He didn't stay silent. In fact, Israel was quite angry with him because he didn't shut up about Gaza. Apparently, he called the local church every evening to check in on the situation.
Many leaders are way too silent on the matter, but the late Pope was not one of them.
Yeah. Wow, he gave them a car. I guess it's something, but the Catholic Church has a really deep Karmic hole they need to dig their way out of and this is just a teaspoon of dirt.