Dry Bones

Opinion

PREVIOUSLY,
r OCCUPIED
GAZA

Editorials are posted and archived on JNOnline.com

BOMBED ISRAELI
TOWNS AS AN ACT ,
OF RESISTANCE.,

r

WELL NOW
LIBERATED GAZA IS
BOMBING ISRAELI
TOWNS AS AN ACT
OF RESISTANCE.

Editorial

Pullout Dividends?

e're not Pollyannas,
but we have to admit
that Israel's Gaza with-
drawal appears to be paying
diplomatic dividends.
For example, Bahrain recently
announced that it would end its
economic boycott of Israel. The
Jewish state's foreign minister,
Silvan Shalom, met in Islamabad
with his Pakistani counterpart.
Pakistan's president, General
Pervez Musharraf, spoke last
month before the American
Jewish Congress and even quoted
from the Talmud as well as the
Koran. (He also shook hands
with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon at the United Nations.)
Musharraf told Jewish leaders
that he was responding to "the
bold step taken by Prime
Minister Sharon to withdraw
from Gaza."
In addition, Algeria, Yemen
and the United Arab Emirates
are rumored to be planning offi-
cial ties with Israel. And diplo-
mats from Indonesia — the
world's most populous Muslim
nation — met casually with

W

Shalom and Sharon at the U.N.
What's more, Jordan's King
Abdullah II is calling for more
religious dialogue between mod-
erate Islamic leaders and Jewish
leaders.
Abdullah recently addressed
more than 80 U.S. rabbis who
had gathered in Washington, D.C.
His topic: "Judaism and Islam:
Beyond Tolerance."
"Our communities must see
each other as sharing a common
heritage and a common future,'
Abdullah said, citing koranic
verses and Jewish readings that
call for accommodation and
respect for other monotheistic
faiths.
But can all of this last? We've
been disappointed and jilted
before. After all, the 1990s — the
so-called Oslo years — saw simi-
lar gains melt away in the second
Palestinian intifada (uprising),
really a war on Israel, which
began nearly five years ago.
Now, Israel and the Arab world
must figure out how to seize the
moment without repeating the
mistakes of the Oslo process,

which focused more on words
and promises than on facts on
the ground. This time, we sug-
gest that Israel, diaspora Jewry
and the Muslim world pay
greater attention to building
more people-to-people contacts,
including cultural, social and
academic exchanges throughout
the Jewish and Islamic worlds.
We also suggest, like King
Abdullah, that religious leaders
from the world's three great
monotheistic religions —
Judaism, Islam and Christianity
— hold periodic conferences on
how they can better understand
each other. In Atlanta, for exam-
ple, The Temple hosted just such
a conference between Imam
Plemon T. El-Amin of the Atlanta
Masjid of Al-Islam, Rabbi Jeffrey
Salkin and pastors from local
Christian denominations.
Yes, we admit that such confer-
ences are an idealist's dream. But
they could also be seeds that
might germinate good will
between Jew and Muslim. As
author Bruce Feiler suggested at
the Atlanta conference, "the only

www.drybonesproject.com

force strong enough to take on
religious extremism is religious
moderation."
Meanwhile, Israel has done its
part with the pullout, so it's up to
the Arab and Muslim world to
'offer more than meetings and
hints at better diplomatic ties.
Israel's foes must realize that the
prime minister is balancing
between what his foreign minis-
ter calls progress on "the
Palestinian track and the Arab-
Israeli track."
And the Palestinian track is

likely to lead to nowhere in the
near future.
At the same time, however, we
applaud Israel's recent air strikes
against the terrorists firing mis-
siles from the Gaza Strip. Israeli
diplomacy must be reinforced by
force of arms, lest foes like
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and their
ilk take encouragement from the
Jewish ancestral homeland's
inaction. ❑

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

Reality Check

Malice In Wonderland

hen people say there is
a need for racial dia-
logue, that is usually
the last thing they want. What
they really mean is, "Stop deny-
ing you're a racist. Sit down and
shut up."
That seems to be the case in a
recent incident in Livonia, when
a few people made overt and ugly
racial comments at a meeting
about Wal Mart's plans for
Wonderland Mall.
They expressed fears that the
big store would bring large num-
bers of African-American shop-
pers into the area and turn the
neighborhood, in the phrase of
one protester, into a black "ghet-
to."
Local media detest Livonia
because a survey made a few
years ago indicated it was the
"whitest" large city in America.

W

MN October 6 . 2005

The automatic assumption was
that this had to be a matter of
deliberate exclusionary policy,
and its residents were presumed
racist until proven innocent.
The recent comments
appeared to validate that belief
and the media could hardly wait
to pile on.
But here was a genuine chance
for dialogue. Why wouldn't you
want to talk to these people and
find out what is making them
afraid? If you wish to persuade,
you must make an effort to
understand.
To those who think that such
racial attitudes are pathological,
an illness shared by all white
people in the privacy of their
hearts, that answer is sufficient.
Instead of a blanket condem-
nation, however, and without
condoning what was said, I think

in Livonia have taken
it is important to get at
off in recent years and
other possible answers.
anything that seems to
For example, other
threaten those values
large malls in cities
is perceived as a terri-
bordering Detroit have
ble threat.
been the site of highly
While these people
publicized racial prob-
may not be highly edu-
lems. It happened at
George Cantor
cated, they are not
Fairlane, Northland,
Colu mnist
dumb. They have
Eastland. The same
observed what hap-
media that condemns
pened to property values when a
the Livonia protesters gave a lot
community starts to turn from
of space and air time to those
white to black.
incidents. How can they be sur-
Their comments were clumsy,
prised when some people are
unpolished
and, the worst sin of
edgy about the possibility of
all
in
the
eyes
of the media,
similar events at Wonderland?
insensitive.
But
not irrational.
Underlying this, however, are
They
were
based,
in their minds,
basic economic fears. These are
on
empirical
evidence.
not wealthy, college-educated
The Jewish community should
professionals making these
be
the last one to point a finger.
remarks. They are people whose
In
my
lifetime, I have watched it
greatest investment is the equity
run
from
three different areas —
in their homes. Property values

Central High, Northwest Detroit
and Oak Park-Southfield —for
reasons of race.
Oh, we gave a smoother ration-
ale for it: Better schools. A rising
standard of living within the
community. But, at bottom, the
reasons were really not much dif-
ferent.
There is absolutely a need for
honest racial dialogue. But the
beginning of wisdom might be to
listen to the fears expressed by
people like those in Livonia, and
then try to build a dialogue on
that.
Dismissing them all as hope-
less racists accomplishes noth-
ing, aside from making a severe
problem worse. ❑

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

47