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The Really Hard Choices
S
ecretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told
Israel that it faces "hard decisions" in the near
future in its effort to secure a meaningful peace
with the Palestinians. But, in fact, it is the United
States that must make difficult — indeed fundamental
— choices about its policies toward the Middle East.
Those choices will determine not just whether Israel
and the Palestinians can find ways to tolerate each
other, but also whether the Arab states and their cur-
rent brand of Islam can live in peace with America and
with the Western world.
What Rice was pointing out was that Israel must fig-
ure out how quickly it can relax some of its security
measures so that daily life for ordinary
Palestinians can become easier. Most of those
measures — IDF raids on militant strong-
holds, curfews in the West Bank, the security
barrier and stringent checkpoints — were
forced on Israel more than four years ago when Yasser
Arafat launched the second intifada with suicide
bombings and shootings of Israeli settlers. Most Israelis
would be happy to give those measures up, as well as
to get out of Gaza entirely, if the new Palestinian
leader, Mahmoud Abbas, proves able to rein in the ter-
rorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Fatah's own Al
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Israel has already shown it is willing to release a sig-
nificant number of its 7,000 Palestinian prisoners and
to turn over to the Palestinian Authority tax revenues it
has been collecting. If all goes well, it may reopen its
checkpoints to some of the Palestinians who were
working in Israel in September 2000. Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon was willing to go to Sharm el-Sheik this
week to meet with Abbas and Egyptian and Jordanian
leaders, and he has accepted America's request to come
to the United States to meet again with Abbas for
more serious talks about the boundaries of a
Dry Bones
GETTING
THE BIRO
Palestinian state, control of Jerusalem
and what number of Palestinians
MAYBE ITS LITTLE
THE PALESTINIAN
may be allowed to return to commu-
HEART
IS BEATING
DOVE
IS
TICKING?!
nities their parents left in 1948.
WITH JOY!!
Israel has shown repeatedly that it
is competent to defend itself and to
make effective decisions about which
Arab governments it can trust and
how much. America is not in that
position because it has never really
thought through what it is must do
Tick
Took
in the Middle East.
Took
lick
Eventually, we are going to have to
decide whether the West and Islam
are, as scholars like Bernard Lewis
and Samuel Huntington have pro-
posed, engaged in a "clash of civiliza-
tions" during which there
can only be truces, hudnas,
but never permanent
peace. We are going to
have to decide whether we will truly
encourage liberty and oppose the
despotism that keeps so many ordi-
nary Arabs uneducated, poor and
hopeless. President George W. Bush
has spoken ringingly of a commit-
ment to democracy and freedom,
but it is not apparent what the
United States is prepared to do to
help end the monarchies of Saudi
Arabia and other Gulf states, the
military tyrannies of Egypt and Syria
or the religious authoritarianism of
www.drybonesproject.com
Iran.
Are we prepared to move slowly,
Sharm el-Sheik declaration of a formal end to Israeli-
perhaps over decades, but always in the same direction?
Palestinian violence is worth substantial rejoicing. But
Or will we continually tailor policies to suit our
they should not distract us from our own need to make
domestic political imperatives such as cheap oil and
a very tough call about basic beliefs and our willingness
relatively bloodless wars?
to pay the price for staying a long and difficult.
Voting in Iraq and Afghanistan is progress. And the
EDIT ORIAL
Making It Big In Motown
I
have been trying to figure out which political fig-
ure Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick reminds me
of. The best I can come up with is Nero.
The Roman emperor also was a pordy fellow and he
reputedly played the fiddle while his city went up in
smoke. I'm pretty sure, however, that he never bought
his wife an SUV.
The most astonishing thing to me about the Detroit
mayor's haywire performance is that he could be so
politically tone deaf while coming from such a politi-
cally wired family. Nothing seems to distract him from
the goal of living large, and I use the term advisedly.
What is terribly sad is that so many of the positives,
including the goodwill between Detroit and its sub-
urbs nurtured during Dennis Archer's two terms in
office, are about gone.
Regional co-operation has slipped back into separate
foxholes. People like Brooks Patterson are hesitant, and
justifiably so, to turn over tax dollars for anything that
would be controlled by Mayor Hip-Hop.
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@th ejewishnews. corn.
❑
with the mayor and all the council waving
The situation isn't helped by a City Council
from convertibles.
that is more dedicated to slapping each other
Then the deal suddenly became: Pistons?
with rubber bladders than deliberation.
Never heard of 'ern? Do they play around
The idea of regional transit looks dead,
here?
although the concept has been harder to kill
So I've got a great idea. Why not change the
than Rasputin. A Cobo Hall expansion, appar-
name
to the Michigan Pistons? You know, like
ently, will be left to the tender mercies of a Las
the
Indiana
Pacers or Colorado Avalanche. Get
Vegas casino.
the whole state in on the act. That should
It was a far less serious thing that finally got
GEO RGE
keep Detroit's reputation clear of any taint.
me, though. In the aftermath of last fall's ruckus
CAN TOR
There are so many disincentives to living
at The Palace, many residents of the city protest-
Re ality
and working in the city: high taxes, shaky
ed it had nothing to do with Detroit. The Palace
Ch eck
services, a dearth of retail, crime, insurance
is in Auburn Hills, they pointed out, and no one
costs, failing schools. How are the hundreds of
charged in the melee came from the city. The dis-
laid-off
city
employees to make a living?
tinguished Council member, Alonzo Bates, introduced
There will be no revival of the city until these issues
a resolution to disassociate Detroit's reputation from
are seriously addressed by serious people. Let me know
the whole affair.
if you find one.
Isn't it odd? For years we have been instructed that
Don't forget that while Archer was widely admired
we must learn to think of ourselves as an inseparable
in the suburbs, the majority of Detroiters still cher-
unit. We're all Detroiters and can not, must not be
ished the confrontational politics of Coleman Young.
divided because, like it or not, we're all in this together.
They wanted bombast, not balm, and a climate where
But when something nasty happens in Oakland
race trumped results.
County, it's bail-out time in Motown.
At least, Kilpatrick doesn't play that game. He's just
When the Pistons won the NBA title last June, the
wants to fiddle around. But who comes after him?
city could hardly wait to host the victory celebration,
❑
2/10
2005
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