From my Florida Jewish Journal column of 2/28/12, ‘My Kid brother died at 96’ by J. Zel Lurie (98):
…. At the funeral, a granddaughter, Dr. Jenifer Weiss, an osteopathic physician, enumerated “some of the gifts he gave me.” … :
- …”Be skeptical but try it anyway.”
- “Tell the truth and know when you are lying.”
- “Ask for what you want.” …
I reflected on these maxims as I flew home to … Delray Beach. “Ask for what you want” came up at the Mardi Gras dinner that evening. Red beans and rice was on the menu. I told my partner Dorothy that I’d like red beans without rice. She said it is already mixed. “I’ll ask for it,” I said and I did, and a piping hot dish of delicious red beans without rice arrived.
On a higher level, I wish that the serious gap between Hamas and the Likud Government could be narrowed just as easily. I wish that instead of telling Abbas that he could have peace or Hamas, not both, that Israel would ask Hamas to join the PLO and the peace process. Ask for what you want and you might get it.
Unfortunately the Israel government is not ready to ask this question; the current government will not make the deep sacrifices on the West Bank it would have to make for peace. There are too many settlers — all of them are armed.
The most “pro-Israel” peace plan would displace about 20 percent of the settlers. Will they leave their homes without a fight? The violence of the “price tag” youth, who last week painted “Death to Christians” on a Jerusalem church, points to a civil war of Jew against Jew before there is peace with the Palestinians.
When the Israel government overcomes all the obstacles that prevent it from negotiating a peace agreement, then they will ask Fatah and Hamas for peace and mean it. It won’t happen in my lifetime. …
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