Opinions about life and culture, A world view of a Woman Artist travelling from The Middle-east to Europe in the 80's, 90's and 2000/2019 ..... Autobiographycal Stories which have been published in the book "A Time For dreamers" (Austin Macauley Publishers) and some self published Stories on Kindle ( "Paris 2015" / "I Believe in You")
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(Comment) Plan demands Palestinians put a price on their surrender or risk losing even more ground .....From The Guardian
my comment;
In my visions of the future , i see the turn of events in todays world (tecnology being the key factor) having a positive effect on the people living in the region. Isreal today will find itself closer to the Arabs than to any other people in the world and animosities born out of cunning schemings to divide and rule will change into heart felt clinging together of the decendents of Abraham .
God willing the time will come when the force of circumstance will throw together the intellectual mind with the emotional and the combination will produce great things.
I often wonder how long we will have to wait for this total reversal of the scenario ...... Why the Palestinians are still in the same position as they have always been ! .... They are not allowed to become a stable nation even now after all these years of struggle for the home land which they lost 71 years ago (it was through no fault of their own and probably God willing ....).
Some people may be thinking that perhaps in the near future when China and Russia have finally taken over the area .... "they" will finally be capable of giving the Palestinian nation their dignity A secular government will embrace all ..... A Peaceful solution has not been achieved by the West (mainly because they are too far away in spirit and distanced from the cultural realities) .
With due respect to the millions of Jews who perished during the second world war ....
some may think that the Palestinians are truely the "only" living victims of the first and the second world war because their only fault was to have lived in those lands (today called israel ) for centuries.
My vision says that the people who suffered the Holocaust rose up again by the miracles that lifted them up .... Because they were the seed of Abraham and so the future belongs to the innocent......
Kushner plan leaves Middle East deal seeming further away than ever
Plan demands Palestinians put a price on their surrender or risk losing even more ground
A woman holds a sign during a protest outside a UN building in Beirut, Lebanon. Photograph: Bilal Hussein/AP
In the long, lamented history of Israeli-Palestinian peace plans, rarely have expectations been so low. As Jared Kushner took to the stage in Bahrain to effectively lay waste to decades of doctrine on how to solve the conflict, a solution seemed more out of reach than ever.
Kushner’s proposal has been put together by hardliners who have tossed out the rulebook and written a formula of their own serving the interests of the Israeli rightwing.
The “Peace to Prosperity” conference on Tuesday marked the moment where the new mantra was imposed, demanding that Palestinians put a price on their surrender or risk losing even more ground under the most accommodating US administration that Israel has ever known.
While Kushner acknowledged that the prosperity he touted was not possible without a “fair political solution”, a political dimension does not appear to be on the administration’s radar.
And given Donald Trump’s record, it remains difficult to see how it could be in the remainder of his term. In less than 18 months, Jerusalem has been declared as Israel’s capital, US humanitarian aid has been slashed, settlement construction supported and diplomatic missions closed in Washington, the West Bank and Gaza.
Add to that Trump’s recognition of Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights, captured from Syria 52 years ago, and there appears little hope of serious discussions.
The foundations of longstanding peace plans underwritten by the US have been torn down and the model is now unrecognisable. There remains an outside chance that some of these seismic policy shifts could be overturned at a negotiating table. But sitting down at one may be a bridge too far for Palestinians bewildered by the abdication from time-honoured formulas. They would be doing so at the mercy of an administration that unashamedly favours one side.
Trump officials have consistently failed to commit to the two-state solution model, the principles of which took Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin to the White House lawn in 1993, and Arafat and Ehud Barak to Camp David seven years later.
Both were seminal moments that drew both sides to the point of a solution. Though they failed, they gave a glimpse of what might have been. Nothing has come close since and the ever more complicated political, legal and moral dimensions of the 71-year-old conflict had made a solution unlikely even before the Trump-imposed worldview.
Trump has embraced the notion of being disruptor-in-chief, the leader who shook up an ossified world order, who abandoned the playbook, ignored briefings and made consequential calls on instinct and conviction.
Kushner has infused his role as Middle East envoy with the approach of a business baron. “User pays” has been central to the way he has tried to do business in the region and his considerations have often been devoid of cultural or political realities. A central factor in the slow growth of the Palestinian economy has been the Israeli occupation. His “pathway to prosperity” plan does not appear to recognise this.
With a weakened hand and little in the coffers, the Palestinians are facing immense pressure not to reject the deal outright. So far they have shown no appetite for anything that Kushner has to offer. A combustible Palestinian public, which on Tuesday rounded on the Bahrain workshop as a “sellout and surrender”, leaves little room to change their mind.
“Not that we want to anyway,” said a senior PLO official in Beirut. “To do so would be the shame of a lifetime.”
The Guardian view on Trump and Israel-Palestine: the reality behind Kushner’s fantasy
A general view of the Dome of the Rock and Jerusalem’s old city. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPA
Some political performances illuminate an issue; others, like this week’s charade in Manama, Bahrain, are meant to conceal. After all the Trump administration’s grand talk of “the deal of the century” in the Middle East, the launch of its first, economic aspect has been both absurd and bathetic. The Palestinian refusal to attend has meant that Israel is also absent. This is a play missing its stars and half the cast as well; the Arab states involved have sent lower-tier officials. Even its instigator, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, talked of a workshop rather than a conference; of a vision rather than a plan.
Economy-first approaches have been tried before, and failed even with realistic roadmaps and more trusted interlocutors. The gap between Mr Kushner’s illusion and the realities of this seven-decade conflict could hardly be starker. It is encapsulated by the Peace for Prosperity document – more brochure than blueprint – and the fact that several of its photos are images of programmes cancelled after the US withdrew aid to Palestinians, to predictably grim effect.
It is clear that the Trump administration hopes to substitute economic incentives for basic rights. Even if the Palestinians were minded to accept such a trade-off – and their remarkable unity in boycotting the event proves they are not – most of those incentives are illusory. This is a fantasy $50bn plan, and unfunded; Washington seems to have mistaken the keenness of Gulf states to develop ties with Israel for a willingness to openly take its side and pay the bill. Many of these initiatives have been proposed before – in some cases, more than a decade ago – and are unachievable under current conditions. The report advocates them nonetheless because it simply refuses to recognise that the biggest obstacle to economic development is the West Bank’s occupation and the blockade of Gaza.
It is increasingly unclear whether the political half of the plan will materialise, at least before a second Trump term. But the record of this administration gives a good idea of what one might expect. The love lavished on Benjamin Netanyahu; the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem; the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington; the recognition of Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights – all have destroyed the possibility of the US being seen as a broker, never mind an honest one.
Many suspect that the real purpose of Mr Kushner’s efforts is not to persuade Palestinians, but to allow them to be blamed as the roadblocks to peace when they reject an obviously unacceptable offer – while the facts are reshaped on the ground, by a rightwing Israeli government with US encouragement. It could become “a predicate to move towards annexation”, suggested one of Barack Obama’s negotiating team.
This month alone, Mr Kushner has doubted the Palestinian ability to self-govern, while US ambassador David Friedman has said Israel has the right to retain some of the West Bank. The administration has repeatedly refused to commit to the two-state solution and the US special envoy Jason Greenblatt says there is no reason to use the term, because “every side sees it differently.” There is only one way to see the alternative: a single state which could not be both Jewish and democratic. The fantasy proffered in Manama does nothing to disguise that reality
There was my favorite song by The Style Council on at the caffe, it was haunting because i had listened to it a lot during my years at university, in Florence, and i listened to it in Tehran while i was looking after my mother. It was so romantic and expressed nostalgic feelings. I looked out of the window while sipping at my coffee and indulged in looking out onto the busy street from the comfort of my armchair .... on this rainy day i was in Paris and a dream i had, had come true...... " Empty hours Spent combing the street In daytime showers They've become my beat; As I walk from cafe to bar I wish I knew where you are; Because you've clouded my mind And now I'm all out of time Empty skies say try to forget Better advice is to have no regrets; As I tread the boulevard floor Will I see once more; Because you've clouded my mind 'Till then I'm biding my time I'm only sad in a natural way And I enjoy sometimes feeling ...
arti visive street & urban art A Verona lo street artist Cibo combatte il fascismo e il razzismo con i murales By Valentina Poli - 31 luglio 2018 QUANDO L’ARTE PUÒ DAVVERO FARE LA DIFFERENZA NELLE NOSTRE CITTÀ: CIBO È UNO STREET ARTIST VERONESE, CLASSE 1982, CHE CON IL SUO LAVORO PROVA A CANCELLARE LE SCRITTE E I SIMBOLI D’ODIO CHE AFFOLLANO I MURI COPRENDOLE CON FRAGOLE, ANGURIE, MUFFIN E ALTRE COSE DA MANGIARE. LA SUA STORIA Lavoro dello street artist Cibo “Non lasciare spazio all’odio” o “No al fascismo. Sì alla cultura” e ancora “Se ci metto la faccia è perché ho la speranza che altri mi seguano nel rendere le città libere dall’odio e dai fascismi, qualsiasi bandiera portino oggi. Scendete in strada e non abbiate paura! La cultura e l’amore vincerà sempre su queste persone insipide!”. Queste sono alcune frasi che si possono leggere sul profilo Facebook di Pier Paolo Spinazzè , in ...
Life and opinions of Jahan Namazie/Azim Ali .... written in the summer of 2018 They had this theory that children being small didn't need much food. The choicest food was given to the men, as they were the bread winners so they needed to eat well. The dastarkhan was laid with all the best dishes. The men were served first while the women and children waited patiently till the men finished eating and the leftovers the women and rest of the family ate. Lucky for us we did not practice this in our house. My mother believed men and women were equal and deserved the same opportunities. She made my brothers do house work as well as the girls which was shocking as men had to be waited hand and foot. Men never went into the kitchen or took care of the children. My father had broken the rules, he did the cooking and took care of the children. Every one made fun of him, but he had an excuse as my mother was disabled due to her arthritis and co...
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