fried > 1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser > 1968 - Rene Cassin > 1973 - Henry Kissinger > 1978 - Menachem Begin > 1986 - Elie Wiesel > 1! 994 - Shimon Peres > 1994 - Yitzhak Rabin > > > Physics: > > 1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer > 1906 - Henri Moissan > 1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson > 1908 - Gabriel Lippmann > 1910 - Otto Wallach > 1915 - Richard Willstaetter > 1918 - Fritz Haber > 1921 - Albert Einstein > 1922 - Niels Bohr > 1925 - James Franck > 1925 - Gustav Hertz > 1943 - Gustav Stern > 1943 - George Charles de Hevesy > 1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi > 1952 - Felix Bloch > 1954 - Max Born > 1958 - Igor Tamm > 1959 - Emilio Segre > 1960 - Donald A. Glaser > 1961 - Robert Hofstadter > 1961 - Melvin Calvin > 1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau > 1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz > 1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman > 1965 - Julian Schwinger > 1969 - Murray Gell-Mann > 1971 - Dennis Gabor > 1972 - William Howard Stein > 1973 - Brian David Josephson > 1975 - Benjamin Mottleson > 1976 - Bu! rton Richter > 1977 - Ilya Prigogine > 1978 - Arno Allan Penzias > 1978 - Peter L Kapitza > 1979 - Stephen Weinberg > 1979 - Sheldon Glashow > 1979 - Herbert Charle S Brown > 1980 - Paul Berg > 1980 - Walter Gilbert > 1981 - Roald Hoffmann > 1982 - Aaron Klug > 1985 - Albert A. Hauptman > 1985 - Jerome Karle > 1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach > 1988 - Robert Huber > 1988 - Leon Lederman > 1988 - Melvin Schwartz > 1988 - Jack Steinberger > 1989 - Sidney Altman > 1990 - Jerome Friedman > 1992 - Rudolph Marcus > 1995 - Martin Perl > 2000 - Alan J. Heeger > > Economics: > > 1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson > 1971 - Simon Kuznets > 1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow > 1975 - Leonid Kantorovich > 1976 - Milton Friedman > 1978 - Herbert A. Simon > 1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein > 1985 - Franco Modigliani > 1987 - Robert M. Solow > 1990 - Harry Markowitz > 1990 - Merton Miller > 1992 - Gary Becker > 1993 - Robert Fogel > > Medicine: > > 1908 ! - Eli e Metchnikoff > 1908 - Paul Erlich > 1914 - Robert Barany > 1922 - Otto Meyerhof > 1930 - Karl Landsteiner > 1931 - Otto Warburg > 1936 - Otto Loewi > 1944 - Joseph Erlanger > 1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser > 1945 - Ernst Boris Chain > 1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller > 1950 - Tadeus Reichstein > 1952 - Selman Abra ham Waksman > 1953 - Hans Krebs > 1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann > 1958 - Joshua Lederberg > 1959 - Arthur Kornberg > 1964 - Konrad Bloch > 1965 - Francois Jacob > 1965 - Andre Lwoff > 1967 - George Wald > 1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg > 1969 - Salvador Luria > 1970 - Julius Axelrod > 1970 - Sir Bernard Katz > 1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman > 1975 - Howard Martin Temin > 1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg > 1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow > 1978 - Daniel Nathans > 1980 - Baruj Benacerraf > 1984 - Cesar Milstein > 1985 - Michael Stuart Brown > 1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein > 1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini] > 1988 - Gertrude Elion > 1989 - Harold Varmus > 1991 - Erwin Neher > 1991 - Bert Sakmann > 1993 - Richard J. Roberts > 1993 - Phillip Sharp > 1994 - Alfred Gilman > 1995 - Edward B. Lewis > TOTAL: ONE HUNDRED & TWENTY NINE ! > The Jews are not promoting brain washing the children in > military training camps, teaching them how to blow > themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non > Muslims! > > The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the > Olympics or blow themselves up in German restaurants. > There is not a single Jew that has destroyed a church. There > is not a single Jew that protests by killing people. > The Jews don't traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling > for Jihad and death to all the Infidels. > > Perhaps the world's Muslims should consider investing > more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for > all their problems. > Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel > and the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe > there is more culpability on Israel 's part, the > following two sentences really say it all: > > 'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there > would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their > weapons today, there would be no more Israel' -Benjamin > Netanyahu Brian Harber, (by email), France, Jan. 15, 2009 Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Brian Harber) The Gaza solution is in the hands of Palestinians By Tawfik Hamid ,The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 31, 2008 After Israel launched its military attack on Hamas military installations in Gaza in response to repeated attacks on Israeli civilians, the Arab street wasted no time in demonstrating with passion against Israel. In Europe, many Westerners also took part in the protests. As an Egyptian Muslim now living in America, I ask myself why the Arab street and its supporters in the West never show similarly strong response against Islamic terrorists who target innocents worldwide and explode markets full of predominantly Muslim civilians in Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkey, etc. When you consider that the Israeli attack killed some 400 mostly Hamas militant in the first four days, the passive attitude of the Muslim world against the terrorists represents extreme hypocrisy. If it truly cared for Muslims' lives, it should have demonstrated in the same numbers and with equal vehemence against the Islamists who murder hundreds of thousands of their fellow Muslims, not to mention the Hamas slaughter of rival Fatah members - women and children included. Another question is why we have not seen a similarly strong reaction against the terrorists who conducted the latest attack in Mumbai. Many Indians, Westerners and Jews were killed. Yet there was no spontaneous eruption of outrage and demonstrations in Europe to denounce the attacks as in the case of Gaza. Are these lesser lives than those of the Palestinians? Where is the organized public fury for the wanton killing of Indians and Jews? We have witnessed the burning of churches in Iraq at the hands of jihadists. We also know that thousands of Christian Iraqis have fled because the Islamists imposed on them the traditional Shari'a choice for non-Muslims: Convert to Islam, pay a humiliating tax (jizzia), or be killed. Yet, we have not heard any thing from the Arab street or its supporters. Only stone silence. Are Palestinian lives worth more than those of Christians in Iraq? An insular tribal mentality still governs the Muslim world, and there is no willingness to demonstrate against fellow Muslims, even against those who have committed great crimes against other Muslims. And Europe is too eviscerated to come to the aid of Christian victims of anti-"infidelism." Then there is plain old anti-Semitism. It is so easy to demonstrate against the Jews or Israel and extremely rare to see demonstrations in support of Jewish victims, such as the altruistic rabbi and his wife who were singled out for special torture in Mumbai by the Islamists. It does the bloodstained European conscience good to be able to point a finger at supposed Israeli "aggression" to help alleviate some of its own lingering guilt. The Muslim world and the Europeans who support the demonstrations against Israel must stop the biased reaction that blindly and reflexively supports the Palestinians and villifies Israel. Those who demonstrate against the military campaign on Gaza must realize that if Hamas had stopped pounding Israel with its rockets, Israel would not have launched its attack. If the Palestinians focused on building their society rather than destroying those of others, the whole region would enjoy peace and flourish. Should Palestinians recognize the right of Israel to exist, end terrorism against Jews and nurture a sincere desire to live in peace, they would end their suffering. The solution now is simply in the hands of the Palestinians - not the Israelis. The writer, a medical doctor and Muslim reformer, is the author of Inside Jihad. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww On Major Marcelino Hi Tony, On the Alabang boys issue, it is really a no-brainer. Here, the PDEA agents are the good guys and the Alabang boys and their minions the bad guys. And my perspective is not legalistic. I am not a lawyer. Mine is from a moral look at things. And so should other citizens look at social issues such as this. The purely legalistic position is usually adopted by those who have something to hide or lose like their freedom, reputation, or lives or all of the above. Where do you see a private lawyer who drafts a release order to be signed by the Department of Justice Secretary? Or the accused accused by no less than their own relatives and neighbors as not only illegal drug users but pushers? Or the Office of the Solicitor General (yes, another government agency) clearly favoring the accused private individuals against another government agency, the PDEA? It must be noted that it is a member of the prosecution who reportedly got a miniscule share of the alleged "bribe" money of PhP50 million who is the informant here about the bribery issue! Let's face it. Bribery has become pretty common in our bureaucracy lately that it appears to have become the rule than the exception. On the other hand, you have a Marine major who courageously faces a Senate inquiry and tells all without fear or favor and is therefore obviously shaken by the experience! Many among the PDEA agents by the way are former 'Oakwood mutineers' who may have been prosecuted for their mutiny but are idealistic graduates of the PMA nonetheless. I salute Major Marcelino. He is one of a kind. A knight in shining armor in a sea of rotting carcasses and vultures. I also salute General Santiago, our former boss in the AFP. He is also a crusader and I have known him to succeed where others have failed. Regards, Col. (Ret.) Dennis Acop, (by email), Jan. 11, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I agree with letter-writer Ethel that Major Marcelino is a rare breed of hero doing his best to bust drug traffickers, and definitely not in the same mold as the crook-turned-accidental hero kuno greed moderator Jun Lozada. Marcelino did a commendable job busting the Alabang boys. The only fly in the ointment is when Marcelino said at the House inquiry that he was offered a bribe on three different occasions but it was difficult to catch the bribe-giver because he called only by phone. That reason did not seem quite right. Of course such offers are transmitted anonymously by phone to protect the identity of the bribe-giver and the only way to catch him is to immediately agree to it without further ado, arrange a meeting place and set a trap to make him or his emissary come out in the open. Cesar M. de los Reyes, (by email), Jan. 12, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww "Pogi points". I think that's what Malacanang , the Ombudsman, and the Senate are trying to earn. There is public furor over the drug case dismissal and the Verano (like a naughty Mr. Bean's episode !) letterhead caper. The "Alabang Boys" are the typical misbehaving scions of the rich and powerful. There is a hero in Major Marcelino , one of the few good men in service. An order to go on leave has been issued, but "non-punitive".Jjust a motherly scolding for some people in the DOJ to take a brief hike and probably have some beers and karaoke . All these put together provide a fine setting for a perfect promotions plan for those in dire need of a facelift or a reversal of their public image. And what better opportunity than to take the side of the hero and the good . And never mind if the allegations will prosper. Everybody knows that allegations must be proven. and except for these accussations there is so far nothing to prove that money changed hands. The PDEA may be telling the truth, but that is only what most people believe. And it will never satisfy a judge. Meanwhile, the Alabang Boys will just have to sit it out until things cool down, and when no one is looking "Mr. Bean" will come a-visiting ! For the moment the publicity will help build points for name recall come elections. Victor Manalac, (by email), Jan. 14, 2009 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to [email protected] To subscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Subscribe. 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| ON THE OTHER HAND |