Editorials are posted and archived on JNOnline.com 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 33