Dengl 22 New York Times runs proposal for Peace between Israel and Palestinians

If not now: when?
I was sent this article. It suggests to Israeli "hardliners" that the prospect of a secure half-cake today, is better than a whole cake in the unforseeable future, with a great deal of indigestion on the way. I might be tempted, if I was in Israel as the "midliner" I reckon myeslf to be, to go for the half-and-now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/opinion/28friedman.html?emc=eta1


In the first century BCE, Babylonian born Hillel (later known as Hillel the Elder) migrated to the Land of Israel to study and worked as a woodcutter, eventually becoming the most influential force in Jewish life. Hillel is said to have lived in such great poverty that he was sometimes unable to pay the admission fee to study Torah, and because of him that fee was abolished. He was known for his kindness, gentleness, concern for humanity. One of his most famous sayings, recorded in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers, a tractate of the Mishnah), is
"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?"
The Hillel organization, a network of Jewish college student organizations, is named for him. Hillel and his descendants established academies of learning and were the leaders of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel for several centuries. The Hillel dynasty ended with the death of Hillel II in 365 CE.