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Opinion

Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us.

Dry Bones

THEY ARE KIDNAPPERS,
HOSTAGE-TAKERS,
GOONS, AND THUGS,

THE WORLD IS NOT
WILLING TO STOP
THESE PIRATES!

Editorial

Israel's Security Dilemma

A

group of Somali pirates who
tried to seize the cruise ship
Melody in the Indian Ocean last
month got an inharmonious surprise.
Instead of surrendering, a security
force aboard the Italian-owned vessel
opened up with fire hoses and pistols.
The pirates were driven off and later cap-
tured, and the ship went on its way.
The security was provided by young
Israelis, and, according to the Israeli
newspaper Haaretz, this has become a
popular job among many young veterans
of elite units of the Israel Defense Forces
(IDF).
"We hire them because they're the
best:' said one of the directors of the
cruise line.
There in a single sentence is both the
triumph and the tragedy of Israel.
It certainly was not part of the Zionist
dream to build the best security force in
the world. But because of the unrelenting
hostility of its neighbors and the neces-
sity of history, that's exactly what Israel

has done.
No one is better at this dangerous
game. Israeli officials, in fact, can barely
conceal their contempt at American
efforts to enhance our security. "The
United States has not devised a better
security system, but a new method of
annoying people," said one.
Most of the Israelis employed by cruise
ships, along with some commercial ves-
sels and oil rigs, have undergone naval
commando training. Since the surge in
piracy off the Horn of Africa, demand for
these specialists has gone through the
ceiling.
For many Israelis, it has become some-
thing of a dream job. It gives them a
chance to travel and save money. Israelis
are inveterate travelers to some of the
unlikeliest places on the planet. This situ-
ation suits them well.
"When it comes to security on ships
and oil rigs," said one former naval com-
mando officer quoted by Haaretz, "it's not
enough to know how to shoot and attack.

BLOODY

NO YET THE
WORLD DOES
NOTHING!?

IT'S JUST
SHOCKING!

There are other skills,
like taking action under
difficult situations at
sea, operating radar and
UH. . . ARE
special marine secu-
TALKING ABOUT THE
rity equipment as well
SOMALI PIRATES OR
as knowing the weak
THE
MAMAS GANG IN
points on ships of vari-
GAZA?
ous sizes."
Until the attack on
the Melody, much of
this activity had gone
unnoticed. There are
no statistics kept by the
IDF on how many of its
veterans are engaged
DryBonesBlog.com
in this line of work.
The best guess is in the
against Israel for taking up arms against
hundreds.
a few peace-loving Somalis who were
It's fairly easy to understand why this
only trying to make a decent living.
has been kept on the down low. As one
That also, regrettably, is the story of
writer for the London Times put it, after
Israel in recent years. No wonder it is
these pirates were driven off it would
advisable to maintain the top security
probably be just a matter of time before
force in such a world.
the United Nations issued a protest

Reality Check

A Friend Of Sherlock

I

t is a puzzle that has engaged literary
detectives for decades.
How could the same writer who
created Sherlock Holmes, one of the most
enduring symbols of pure logic and scien-
tific analysis, also have clung adamantly to
a belief in spiritualism and fairies?
But it was all part of the makeup of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle.
"His family continues to be fiercely pro-
tective of his reputation and it is extremely
difficult to do any research into his life,"
says Dr. Philip Parker, of West Bloomfield,
who owns one of the largest private col-
lections in the country of material relating
to Doyle.
It is in the hopes of encouraging more
research into the man that Parker, a psy-
chiatrist, is donating his collection to the
University of Michigan libraries.
"There is a fine line between biblio-
philia and bibliomania," he says. "Between
loving books and collecting them merely
for the sake of owning them. So this is a
way of giving the widest use to material

that I've accumulated over the
years.
But it means more than that
to Parker. It is very much a fam-
ily tribute because his father,
uncles and cousins were also
dedicated to Doyle and his most
famous literary work.
"My dad, Hyman Parker, who
was a labor lawyer in Detroit for
many years, actually began the
collection," says Parker. "He was
a true Sherlockian. He and my
uncle belonged to the Amateur
Mendicant Society, a group that
operated under the pretense that Holmes
was a real person and had retired to rural
England to become a beekeeper. They even
sold jars of honey with this imaginary
identity on it.
"On their first wedding anniversary,
my mother's gift to him was an inscribed
copy of the Collected Stories of Sherlock
Holmes."
While Parker has maintained an interest

in the detective, it is the study
of Doyle that consumes him. He
has exchanged letters with the
author's last surviving daughter,
trying to gain more insight into
the man. But to no avail.
"The family has always been
intensely private about his
personal life, burning letters
and things like that," he says.
"He wanted to be depicted as a
white knight, a Boy Scout. But
it really wasn't like that. There
are many unanswered ques-
tions about him. So it's only
by putting together pieces of information
from outside sources that researchers can
expand our knowledge.
"Holmes made Doyle a lot of money
and gave him the freedom to pursue writ-
ing and other interests that he regarded as
far more important. He even felt trapped
by his own fictitious character and tried
to kill him off in one story. But the public
refused to accept it.

"Doyle was especially avid about
putting right what he regarded as mis-
carriages of justice. I've done a lot of
research into the Oscar Slater case, in
which he took up the cause of a Jewish
man in Scotland, who was really an
unsavory character, and won his freedom
because he felt the proceedings were
biased and a blot on the British legal
system."
The formal donation ceremony will
be held at 2 p.m., May 17 at the Hatcher
Library on the university campus. There
will be talks about Holmes and Doyle
and will feature foods mentioned in his
works.
The event is free but an RSVP is
required at LibraryDevelopment@umich.
edu or (734) 763-7368.
If that archfiend Professor Moriarty
shows up, however, he better come in
disguise.

❑

George Cantor's e-mail address is

gcantor614@aol.com .

May 7 2009

A29