Opinion Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us. Greenberg's View Editorial Gilad Shalit: One of Us T his Shabbat, it will be 986 days since Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian terrorists who had tunneled into Israel from Gaza and killed two other Israeli soldiers. It is time to bring Gilad home. But how? Hamas, which rules over the Gaza Strip, does not subscribe to the concepts of corn- promise and coexistence. Israel has tried everything from diplomacy to military action to no avail. Israel has sent troops into Gaza, but they've come back empty handed. Significant international pressure, includ- ing Arab pressure, has been brought on Hamas without effect. In contravention of international law — no real surprise after its many other violations — Hamas will not even allow the International Red Cross to visit Shalit. The only way to bring him home is to make a deal. Ehud Olmert, Israel's soon to be ex-prime minister, is right to insist that there would be no cease-fire and release of Palestinian prisoners unless Shalit is returned alive. There are multiple reports that as part of a cease-fire, Israel will release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, both Hamas and Fatah (the party that governs in the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority rubric), in exchange for Shalit. Lopsided exchanges such as this have occurred many times, but they are balanced by the Israeli connection with the kidnapped soldiers and their families. Gilad was taken when he was 19; today, he is 22. He could be almost anyone's son, brother, friend or cousin. In fact, he is our brother, and we should help him. Israel is known for having a freewheel- ing and vibrant diversity of opinion on many issues. But just last week, a Tel Aviv University poll found 77 percent of the Israeli public (85 percent of the Jewish public) backed Olmert's refusal to sign a thing without Gilad coming home. The time seems to be especially pre- cipitous for a deal. Hamas is in need of an achievement so they can trumpet another pyrrhic "victory" over Israel as well diminish their rival, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert would like an image enhancer, too, though it goes well beyond politics and self-image. Shalit was taken under his watch, and he wants to bring him home. This is a critical time to act. If Shalit is not freed in the next few weeks, he could easily spend his third year in captivity and, like Israelis Ron Arad or Nachson Wachsman, he may never come home. There are things we can do to assist; being a well-organized Jewish commu- nity helps. Our organizations, synagogues and agencies can make Gilad an honor- ary member; the Jewish News will publish the names of those who do. Doing so will symbolically connect us to him, educate our community and provide moral sup- port to the Shalit family. It also will provide practical support by ramping up the pres- sure on those who have a direct effect on the situation. It's also a good time to talk with our children, and with each other, about Jewish peoplehood and communal responsibility and how it affects how we live and what we do. On the High Holidays, when across the world more Jews gather together than at any other time, we say, Kol Israel arevim zeh la zeh — "all Israel is responsible for one another:' Let us use this strength of purpose on behalf of Gilad Shalit ... and ourselves. I The Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit lists way to help Gilad Shalit: www.detro*rc.org. Groups making him an honorary member should contact B'nai B'rith Great Lakes Regional Director Don Cohen (248-646-3100, dcohen@ bnaibrith.org) by March 16. Reality Check Fantasy City I forget sometimes what a magnifi- cent building Detroit's Central High School is. I lived right across Tuxedo from the school's entrance for the first 12 years of my life. Its lawns and athletic fields were my playground. I never was a regular student there, although United Hebrew Schools held classes for its lower grades in the build- ing and, according to a siddur I found in my library the other day, I was the proud winner of the 1952 Pesach Prize. For doing what, I cannot imagine. Perhaps, macaroon consumption. The building itself, with its detailed stone carvings and ornate windows and an architectural model that resembles a castle from the French Renaissance, is stunning. Along with its companion schools, Durfee and the long-vanished Roosevelt, it presented an educational complex unmatched in most cities of the time, which was the late 1920s. I was reminded of all this by a picture A22 March 5 • 2009 iN of the school that ran in the newspapers recently. It accom- panied a story about the shooting of two people inside. And there is pretty much a history of Detroit's last 80 years in a nutshell. From a city that prided itself on its educational and cultural facilities, and the beauty that could be created in the midst of a growing industrial behemoth, to the clueless, rudderless hulk of today. A place where it's hard to figure out which is the most incompetent body — the Board of Education or the City Council. Both of them seem to occupy an alternative universe, totally detached from economic reality and acceptance of the city's diminished role in the life of this region. Where public service is a punch line. The defiant Council vote against the regional plan for Cobo Hall expansion, on the absolutely bizarre premise that funds will be coming from the federal stimulus package, is typical behavior. Those who purport to run this city demand abso- lute control rather than giv- ing up any more of Detroit's "jewels," even if that will mean having absolute control of a corpse. How ironic that all this involves a structure named for Albert Cobo, Detroit's mayor in the 1950s and the exemplar of effective, honest government. Only one in six eligible voters showed up for last week's primary. I can't help but feel that much of that abysmal turnout was directly related to Kwame Kilpatrick's betrayal of his city. He had raised such hopes among its younger people, comparable to those lifted up by Barack Obama. Then he turned around and spit in their eye. The damage he did to the aspira- tions of this generation, the hopes that it was possible to remake Detroit into a more vibrant place, is incalculable. Put aside all the jokes about the juvenile sex tapes. Here is his worst offense and Peter Karmanos should be ashamed of himself for handing this bum a six-figure job. After all the big talk and paper dreams, what is Detroit left with? Failing schools. No retail district. Stalled plans and shattered hopes. A modest develop- ment corridor that stretches about two blocks on either side of Woodward from the river to the Boulevard. A handful of fine historic neighborhoods. And a whole lot of buildings like Central High that recall another time: when plans turned into skyscrapers, dreams became reality and education was housed in palaces. I 1 George Cantor's e-mail address is gcantor614@aol.com.