“Here in Israel, there is hardly a whimper on the issue of Iran’s Saudi attack, even if a US military retaliation would mean a counterattack on Israel.

In one of my trips here in the Holy Land in Israel, our Jewish tourist guide welcomed us with, “Welcome to Israel! Thank you for not watching CNN.”

Right on, if you are pegged at the exaggerated reports of peace conflicts between Israel and Palestine by CNN, then you won’t dare set foot here, the land where Jesus was born (Bethlehem), grew up (Nazareth), ministered (Galilee) suffered, crucified and resurrected (Jerusalem).

On the contrary, there is a surge of tourists in Israel now; in fact, travel agencies are running short of tourist guides and hotel bookings. A few weeks ago, the Department of Labor and Employment announced job openings in hotels and other tourist-related venues for Filipino workers. You can imagine the endless queue of pilgrims wanting to kneel and kiss the manger and the tomb of Jesus.

Tourism is the third income earner for Israel with information technology as second and diamonds as the first. Almost 75 percent of the visitors are pilgrims to the holy places.

Jews can never hurt the tourists, but most especially, neither would the Palestinians or Arabs, since tourism is the latter’s bread and butter. Most of the restaurants, religious shops, tourist bus drivers and assistants, maintenance personnel of pilgrimage sites and churches are managed by Arab-speaking people.

In East Jerusalem, Jews and Arabs sitting together over coffee and cigarettes, discussing joint business endeavors, are still asking questions where and why there are ongoing conflicts between them when, in fact, they can actually live in peace, savoring more of their similarities rather than their differences.

When alleged Yemeni rebels allegedly staged the drone bombing of some of the major oil plants and installations in Saudi Arabia, the United States was quick to finger-point at Iran and hinted a military retaliation; but it was a flicker since Donald Trump relented and imposed an economic sanction instead.

However, the United States seems to relegate the matter momentarily to address some more pressing issues the Trump administration is facing, such as the impeachment of the president over the issue of abuse of power, betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of national security and betrayal of the integrity of American elections, when he sought to enlist a foreign power to tarnish a rival for his own political gain. This refers to the invitation for the Ukrainian president to witness against presidential rival Joe Biden on matters of corruption.

In Europe, leaders of Britain, France and Germany chorused with the US on putting the blame on Iran on the Saudi Arabia oil field attacks and demanded that Tehran should renegotiate its deal on the long-term agreement dealing with its nuclear, regional and missile activities.

The matter was shelved for a while as media focused on the Brexit issues of UK, where the British parliament seem bent on extending the Brexit to January next year. After losing in a Supreme Court decision that declared Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s suspension of the parliament illegal, the MP are now demanding his resignation.

Here in Israel, there is hardly a whimper on the issue of Iran’s Saudi attack, even if a US military retaliation would mean a counterattack on Israel, as Tehran’s chronic threat on Israel has never wavered.

Probably, Israel has been preparing for the inevitable, too.

I was writing this column after I had an after-dinner coffee talk with two of my closest friends here in Jerusalem, an Arab and a Jew. All I can say was “Amen” when both agreed that instead of isolating themselves from each other, they should rather isolate those few aggressive political charlatans and war freaks who insist that the only way to achieve peace in the Middle East is war.