Opinion
Dry Bones
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Editorial
Gilad Waits And Waits
ust a few days before the June
25 three-year anniversary of
Gilad Shift's captivity in Gaza
by Hamas, various news media reported
that his release was imminent. Apparently,
Egyptian, Arab and European Union
sources told of a multifaceted agreement
that would release Gilad to Egypt. There,
his parents could visit him until thou-
sands of Palestinian prisoners are released
by Israel.
Gilad was to be llamas' deposit. A pawn
in the game.
But nothing happened. Hamas is still
holding Gilad, now 22, refusing even to
allow visits by the International Red Cross,
which has been demanding to see him.
Many question if he is even alive, which is
why his delivery to Egypt was to start the
deal.
Two of Gilad's companions in the
armored tank corps were killed and three
others wounded on that morning three
years ago when Palestinians tunneled into
Israel from Gaza seeking to capture sol-
diers, dead or alive, to barter with. Hamas
rockets fell on nearby civilian communi-
ties as a wounded Gilad was dragged into
Gaza. He hasn't been seen since.
When 43 local community groups came
together in March to show solidarity with
Gilad on his 1,000th day in captivity, a
flurry of media reports appeared then
about a deal in the offing. The reports
were wrong then, too.
A complex game is going on that doesn't
bode well for his release any time soon.
Inter-Palestinian and inter-Arab politics
are no less important than the interplay
between llamas and Israel.
Fatah members are among the prison-
ers Hamas wants released as they believe
this will gain them support in the ranks
of Fatah. Fatah is damned if they don't
support their brothers' release, but also
damned if it is llamas that gets them
released. Hamas likes it that way.
llamas also wants a reopening of Gaza
border crossings with Israel so they can
appear as heroes and further sideline
Fatah. Again, Fatah wants itself to gain
from the openings not llamas.
This is why recent reports framed
Gilad's release as part of reconciliation
between Hamas and Fatah with prison-
ers, border crossings, dollars, Syria, Egypt
and amiable power sharing between
Palestinian brothers all wrapped into the
deal. In retrospect, that is why the reports
of "imminent release" shouldn't have been
seen as credible.
Fatah is weak and divided; llamas is
strong, but needs to
produce some tan-
gible benefits to the
long-suffering Gazans.
Many are not happy
A5 11
with the Hamas prov-
SLowit.?
ocations that brought
RoLLS ITS
war last January and
they want relief.
But any Israeli
concessions to Hamas
to obtain Gilad will
be opposed by Fatah
unless it can reap
some of the benefit.
So Gilad is not just
a prisoner of llamas,
www.drybonesblog.com
he is a prisoner of
people. Last week, the paper's courageous
the inter-Palestinian
journalist Khalid Abu Toameh, who has
battles that show no sign of abating.
reported on Palestinian corruption and
On its English-language Web site,"diffi-
cult and strained" was how Hamas termed violence for years, wrote that Fatah says
Hamas has rounded up and severely tor-
the latest round of the ongoing reconcilia-
tion talks hosted by Egypt. The Palestinian tured more than 1,000 Fatah supporters in
Centre for Human Rights reports politi-
the past few weeks.
There is not only bad blood between the
cally motivated arrests and abuse of oppo-
two
sides; there is a lot of blood.
nents is widespread. Bassam Eid of the
So just as Israel waits for the bitterly
Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring
divided Palestinians to come together as
group writes in the Jerusalem Post that
a credible peace partner, Gilad Shalit, too,
both parties are corrupt and putting their
waits. And waits. And our hearts break. ❑
own political interests among those of the
Reality Check
Chronic Iconic
C
an we please declare a morato-
rium on use of the word "iconic"?
Give it a rest already.
In the last weeks, I have seen it used
in reference to Eight Mile Road, Ed
McMahon, Kodachrome, the Michigan
Central Depot, the Farrah Fawcett swim-
suit poster, David Carradine, the former
Ponchartrain Hotel, the Ford Mustang and
Chevy Corvette, Walter Cronkite and a
house for sale in Los Angeles that Howard
Hughes once slept in.
That's a whole lot of icons. Or more
likely a whole lot of lazy writers who go
for the easy buzzword rather than digging
deeper for a phrase less trite.
But "iconic" went into overdrive with the
death of Michael Jackson. He has retired
the trophy.
The word's original meaning, of course,
was an image of religious veneration; the
graven idols that Jews are expressly forbid-
den to worship. In recent years, however,
it has come to mean a symbol of great
a believer in the adage about
cultural significance.
speaking nothing but good
Commentators tripped
about the dead, he was also
all over each other trying to
extraordinarily weird.
explain this larger meaning of
But iconic? That's more
Jackson's life. On page one of
of a statement about today's
USA Today, a woman identified
debased pop culture than any-
as an Israeli soldier was shown
thing else. At least his music
lighting a memorial candle for
had a melody and his dance
him, which I found vaguely dis-
moves were more widely emu-
turbing.
(;('( )1 (Jo
lated than anyone since Fred
When I taught college jour-
Astaire.
Ca ntor
nalism, I always asked my
I'll have to draw the line at
Colu mnist
classes to write an obituary
Eight Mile Road and David
about a major living figure who
Carradine, however.
had recently been caught up in
Some of Jackson's obits were a bit over
a scandal. The purpose was to balance a
the top. Some went so far as to say he was
person's accomplishments with the nega-
tives to arrive at a fair and honest summa- the first African-American male singer
to gather an audience across the racial
tion of his life. Jackson would have been a
divide. That is simply untrue. Nat Cole had
good test.
a string of number one hits throughout
He was certainly the top entertainer of
the 40s and 50s and so did Billy Eckstein.
the 1980s and helped turn MTV into a
Even some of Jackson's Motown col-
cable giant by making pop music videos
leagues — Smokey Robinson and Marvin
into self-contained dramas. While I am
Gaye — got there before he did. But
another property of an icon is that it is to
be worshipped uncritically. So be it.
While we're at it, I'd also like to tamp
down on the word "ironic." Its true mean-
ing is an action that ends up having the
opposite of the intended effect. Or a state-
ment with an underlying meaning directly
opposed to what is actually said.
The way it is most commonly applied
today, though, is to describe any strange
coincidence. Such as two icons dying on
the same day.
Both iconic and ironic are Greek in deri-
vation and, presumably, they knew how to
use them properly.
But my all-time favorite for this sort
of thing remains the Detroit newspaper
headline that read "Golf Immortal Bobby
Jones Dies:' It seems they're just not mak-
ing immortals the way they used to.
❑
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com .
July 9 - 2009
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