George Will overboard.

GEORGE WILL OVERBOARD

MY ESTEEMED FRIEND George Will hasgone not-quite-right on the matter of the Palestinians/Israel/the Vatican/Cardinal O'Connor/history. It all began with a vituperative attack on the Vatican at the end of the David Brinkley Sunday hour. Will referred to the "Vatican's contemptible behavior toward the Holocaust' and its "continuing contemptible behavior toward Israel.' He voiced his suspicion "that there is a residual anti-Semitism at work in Vatican policy' and suggested that the appropriate remedy was for the United States instantly to establish its embassy "not just [in] Jerusalem, but in East Jerusalem . . . thereby underscoring the fact that a united Jerusalem is and forever shall be the capital of Israel.'

And then in his syndicated column forJanuary 15 he ripped into Cardinal O'Connor's innocent tribute to the Holocaust Museum: The cardinal, whose emotions are copiously expressed, had said reverently that the Holocaust "may be an enormous gift that Judaism has given the world.' Will transformed those words into an endorsement of the Holocaust on the grounds that it gives us something to grieve over. Those who indulge in such perverse readings of an impulsive response by a transparently good man should bear in mind that Christendom celebrates as its primary day of joy the day of the Resurrection: which could not have happened save for Christ crucified. If the analogy was inappropriate, the sentiments clearly were not.

But George Will is losing sight of rathera lot of things, the first of them being that it was Israel that invited Cardinal O'Connor to the Mideast, encouraging him to use his resources as a cleric in order to advance the possibility of peace. The problem with devising peaceful solutions in the Mideast, where George Will is concerned, is that he sees there only a single position: Israel's--at all times, in all places. George sometimes sounds a little like Rabbi Kahane, who is properly scorned by the majority of Israelis for his anti-Palestinian fundamentalism. If progress of any kind is going to be made in that part of the world, you don't begin by siding with Israel on every single point.

The overwhelming majority of the governmentsof the world do not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This is not a collective venture in anti-Semitism. It has to do with the UN Resolution that gave birth to the state of Israel. That resolution, which the United States and much of the rest of the world backed, called for the internationalization of Jerusalem. In the ensuing hostilities, the western half of Jerusalem was occupied by the Israelis, the eastern half by Jordan; and 19 years later Israel won the eastern half by force of arms. There is no pressing need for the United States (or for the Vatican) to overrule the UN verdict when dealing with the most sacred acreage in the world, sacred to Muslim, Jew, and Christian. On the matter of recognition of Israel by the Vatican, Mr. Will is simply incorrect. According to going rules (set down in Satow's Guide to Diplomatic Practice, Section 9.14), the formal exchanges between the Vatican and Israel over the years amount to de facto diplomatic recognition.

IN 1964 Rolf Hochhuth's play The Deputyaccused Pope Pius XII of indifference to the Holocaust. Ever since, scholars have probed to define his role. We know that in his Christmas message in 1942 the Pope urged all Catholics to give shelter wherever they could: "Humanity should help the Jews who for reason of their faith have been marked for death.' When Pius XII died, Israeli UN representative and future Prime Minister Golda Meir said of him on the floor of the United Nations, "During the ten years of Nazi terror, when our people went through the horrors of martyrdom, the Pope raised his voice to condemn the persecutors and to commiserate with their victims.'

There was one line--the final line inWill's column--that causes true pain. Concerning Cardinal O'Connor's statement that obviously he needed to obey the Vatican on the matter of where he could meet with Israeli officials, George Will commented: "Israelis have heard his alibi before: He was only obeying orders.' George Will seems to be saying that at the next Nuremberg trial, Cardinal O'Connor would be up for a crime against humanity. He must know (he does; I am merely reminding him) that rhetorical abuses can also be crimes against humanity.