Yeah well ...

... And they called it "Black Thursday"

“Killkon 3al yamine tashouf”
“Wa22ef 3ajanab”
“Mabta3ref ana meen wle?”

Shwayyet 7ake rbeena 3leh. It was funny to see it in ‘West Beirut’ but we sure as hell still remember the horror. We remember sleeping in shelters, standing in line for bread and storing water in the tub.
Jarrabna nkoun a7san. Eh sara7a a7san. Jarrabna nkoun la2eddem. Ahlna marabbouna zo3ran bass maba3ref min wein ijo kill hal zo3ran. Hot headed idiots. We ba3den? Maba2 ili 3ein oul baddi irja3. we aswa2 ba3ed, bi ayya 3ein baddi oul la ayya 7adan yirja3? Kirmel shou? We iza ana mish di3ani bil balad, ghayri yimkin di3ano. We asesan shou ya3ni balad iza el 3alam frata? Show ya3ni balad?

“Yalla shou haida balad asesan”
“3am yetkhena2o 3ala ardna”
“hay mou2amara”

wlak tidrabo malla sha3eb. Tidrabo min bein el 3alam. Tidrabo iza bitseero 3alam.

In the midst of this past war lamma kinna 3am ninda3as bilsirmeye i stood up high and said i’m lebanese. Halla2 shou baddi oul? Shi biya22es we shi bikhajjel. We lashou mabaddon ykassro? Ykassro.. asesan byistehalo ba3od we makharjon balad.

Kiss ikhto malla balad.

Labadde ghanne 3al e7doud wala yashaware3 wala 3alliha 3alli 3alliha. Wattiha khayye bikoun a7san. Wattiha we yaret btiksirha abel matmedda 3ala khayyak we khayye.

El lubnan sayabka… wlak ayya lubnan?

You said, “this is Beirut that you keep defending? Do you now understand why I say Dubai is my country? Do you see why I gave up?...”
You won… I give up …


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Bonjour tristesse ...

I look at the ceiling. I look to the skies. No more balconies to transcend into …
No more windows to append one’s hurt … All I see is empty roads and empty skies.
And I dream of places far away. I feel tight and stuck and out of breath, and now I drown in my own uncertainty. The cold dark desk is killing me and San Juan is calling ...

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And I don’t dream about you every night and I don’t love you anymore… and I don’t hide you in my thoughts and I don’t smile to you once a day. no and I don’t need to see your eyes and I don’t pray for you every step of the way. And i don't love, why should i love ...

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Squinting eyes and smirking lines
and thin lips are all I see
Unkind nonchalance is all I feel,
except for my warm blood.
Thoughts stomping through
my head
raging boiling imploding,
spreading darkness
in my gut
translating through my limbs,
abrupt gestures.
Angry looks exploding
at the last hour
and now easing through
appeasing through,
as the warm grains
of darkness eat me through,
only to leave blankness
of heart
numbness of feelings
fault of proper reaction
short of understanding …
A state of non-existence
has to be more noble
than a state of hardly existing
than anger beyond self-control,
than a state of constant sorrows …
I don’t see the light and I don’t see the end,
and I don’t see a point of tomorrow …

Avec toute la tendresse du monde ...
Je t’embrasse et je te laisse ...

And here it goes ...

Three taps on a glass and grains of water on pale dunes.
Her rhythmic cycle uncouples falls out of phase out of tune,
suddenly, all the mistakes of a lifetime align in mockery --
the facts melt the details turn in a daze of reverie …

A tap on her back sends shivers down her soul to freeze
The weight of the world presses on her crumbling knees
She looks for her own reaction in a moment of stupor,
Her body rendered stiff gelled on her feet like an armor.

And a mystical touch of fortune and the tales of the days,
Green the color of his soul piercing glistening auburn rays.
Was it the magic of the night or was it the stories to tell --
Was it original madness taste of sin or was it a spell to expel?

Come to my heart come to my arms come beside my eyes,
She said, come sad come joyful come a blessing to the skies
With all the tenderness of the world and with all that she is
She wore her coat took her ring off and gave him a goodbye kiss …

Here it goes ...
Life …

3anjad de2 khil2na


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Not just sick and tired of the politicians and the fights and the despair and the keeping in mind anything but people’s businesses and lives and struggles, I’m sick and tired of me and you. I’m sick of the sound of my own complaints and opinions and ‘solutions’ and I’m sick of the arguments and the bickering and the weak spirit. Honestly I’m sick of Lebanese issues. I have been since I was born. I always defend my country and its people. I truly appreciate a lot about our culture. I love the spontaneity and the warmth and the passion. However, with spontaneity comes rudeness, with warmth come intensity and intrusiveness and lack of respect for personal space and personal lives and with passion come anger and fits and lack of tolerance. We’re sexist and racist and judgmental. We’re lazy and crazy and we’re always right and we’re all the victims of the world and history and society. The country is not good enough for us, the government is always the reason for all of our shortcomings and the world is against us. We also think we’re God’s gift to the earth wherever we are, we are competitive unkind and we act superior. Most of us are freeloaders and the rest complain. We all want to leave our country because it’s not good enough and when we do we all act superior wherever we are and want to go back, only then to act superior around our countrymen because we live abroad. A lot of us care about money and appearances more than decency and empathy and the real beauty of friendship and love and helping others. We are a country stuck at high school. A lot of our women are hysterical prima-donnas and a lot of the men chauvinistic aholes. Any 14 year old thinks he or she understands the world more than anyone else does. We all need to leave the country and exist on our own for a couple of years to get in touch with who we really are and to get a dose of reality. I’m sick of us. I’m sick of the tekbeer ras. De2 khil2i. I had missed Lebanon for the longest time but I have been reminded of all that lately and I think I’m good for a while.

De3an hal balad feekon we feena ...

sem7ouna ...

Chic chac choc ...

(pic. from downtownbeirut.com)

The dream of a global citizen

Too bad no human will survive to witness it. By the rate we're going, no human will survive to witness the next century.

NAEIM GILADI’S BANNED BOOK (thanks Rhiannon)
Ben Gurion's Scandals: How the Haganah and The Mossad eliminated Jews

Banned in Israel and the United States, Iraqi-born Jew Naeim Giladi’s book is again available worldwide. Buy it from this website.

“After reading Mr. Giladi’s devastating first-hand account of Zionist pillaging and massacres even of other Jews when necessary, it is not surprising that the book was banned,”states Carol Adler, president of Dandelion Books.

Giladi reports about the crimes committed by Zionists in their frenzy to import raw Jewish labor from the Middle East. Newly-vacated farmlands had to be plowed to provide food for the immigrants and the military ranks had to be filled with conscripts to defend the stolen lands.

States Giladi: “I write this book to tell the American people, and especially the American Jews, that Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews; and that, to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands, Jews on numerous occasions rejected genuine peace initiatives from their Arab neighbors.

I write about what the first prime minister of Israel called ‘cruel Zionism.’ I write about it because I was a part of it. “Alex de Tocqueville once observed that it was easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth. Certainly it has been easier for the world to accept the Zionist lie that Jews were evicted from Muslim lands because of anti-Semitism, and that Israelis, never the Arabs, were the pursuers of peace. The truth is far more discerning; bigger players in the world stage were pulling the strings.”

Giladi adds: “These players, I believe, should be held accountable for their crimes, particularly when they willfully terrorized, dispossessed and killed innocent people on the altar of some ideological imperatives.“We Jews did not leave our ancestral homes because of any natural enmity between Jews and Muslims. And we Arabs--and I say Arab because that is the language my wife and I still speak at home—we Arabs on numerous occasions have sought peace with the State of the Jews.

“And finally, as a U.S. citizen and taxpayer....we Americans need to stop supporting racial discrimination in Israel and the cruel expropriation of lands in the West Bank, Gaza, South Lebanon and the Golan Heights.”

An Israeli Defense of Jimmy Carter
by John Nichols-- The Nation, Jan 09, 07

"There is an ugly cynicism to the attack on Jimmy Carter that has been launched by Americans who well recognize that the former president's newbook, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, says nothing that has not already been said about the Middle East conflict by Israeli politicians and commentators. So why is Carter, a longtime friend of Israel and the Jewish people, being smeared as an anti-Semite for suggesting that the occupation by Israeli forces of Palestinian territory inspires troubling comparisons with the apartheid system that white South Africans once imposed on their country's black majority?

One of Israel's most prominent political figures suggests that it has a lotto do with the determination of Carter's critics to allow their emotions to trump the facts."The trouble is that their love of Israel distorts their judgment and blinds them from seeing what's in front of them," argues Shulamit Aloni, a veteran of Israel's war of independence who went on to serve in the Knesset and as aminister in several Israeli cabinets. "Israel is an occupying power that for 40 years has been oppressing an indigenous people, which is entitled to a sovereign and independent existence while living in peace with us."

In a defense of Carter penned for the mass-circulation Israeli newspaper Yediot Acharonot, the woman who served as former Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin's education minister wrote that, "Indeed apartheid does exist here." "The U.S. Jewish establishment's onslaught on former President Jimmy Carter is based on him daring to tell the truth which is known to all: through its army, the government of Israel practises a brutal form of Apartheid in the territory it occupies," explains Aloni. "Its army has turned every Palestinian village and town into a fenced-in, or blocked-in, detention camp. All this is done in order to keep an eye on the population's movements and to make its life difficult. Israel even imposes a total curfew whenever the settlers, who have illegally usurped the Palestinians' land, celebrate their holidays or conduct their parades."

Aloni should be reminded that the battering of Carter has as frequently come from non-Jews as Jews in the U.S. But, with that clarification, her message is one that merits serious attention from Americans who are frustrated by this country's inability to engage in a serious discussion about Middle East policy.This does not mean that everyone must agree with Aloni's every point. A recipient of the Israel Prize, the highest honor awarded by her country's government, the internationally-respected parliamentarian has long been acritic of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. Some will disregard her remarks for that reason. Others who respect Aloni's history may disagree with her current critique. But no one who has followed Israeli affairs can doubt that she speaks for a meaningful number of her countrymen and women when she defends Carter.

In fact, the website of the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom recently featured a call for visitors to" "Please consider adding your voices to those who are grateful to Jimmy Carter for writing a brave and important book, Peace Not Apartheid. While the media tries to blank him out, and some would cast aspersions at President Carter for being 'anti-Israel,' in fact the book offers much needed wisdom about how to support a just peace in Israel and Palestine."Aloni and Gush Shalom certainly do not speak for all Israelis. But their response to Carter's book should be instructive for Americans. It is not necessary to share all of Aloni's views to recognize that the veteran of the Hagana paramilitary organization that fought for Israeli independence has done a service not only to Carter but to all Americans who would like to see this country engage in an honest dialogue about MiddleEast affairs. While Israel enjoys a reasonably vibrant debate with regard to how the Jewish state should relate to Palestine, the United States suffers from a crude and dysfunctional discourse about the same question. The attacks on Jimmy Carter highlight just how ugly and dishonest that discourse has become. Perhaps that is why Shulamit Aloni's pointed response to those attacks is so important. It took an Israeli to remind us of how much more realistic the dialogue could -- and should -- be."

I think he's funny... simple but funny

Dear Mr. President: Send Even MORE Troops (and you go, too!) ...
from Michael Moore
1/10/07

Dear Mr. President,Thanks for your address to the nation. It's good to know you still want to talk to us after how we behaved in November.
Listen, can I be frank? Sending in 20,000 more troops just ain't gonna do the job. That will only bring the troop level back up to what it was last year. And we werel osing the war last year! We've already had over a million troops serve some time in Iraq since 2003. Another few thousand is simply not enough to find those weapons of mass destruction! Er, I mean... bringing those responsible for 9/11 to justice! Um, scratch that. Try this -- BRING DEMOCRACY TO THE MIDDLE EAST! YES!!!You've got to show some courage, dude! You've got to win this one! C'mon, you got Saddam! You hung 'im high! I loved watching the video of that -- just like the old wild west! The bad guy wore black! The hangmen were as crazy as the hangee! Lynch mobs rule!!!

Look, I have to admit I feel very sorry for the predicament you're in. As Ricky Bobby said, "If you're not first, you're last." And you being humiliated in front of the whole world does NONE of us Americans any good. Sir, listen to me. You have to send in MILLIONS of troops to Iraq, not thousands! The only way to lick this thing now is to flood Iraq with millions of us! I know that you're out of combat-ready soldiers -- so you have to look elsewhere! The only way you are going to beat a nation of 27 million -- Iraq -- is to send in at least 28 million! Here's how it would work: The first 27 million Americans go in and kill one Iraqi each. That will quickly take care of any insurgency. The other one million of us will stay and rebuild the country. Simple.

Now, I know you're saying, where will I find 28 million Americans to go to Iraq?Here are some suggestions:

1. More than 62,000,000 Americans voted for you in the last election (the one that took place a year and half into a war we already knew we were losing). I am confident that at least a third of them would want to put their body where there vote was and sign up to volunteer. I know many of these people and, while we may disagree politically, I know that they don't believe someone else should have to go and fight their fight for them -- while they hide here in America.

2. Start a "Kill an Iraqi" Meet-Up group in cities across the country. I know this idea is so early-21st century, but I once went to a Lou Dobbs Meet-Up and, I swear, some of the best ideas happen after the third mojito. I'm sure you'll get another five million or so enlistees from this effort.

3. Send over all members of the mainstream media. After all, they were your collaborators in bringing us this war -- and many of them are already trained from having been "embedded!" If that doesn't bring the total to 28 million, then draft all viewers of the FOX News channel.

Mr. Bush, do not give up! Now is not the time to pull your punch! Don't be a weenie by sending in a few over-tired troops. Get your people behind you and YOU lead them in like a true commander in chief! Leave no conservative behind! Full speed ahead!

We promise to write.
Go get 'em W!
Yours,
Michael Moore

... ouwaa

A useful comparison

I could not help while watching the funeral for the late president Ford to draw the comparison. I was wondering what kind of crimes did the late president commit and which, of these crimes, are already declassified. No one argues. Saddam was a terrible terrible man, but as always, I could not but feel humiliated at the idea of an Arabic politician/leader/dictator/butcher being executed, at the first day of the Muslim holiday no less, and an American politician/leader/dictator/butcher being honored and well remembered. The article answers my questions.

On a different note,
In response to a simple question to an Israeli commentator by mone which was if he thought the war on Lebanon this past summer was a crime against humanity, the Israeli point of view was that the Israeli government owes it to its people to defend the borders against any act of war. If that is the case, i wonder why governments do not owe an explanation to their people when they start an act of war or an act of invading another country or occupying foreign land. Americans do not blame Iraqis when they attack their troops. How come Israelis don't pressure their government to withdraw from the occupied lands? They encourage their leaders to defend them against acts of resistance. Why not encourage their government to eliminate the reasons that brought on this resistance in the first place? Ho come they don't hold their leaders accountable? I don't get it.

Only those New York nights ...



Make it bearable ...

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Thesis done!



and print ..

Morning coffee with the counsel general

The flag comes peeking off of 5th avenue, after a short strut on, what seems to be, the most detached block in New York city. The upper east in its cold clean monotonous feel always reminds me that I am in a foreign country. The early hours seem to be the dog-walking hours. It resembles a dance out of an old musical. It is almost surreal in its denial. It is surreal in its suburban defiance contrasting the jolt of the city of misfits and the city of colors and sounds. It is deafening in its brightness and coldness. You almost want to walk up facing one of the park-facing condo royalties and see if they were for real. The flag comes peeking off of 5th. Our little consulate in the heart of Manhattan is nothing like the foreign upper stretch on the west of the park. The golden numbers marking the addresses guarded by those ridiculously dressed doormen disappear under the flag. A modest garden surrounds the plain aluminum windows. A rusty doorbell that consists of a white bump of plastic oddly reminds me of many tasteless Lebanese official buildings. Sure enough, I peak through the window and Gaby buzzed me in. A small room, a coffee table in the middle with an Arabic yellow page book that Tarek made and some magazines, a sad plant in the corner and a glass partition. A typical minimalist décor of the inside of a Lebanese official building.
- Hi Gaby
- Hi. Waynik ya 3ammi. We missed you on New Year’s Eve. We were all there.
- Yeah, been busy …
I met Gaby a year ago. I hated him at first. He had just left Lebanon and hasn’t been tamed yet. He still had the macho attitude. It has been a year and he seems to have adapted.
- wein el rayess?
- I’ll call him for you
His unmistakable smile
- Monsieur Harake, bonjour, keefak?
- Ahla Mirvat. Gaby Start her papers, we don’t want her to be late.
- Kint 3am teb3ak 3al CNN with Paula Zahn. Bayyadtellna wejna.
- Tislameh. Tinzakar we matn3ad. Please, tfaddaleh rte7e bilmaktab 3abel the coffee to be ready.
- Thank you
His office is a full-furnished all-oak very pretentious all Lebanese office. As every year, I sit in the comfy leather chair behind the oversized desk and he asks me,
- What do you want to ask me?
- What do you know about the situation back home? Any inside news?
- I don’t know a thing more than you do. I heard from Tarek you’re going back
- Yes. So what do you recommend?
- Not to.
- Ouf. Why?
- There are certain things you have to keep in mind
- Such as?
- See how you are dressed right now. Casual, a cap and no manicure. Don’t get me wrong, I think you’re a fantastic lady but, well, this won’t work in Lebanon. People still care about their appearances. Men and women. It’s suffocating. Also, people are never really judged by who they are. You know how it is.. Who you know and what you have ...
- I am always good with the who you know part ... See I know you and it’s why my passport will be done in a couple of minutes. What’s wrong with that? I like the perks of it …
We go on talking about the social, the economical and the political pros and cons of here and there. He points out that he had lived in the US for 8 years, that this country is good to have a small business or to get education out of. He reminds me that life needs a balance and that I should stop working too hard.
- I respect girls who are serious about their careers, but you should know when to put your life first.
- Yes of course. That’s why I’m moving back. It’s the sparkle left in my eyes. It’s my secret happy place.
- Yes? I think you should stay here. I, on the other hand, am moving to Japan.
- Japan? Are you going to like living there?
- Yes I loved it there. I just went with the Sanioura convoy and I loved it.
- Hmmm ... Japan!
Gaby comes in with the papers and gets the final signature.
- Ok here’s your passport
- Thank you. I’ll be going then
- Stay. Finish your coffee.
- I have an early day. Yalla.
- See you next year?
- In Japan or in Lebanon?
- Here
- Yes

(pic, Puerto Rico)

C’est quoi l’amour?



It’s the only thing you can’t live without
It’s not being sure of anything but one thing
It’s going against all odds
It’s the one thing you don’t need to discuss
The one thing you don’t think over ...
Oh yes, and …
Drama drama drama …

(pic, Wilfrid Hoffacker)

.....

Papa

Happy 2006!

My baby hates the sound of my nails clicking on the keyboard. He loves the sound of the key when I come home
He knows landmarks in my memory that unlock a world of dreams and happiness and nostalgia. He knows when to evoke them.
He knows my weaknesses as much as he does my strengths. He loves both.
He makes fun of me when I get angry but helpless. He makes me angry and he makes me helpless.
He interrupts my conversation onthe phone to tell me if I put the phone in my mouth, his voice will resonate in my head. He's right. It does
He thinks homing is a word. He says it indicates a state of existence softer than roaming. I think subjacent is a word.
He invented a new board game. I can’t tell you what it is. He actually wants to patent it.
He loves to cook. He promised he will leave the cooking to me.
He thinks he shouldn’t have to go to work. I agree with him.
He thinks smoking is not cool anymore and wants me to quit. He bought me a hookah.
He says I almost have two opposite sides to my personality. He hasn’t seen the other sides yet.
He says I have a horrible singing voice. I sing all the time when he’s around.
He thinks yellow should only be worn on Halloween, horizontal stripes never work and vertical stripes are dangerous. He has an eye for fashion but he wears sweats.
He told me my nose ring is hideous. He then said worse is the mark left behind.
He doesn’t want to have babies, ever. He thinks he’s a baby himself.
He thinks I can’t commit because I’m a free spirit. He thinks we match because he’s a free spirit too. I think it’s his way of telling me he wants an open relationship.
His best memory of me is dancing on the crocodile table. That was ten years ago.
He says his happiness is what matters the most. He says i'm his happiness.
He says we’re still 28 not 29. 2006 did not count because we were apart. We’re celebrating the new 2006 year this year.

Results from the negotiation room
And Happy New Year all

Thanks again Chas,

Andrey, started by disagreeing but he proposed this:

"We start by suggesting the first step in a plan to bring peace". Let me start by not agreeing, as I think that we should start from the other end: How do you see the final solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? What will it be like, this situation, in which there will be an equilibrium between the achieved and unachieved demands of both sides, between what is just for these and those and of course what is just (period). Why start with this question? Because you can move the discussion on from here, with questions like: "What are the obstacles towards achieving that", "How do we deal with those obstacles" and so on.”

And so we did and this is what we came up with:

( thanks mone, Snurdly, Lirun, Ingrid, Andrey, Ibn Bint Jbeil, Rhiannon and Zee for commenting and moderating)

I- SPECIFIC PLANS:

- Two-state solution: We all agree.

(Lirun suggested peace keeping force running along the borders)

- Fair peace:

(Israel is supported by the US and is the 4th strongest military power in the world but that shouldn't imply that Israel should use its power on its neighbor. Hamas, on the other hand, need to have defined 'demands'. The Palestinians need a fair representation on the way of their independence).

Which raised mone’s concern, “I wonder however, what is the exact ambition of the Israeli government? What is exactly the driven principles behind the Israeli Government backed by the US, especially after I found out more about the philosophy of the "elite" and their own ambition of controlling the world no matter how it maybe destructive to their people or others.”

We agreed that this won't get us anywhere for now.

- Defined borders and real independence:

(with the surrounding countries once and for all, sea, air and water. Plans should be presented to the UN, land mine maps and so on. 48 borders). Andrey said, “If, at least based on 67 borders, Gaza and the Bank should be connected, by land, constructing 2 parts of Palestine and 2 parts of Israel - all connecting in one point (use your imagination), I think that it would be fair, and it would give the Palestinians a better feeling about the arrangement - so they would not tell that they have been tricked. Also people would not have to pass through check points that way, while going from Gaza to the West Bank. Also, if the border includes jewish settelments inside the west-bank, they should be given the right to choose to stay under the Palestinian rule (there are many normal people behind the green line, not just settlers.”

1- Checkpoints should go
2- Settlements should go

3- Jerusalem will be a meeting place (Lirun’s romantic idea).
4- Borders + Water:

Andrey said, “This is actualy not such an issue, water can be dealt with as we have seen in Jordan-Israel peace treaty, where Israel is obliged to supply a given amount of water to Jordan per year. Projects like the National Water Carrier can be built to Palestine, or better: Palestine can be connected to the soon to be built Israely-Turkish pipe line (of gas, oil and water). The question is about the borders between Israel and Palestine: there are some families scattered around the 2 sides of the border, and so on.”

- United Palestinian government:

Unified representation for Palestine in the form of a legitimate government diplomatically respected by the international community is crucial (A just well-defined withdrawal will push the two Palestinian entities in power into agreeing on the proposed solution. that way Hamas won't be obliged to dismiss Fateh and traitors because they conceded to whatever is given to them. something Arafat couldn't do during the Oslo accord).

- Economical prosperity:

(Palestine will need the help of other countries (hopefully Arabic countries as well) to recover economically. prosperity gets rid of anger). Rhiannon said, “Monetary concessions do need to be made to Palestine, for their agriculture, hospitals, and educational systems”.

- Points we didn’t agree on:
1- The refugees. The right to return
2- The prisoners
3- Shabaa farms and Golan heights.


II- IDEALLY:

- zee and Ingrid: SEPARATE RELIGION FROM STATE ON BOTH SIDES. STOP THE VIOLENCE ONCE AND FOR ALL.

- We need to learn from past mistakes. The unilateral withdrawal and the punishment mentality don’t work and is still under the abuse of power mentality.

- New beginning:

(how do we educate a new Israeli generation that is not mostly military and how do we raise a new Arabic generation that don't hate Israel?). "Recognition of Israel"?

- Think simple:

Any Israeli would not wish to bomb the Palestinians and any Palestinian would not wish to bomb the Israelis. We all agree on peace. How do we bring forth the people's opinions? Who's creating this? (the politicians and we're paying for it and our children will after us. we need to stop the denial. I say there's a dangerous theocratic mentality controlling us and you have to say there's a neo-Zionist movement trying to draw the map for the new middle-east. both scare me to death. we need to say that neither represent people like us. most of the poor people who just want to be safe and go on with their daily life are like me and you)

- Reinstate trust and show good intentions:

Return what belongs to Syria and Lebanon. Then if HA won't have a cause, Syria won't have an excuse and the Palestinians will be content if agreement was reached and they will ask to be left alone)

- Identity and acceptance:

mone thought, “Israel was formed in the middle of Arabic Region that speaks one language "Arabic" and has similar background. It actually seeks an isolated "identity" from its surrounding neighbors. Can this entity get accepted any time in the short or long future? Putting helpful emotions aside, I think not.”

To which Andrey replied, “Mone, there are many things that will bring Israel and Arab countries closer - tourism and economics. Tourism: Israelis love traveling, and if it's cheaper it’s better. Druze, Bahai, Christians - all have holy places in Israel. As for economics, I don't think that you can imagine the amount of Israelis in Arab countries once these markets will open. Another thing is lots of mizrahi citizens - many speak Arabic (so do many ashkenazy, who studied well at school), their home cooking is arabic, there is a whole branch of eastern music in Hebrew in Israel. And 20% of Israel are Arabs who speak both hebrew and arabic (so do many Palestinians). Anyway, in time of peace Israel won't be isolated, slowly but certainly everyone would be speaking Arabic here.”

And mone replied, “However, I don't think personally the solution will be ready in 2 or 10 years, I think, both sides will suffer much more before they brake the barriers (and the cement blocks that they just built) and try to shake hands and live together...”

And then we fell apart ... Oh well ... All the same anyway..

Negotiation room

Chas came up with the idea of putting Lirun and myself in a virtual room so that we can work out our differences when the discussion heated up between us this last July.

I want to borrow this idea and try it out here with a few of the commentators who always seem to be in a dispute about issues in the world and the Middle-East.

I know the dispute can and will go on forever so this is more of a committee with a specific question to answer. The question that Andrey asked me early on in this blog. What are we doing to bring peace to the ME? The focus of the question is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It cannot be separated from neighboring countries so we can discuss that in the light of its effect on the Israeli/Palestinian issue alone.

So the assignment could be very interesting: Lirun, Andrey, Snurdly (and anyone else who's interested) on one hand could represent a spectrum of political opinions but will naturally represent Israel's interests and Rhiannon, mone and myself (and anyone else on this side) will naturally represent Palestine's interests.

By now we know we have differences in opinions and we are well aware of these differences so there is no point in repeating them. At the same time i don't see the use in pointing fingers or going back to the past. We have to look at what we have at hand and try to suggest a solution that will please all. If people like us with such opposing views could reach a middle ground, i don't see why politicians can't. Greed and power of course but in the process of reaching an understanding ourselves, we might at least see that clearly.

We will start with the two state solution of course and go from there.
Some members on both sides might be to the extreme but this is only a good representation of the political elements on the ground.

I elect Zee to be the moderator since he is objective (after all he's swiss) and throughout the discussions we had in the past he showed opposition to both sides.

So i say we start by suggesting the first step in a plan to bring peace. What would that be in your opinion? More importantly why hasn't it been implemented yet? You can engage in a discussion here in the comments section or answer on your blogs and i'll be happy to show your answers here.