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Editorials are posted and archived on JNOnline.com

Israel's Chips On The Table

I

srael made the right decision in not pulling out
of the entire West Bank even as it decided —
democratically and governmentally — to with-
draw from the Gaza Strip and four Samarian settle-
ments. Samaria and Judea's biblical importance aside,
the West Bank and the separation fence hold the key
to Israel's future defense strategy.
We also believe that Israel was right to heed
America's recent insistence, as the New York Times
reported, that it freeze plans to add 3,500 housing
units near the West Bank settlement of Maale
Adumim — for the moment.
Nevertheless, we favor the kind of limited settlement
growth in the West Bank that the Israeli government
approved earlier last week 117 houses in Ariel
in the heart of the West Bank. The homes
will be in the center of Ariel and won't
expand the city of 18,000 people, govern-
ment officials took pains to explain.
Israel must retain bargaining chips like those 117
homes should the Palestinians ever come to their senses
and want to talk real peace in search of a two-state,
side-by-side, solution.
What's more, Israel already holds several densely set-
tled Jewish areas on the West Bank that are more
Israeli than Arab. Israel claimed the West Bank fairly in
the 1967 Six-Day War and settlement there has been
more natural there than in Gaza.
In any case, a bilateral agreement with the
Palestinians is likely to be a painstakingly slow process
if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
somehow figures out a way to quiet Hamas, which is
expected to do well in the PA.'s upcoming parliamen-
tary elections. (Yes, Hamas is is run by terrorists, but it
also provides much-needed social services to the

Dry Bones "'ETIOEU4SEAR"

Palestinian people as political cover.)
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon has likely gained
breathing space for his war-stressed
country and its re-awakening econo-
my with the Gaza pullout and with
his pledge to curb further expansion
in Maale Adumim. And he also has
gained breathing space in what could
be the political fight of his life — a
battle for the leadership of the Likud
Party from former finance minister
and prime minister Binyamin
Netanyahu.
Netanyahu — who
walked out of the cabinet
to protest the Gaza pull-
out as it began — is try-
ing to get the 3,000-member central
committee of the Likud to oust
Sharon as party chairman and as
prime minister.
And who would have ever consid-
ered Sharon to be a dove? Compared
to Netanyahu, he just might be. For
example, Netanyahu recently visited
Maale Adumim and promised to
build 5,000 new housing units there
(the Israeli equivalent of a kosher
chicken in every pot) as a new
stretch of the security fence is being
.• •
built around the settlement.
So keep your eyes on the political
headlines coming out of Israel, a
country where all politics are local but usually have
global implications. The important stories before the
Sept. 25 Likud central committee meeting won't be as
dramatic as the recent unilateral disengagement —

EDIT ORIAL

E-mail your opinion in a letter to the editor of no
more than 150 words to: letters@thejewishnews. corn.

Change Of Seasons

I

used to hate the day after Labor Day. When I
was a kid, it was the true end of summer, gone
with the next sunset. School always began on
Wednesday then, and after complaining of boredom
for the last month of vacation, the stark realization that
it was over filled me with regret at all the things
undone.
No more idle mornings to gather at the
field and try to get up a game of "over-the-
fence" or "one-field-hitting/pitcher's-mound-
out." The final inning had been played.
When I was an adult, it meant the return of the
Lodge logjam. Summers were like a free pass down the
freeway, but on this day, it was as if everyone had
returned from vacation at once and forgotten how to
drive while they were gone.
The 30-minute drive took 45, and it was slow, slow,
slow all the way.
I haven't been a schoolboy for many years, and I

DRIVING PEOPLE
OUT OF THEIR
HOMES

SINCE 1948
ISRAEL HAS
DENIED

1

AND TURNING
THEM INTO
REFUGEES.

a

VP

AND NOW
WERE BEING
PRAISED FOR
DOING JUST
THAT?

• •

www.drybonesproject.com

barring chaos in a Palestinian-run Gaza — but they
will be just as vital to the Jewish state's future and how
it takes the first step toward the lasting peace that most
Israelis and disapora Jews fervently desire.

❑

know that my family was thinking of me. It
don't have to make that tedious downtown
always worked."
commute anymore.
The little girl smiled and thanked her. I
Now the day means other things.
think Sherry definitely shows promise.
There was a commotion outside the kitchen
The scene I was watching reminded me of a
window on this year's Tuesday. When I looked
favorite song, "The Folks Who Live on the
outside ,there appeared to be a small platoon of
Hill," with a wonderful lyric by Oscar
children waiting in the court opposite our
Hammerstein:
house for the school bus.
Mnd when the kids grow up and leave us
When we moved in, more than 17 years ago,
GEORGE
We'll sit and look at that same old view
we were the young family on the
CANTOR
Just we two."
block. Our kids were 11 and 8 years
Columnist
I know the day is coming soon when we will
old, and they had to walk around the
decide to sell the house, an address I have occupied
corner if they wanted to ride the bus.
longer than any other in my life. We have watched the
Somehow, we have become the block eld-
view through so many seasons here.
ers, and there now are so many kids living
The lilac tree, which friends gave us as a move-in
around us that the bus stops right here.
present, is now full grown and our herald of spring.
Sherry was out at the stop, taking pictures for the
The apple tree, which deposited its bee-swarming fruit
parents who were seeing their kids off. I told her later
all over the driveway each fall, has been cut down.
that she was just getting in practice for -her upcoming
Seasons changed, and so did we. But the view from
grandmothership.
our front window is better than ever, filled with laugh-
She had noticed that one little girl, bound for her
ing children.
first kindergarten, was wearing a locket similar to hers.
I like the day after Labor Day a lot more these
"When I was a little girl in school," she said, "and I got
days.
❑
a little sad, I would just hold on to my locket and

REAL ITT
CBE CH

George Cantor's e-mail address is gcantor614@aol.com .

%TN

9/15
2005

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