Opinion Editorials are posted and archived on JN Online: www.detroitjewishnews.com Dry Bones Community Excellence hen our "High School Yearbook" start- ed 12 years ago, we saw it as a way to honor "smart kids" — graduating sen- iors with high academic achievement. But through the years, the section now called "Cap & Gown" has come to symbolize much more. If all that we published were the student's name and grade point average, there would be interest, but very little meaning. But when we, as a community, look at the names, faces and resumes of our out- standing students, we glean vast amounts of infor- mation about our youth and about ourselves. In 1991, 40 students were represented in Cap & Gown. They represented Southfield-Lathrup High School (10), West Bloomfield High (10), Berkley (4), Bloomfield Hills Andover (3), North Farmington (3), Beth Jacob (3), Yeshivat Akiva, Ferndale and Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood (2 each) and Detroit Country Day (1). Twelve years later, with our limitation removed on the number allowed from each school, we have: West Bloomfield (27), Berkley (18), North Farmington (17), Akiva and Andover (13 each), Birmingham Groves (10), Cranbrook Kingswood (7), Walled Lake Western (6), Ann Arbor Huron and Beth Jacob (5 each), Country Day and Southfield-Lathrup (2 each) and a wonderful assort- ment of individuals from schools like Kalamazoo Loy Norrix, Flint Carmen-Ainsworth, Lake Orion, Milford, Farmington, Waterford Kettering, Grosse Pointe North and Grosse Pointe South. Amateur demographers must refrain from reading too much into the numbers. Because of our fire in January, not all schools were notified by e-mail or fax about the Cap & . Gown deadline. Some parents missed our announcements in the Jewish News. And some deserving students just didn't want to be bothered with filling out another form. A few stu- dents who would have qual- ified for inclusion submitted their material after the deadline. Statistically, there may be some aberrations. Communally, there is no doubt that our high school graduates — our hope for our Jewish future — are academically and communally tal- ented. Our Cap & Gown section for 2002 begins on page 63. Enjoy browsing through the portraits of your young friends and neighbors, our leaders of tomorrow. 111 A Useless Meeting Now that he will not give up any of the settlements. The point is not that those positions — Palestinian dependence on terror, Israeli reliance on military might alone — are untenable, which they surely are, but that the conditions for achieving a lasting peace simply don't exist. If it couldn't be done two years ago — after nearly a decade of apparent progress under the Oslo Accords — it's not doable now when each side has further hardened its heart against the other. The hardening is understandable. The vicious suicide bombings, like the other attacks on Israeli civilians, have reinforced the hand of the political right in the Jewish state. Israel's reprisal actions — however justified as a necessary war on terror- isrri have similarly given greater power to the most warlike elements among the Palestinians. On both sides, the voices of compromise and criticism have been effectively silenced. External criticism, even by allies, is resented. The Arab leaders are afraid to say the obvious — that Yasser Arafat's leadership has been a disaster for his people in the last two years and that it must be replaced. To tell the truth about Arafat would, they fear, mean acknowledging to the Arab street that the policies have been wrong since at least 1967. Jewish leaders in America and elsewhere in the world refrain from criticizing Sharon for fear of giv- ing any further ammunition to the Muslim world and to the anti-Semites, such as those who are stir- ring in Europe. So we are left with Israel and the Palestinians unable to resolve their confrontation themselves, Do You 1- 141KJK "T-IAT A CONFERENCE COULD BRING PEACE To Ti4e MID - EAST? r7s 7----- -otQG 1 As TN 7ARTtClPAITCS ARE NOT Comm (1 - 1b EDIT ORIAL I is all well and good that world leaders, includ- ing U.S. President George W. Bush, the United Nations, the European Union and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, believe an internation- al conference can be summoned to plan -the future relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. The world has sporadic bursts of interest in this terri- bly troubled land, when it becomes eager to use its moral force to craft a solution for the problem the British created 90 years ago by promising the same land to both the Jews and the Arabs. But until and unless substantial majorities of Israelis and Palestinians truly believe that peace is the best solution, it isn't going to happen. Every indication so far is that neither side trusts the other further than they can throw them. The Palestinians had an almost unbelievably generous Israeli offer on the table at Camp David and later at Taba, one that gave them their statehood, a capital in East Jerusalem and true security guarantees. They decided they could get more by playing the terror card — with the predictable abysmal results of the 18-month-long intifada (Palestinian uprising). Israel, now convinced that it does not have a part- ner for peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, has become harsher. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party is debating a resolution that would flatly forbid the creation of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. Sharon himself has said EDITORIAL and no effective and credible outside voices that could help each see its way to the kinds of compro- mises that are going to be needed. An international conference of ministers will either be an exercise in wheel spinning and name-calling — or worse. Holding a conference now arouses hopes that surely will be dashed on the rocks .of reality, a process that will only further delay a real solution. Most Israelis want peace with the Palestinians, even though they know that will mean ceding most of the lands captured in 1967 to a new State of Palestine, withdrawing from some of the settlements and accepting that Israel will not have absolute authority over all of Jerusalem. But Israelis need rock-solid assurance that the Palestinians will not simply take those concessions and then renew a war- fare intended to destroy Israel. The most useful thing the Arab states, the European nations and the United Nations might do is work together to show that they would defend Israel's security. An enforce- able agreement to stop the flow of Arab money to the terror groups would be a good start. Israel needs to show good faith also. It can stop the growth of the settlements by ending state subsidies that underwrite that growth in areas that do not enhance the nation's security. This would be a reasonable first step. American enforcement of its requirement that the arms it has sold Israel be used only for defensive pur- poses also would contribute to easing tension. The way out of the morass is by taking small, concrete steps. A grandiose multinational parley isn't such a step. ❑ 2002 29