Opinion
Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us .
Greenberg's View
Editorial
A Poor Study
W
hatever else the Iraq
Study Group report
may have proposed,
its suggestion that the United
States reach out to Iran as a
way of resolving the situation is
ludicrous.
Iran has been doing all it
can for the past four years to
make sure that American policy
in Iraq cannot succeed. It has
become the chief destabilizing
force throughout the Middle
East, besides being the most
blatantly anti-Semitic regime
to come to power since World
War II. Its obscene convention
of Holocaust-deniers this month
confirmed once again that its
present rulers lie beyond the
reach of rational discourse.
It sends Shiite fighters into
Iraq, funds Hezbollah's attempt
to bring down Lebanon's
democratically elected govern-
ment and supports Hamas in
its threats and attacks against
Israel. It also is defying the
United Nations and world
opinion by developing nuclear
weapons.
Exactly how is America sup-
posed to reach out to this bunch?
With a pitchfork?
Given all this, however, the
Iraq Study Group concludes
that it is Israel that really is the
key to the situation. Nothing
can be done, it says, until the
Palestinian situation is resolved.
And, oh yes, the Golan is
returned to Syria.
It is hard to imagine how sup-
posedly well-informed, thought-
ful men and women could arrive
at these conclusions. American
policy in Iraq is certainly in tat-
ters but these proposals offer no
answers.
Thankfully, there are other
regimes in the Middle East who
see no benefits in cozying up to
Iran. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are
especially wary of Iranian inten-
tions and these Sunni states also
have no taste for Iran's brand of
Shiite religious extremism.
While the Saudi Arabian and
Egyptian regimes are far from
model democracies, their foreign
policy is grounded in realism.
Iranian ambitions are a threat
to them, and a nuclear Iran is a
nightmare — just as much as it
AO ISRAEL. MOST—%\
BE WIPER OFF
FACE OF 114E EARTI4
IN t1/4 AOLOCAOST!
1 4#011
4107
oteveggreenivn3-art.com
2005, ✓JLA
would be for Israel.
Even its putative ally, Syria,
is not happy about the estab-
lishment of extremist religious
schools sponsored by Iran and
operating within its borders.
The authors of the Iraq
reports call it "a comprehensive
strategy" and insist that all
its recommendations must be
adopted if it is to work. There
is a strange sort of moral abso-
lutism in that attitude; one
peculiarly at odds with the job
of an unelected panel that was
charged with making sugges-
tions and not setting policy.
The way out of Iraq remains
a prickly patch that will define
the last two years of George W.
Bush's presidency. But engaging
a regime that believes it can go
over the head of the president
and address the American
people directly with threats
and bluster hardly inspires
confidence that it will point the
way.
concept to strike,
but that's how
the mind works
when you're 21.
So after spend-
ing New Year's
Eve in San
Francisco, we
turned the Chevy
around and
headed back to
Detroit. I applied
for a job• at the Free Press
and, much to my astonish-
ment, was hired and spent
the next 40 years working
for the city's dailies, which
had its moments.
Oddly enough, a year or so
after our Christmas Eve dinner,
Jerry told me that his cousin
had decided to move to Los
Angeles. That surprised me
because he had been so enthusi-
astic about Phoenix. But he had
big dreams, and only a city like
L.A. could hold them.
Over the years, I read about
him frequently, and on a trip
to California with my family
in 1987, even interviewed him
at his office for a column. He
remembered me and greeted me
cordially, although the phone
never stopped ringing during
our discussion.
I read about him again in this
month's Vanity Fair. It said
that Eli Broad is now the third
wealthiest man in Los Angeles,
one of the city's greatest patrons
of the arts and a leader in its
downtown redevelopment.
But I still think of him as the
young guy in Phoenix with all of
that before him. Funny. I think
of me that way, too.
E-mail letters of no more than
150 words to:
letters@thejewishnews.com .
Reality Check
Holiday In Phoenix
I
n December of 1962
I decided to move to
California. I left an intern-
ship with the Kalamazoo
Gazette (which is more fun to
say than to work for), loaded up
my new Chevy 2-10 and headed
west.
My friend Jerry came along
for the ride and shared the driv-
ing. In three days we arrived in
Arizona.
A cousin of mine had just
moved to Tucson and I wanted
to visit her. Jerry said that he
had a cousin who had recently
moved to Phoenix from Detroit,
and it was only fair that we stop
off and visit him, too.
So we checked into the Heart
o' Phoenix Motel on Van Buren
Street and followed the direc-
tions to his house.
Jerry's cousin had done well
and he was delighted to play
the host. He drove us all around
the Camelback Mountain area,
showing off the splendid homes
on its slopes, pointing out the
one that belonged to Barry
Goldwater.
He had started out build-
ing tract houses in the Detroit
suburbs and, sensing greater
prospects for growth in Arizona,
was putting up low-cost housing
there. He was not yet 30, and at
dinner that night, he told us of
plans to take his company pub-
lic. At my tender age, I hadn't the
faintest idea what that meant,
but it sounded impressive.
It was Christmas Eve and
there weren't many restaurants
open, so we ended up at the
Phoenix Playboy Club. This was
quite a switch from the tradi-
tional way of observing the holi-
day — a movie and a Chinese
restaurant.
But it was an
interesting evening
and Jerry's cousin
and his wife, Edye,
were just as warm
and welcoming
as they could be.
Heimish, I'd call
them.
We said goodbye
with warm hand-
shakes and a kiss on
the cheek from Edye, and the
next morning we completed the
drive to California.
I did some interviewing
at newspapers in the Los
Angeles area and got a tenta-
tive job offer from the Valley
Times, a small daily in North
Hollywood. I gave it some
thought, but it struck me
that Los Angeles was a long
way from home. I know that
was an odd time for such a
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com .
December 21 . 2006
27