BIG IMO Dry Bones THE BULLY BOY Opinion Editorials are posted and archived on JNOnline.com . Editorial Who Needs Syria? nce, making peace with Damascus was one of Israel's priorities, but not today. Syrian President Bashar Assad has ineptly painted his country into a geopolitical corner by sanctioning the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 19 other people in February and by stonewalling the subsequent United Nations investigation. That probe implicated Assad and his brother-in-law Asef Shawkat (chief of Syria's military intelligence) in Harriri's killing. And a subsequent U.N. resolu- tion warned of sanctions against Syria if it doesn't cooperate "unconditionally" in the ongoing Hariri probe. According to John Bolton, America's U.N. envoy, the resolution "unmistakably sent a clear message" to Assad. We hope the ophthalmologist- turned-dictator can see the handwriting on the wall. That . doesn't mean sacrificing a few scapegoats, even a few other brothers-in law or two; it means real cooperation with United 0 Nations investigators. We also have some suggestions for the people who make America's foreign policy: • First, Assad must genuinely bolster the Syria-Iraq border to block insurgents from smuggling weapons and jihadists into Iraq. (Syria recently hosted several TV journalists for a Potemkin-vil- lage tour of that porous border, but nobody was fooled.) •Assad must stop supporting Palestinian terrorism and stop financing Hezbollah in Lebanon. And he must stop meddling in that country's affairs after 29 years Of occupation. If Assad doesn't comply, the United States must press the U.N. to impose a tough economic boy- cott on Syria, not like the inept and dishonest sanctions that helped feed billions of dollars into Saddam Hussein's coffers after the Gulf War. Real and effective pressure would also benefit Israel because it might deter Assad from fan- ning the flames of Palestinian terrorism. In addition, pressing Assad will surely take the Golan Heights out of play as a bargain- ing chip in any future road map negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. In any event, Israel isn't in any hurry to give up the Golan, which it formally annexed in 1981 and is now home to some 20,000 settlers, Meanwhile, we're glad to see that Syria is getting little backing in the Arab world, especially from Egypt, its partner in the short-lived United Arab Republic. Indeed, Syria's only ally seems to be Iran. As for Assad, the only weapon left to him is probably leaving a power vacuum that would make Iraq look like a stroll in the park if he leaves office. However, with the region in an uproar, the usual suspects in the Arab world are not buying that argument. "We hope Syria will cooperate completely with the investiga- tion," editorialized the govern- ment-supported Al Ahram, Egypt's most important newspa- per."But the starting point before ISRAEL IS NOT ON OFFICIAL IRANIAN MAPS! www.DryBonesBlog.Blogspot.com any talk of Arab support is total Syrian cooperation with the international investigation:' the editorial added. And even the Arab League, which usually marches in lock- step with any member that's in trouble, declined to comment, Ha'aretz noted. Maybe our wish list for Syria seems over-optimistic, But con- sider this: If someone had pre- dicted 20 years ago that Syria and Iraq — two of Israel's arch- enemies — would become bit players in the Middle East, that "expert" would have been laughed out of the room. That outcome — and the seeming thaw in Israeli-Arab diplomatic relations — gives us hope for the future. ❑ E-mail your opinion in a letter to the editor of no more than 150 words to: letters@thejewishnews.com. Reality Check Shared Memories I is been named Rosa Parks Boulevard for years. But old Detroiters still call it 12th Street. • No disrespect to the great lady of the civil rights movement. They just can't help it. It was 12th when they lived there and in their minds it will always be 12th. Just as they will always call it "the Boulevard" rather than Grand Boulevard, and pronounce it "By-una Vista" instead of the more elegant Spanish Buena Vista. I suppose the proper way to say Appoline, which was a fash- ionable 19th century first name for women, is with the accent on the second syllable--a-POL-lin- uh. But I have never heard it done any other way but Apple- line, which sounds like the name of a rural trolley company. 40 Which is a roundabout way of explaining why so many Detroiters who haven't lived in the city for years still feel invest- ed there. Every street ties a mem- ory down, every name has its own special twist. Twelfth is, of course, a street that figured large in local Jewish history. Through the 1920s and into the next decade, it was the main drag of the community. By the mid-1930s, the center had moved a few blocks west to Linwood and Dexter. But on the eve of the 1967 riots, when the old 12th Street disappeared for- ever in smoke and ash, there were still many Jewish-owned stores between the Boulevard and Davison. I can remember my dad doing his supermarketing at the B&C Market, which was on 12th and Richton. Prices may have been better at the A&P over greater than it really was. on Hamilton, but he was I had that fact brought a firm believer in sup- home to me several years porting Jewish-owned ago when I was doing a businesses. TV segment about the Rosa Parks Boulevard old Wilson Dairy, at is certainly a more sce- James Couzens and nic thoroughfare, with a Outer Drive. Its front George Cantor tower was sort of an Art slender median and Colu mnist new town homes. But Deco landmark. the old 12th Street was More than that, charged with vitality. Even in the though, was the memory of the years preceding the riots, when ice cream sundaes devoured this was almost a completely there, a standard part of any visit black neighborhood, the side- to my grandmother's house on walks were always crowded, and nearby Snowden. there was such great energy. When I did my shoot, it had What I find striking is that become a dry cleaner. A nearby despite the memories of our resident, dropping off some community, these Detroit neigh- clothes, asked what we were borhoods have been African- doing. When I explained, he American a whole lot longer than smiled and said, "I really miss they ever were Jewish. It's the that ice cream. We'd been going intensity of the memories that there for years!' makes the time span seem Northwest Detroit turned into a predominantly African- American community in the late 1960s. It has remained that way ever since. In the well of memo- ry, my family lived in that neigh- borhood for a long, long time. But when I count up the years, it was only 14, less than a third of the time my fellow mourner of vanished sundaes had been a resident. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote that "The thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." The memories made in youth remain alive and vivid for a life- time. And they remind us how closely intertwined the Detroit experience has been for Jews and African-Americans. ❑ George Cantor's e-mail address is gcantor614@aol.com . November 10 2005 J.