Now they are saying they will burn Tel Aviv and Haifa. One paper even published a map with the targets - it includes Hebron and Ramallah. It is part of the negotiations in Vienna, which seem to go well. The Brits, this time, are with us:
"This is the last chance for Iran to come to the negotiating table with a serious resolution to this issue, which has to be agreeing to the terms of the JCPOA," said Truss, adding, "This is their last chance and it is vital that they do so. We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon."
It is rather surprising the difficulties of the British (and French) armies in eliminating irregular Arab forces in Syria, Lebanon, and of course Palestine. Israel, once established, fought against the same forces and, apparently without too much effort, Ariel Sharon (*) conquered Beirut in two days and we ruled South Lebanon for a decade. I don't know the secret but we are different.
(*) and moi. I was there.
Commenter TIM in Amazon resumes: None of the actors come out of this well. The squabbling, fading empires of France and Britain are at the heart of it all, both obsessed with maintaining their place in the world at the expense of the Arabs. The Arabs themselves come across as bumbling and incompetent, except for perhaps the Druze and Bedu, but they are all riven by petty infighting that allows the "great powers" to maintain control of their lands. The Zionists come later to the story as ruthless killers and extremists - founding a country, etc.
Glory be to God!...the miserable, occupied, displaced Palestinian people, that were conspired against internationally, regionally, and even in the Arab world, by the treacherous media, have reached the low point that its very honor is being questioned! Greetings to every honest and honorable Palestinian!
The reactions to the Egyptian film Amira have been very emotional. Above is one comment. (The translation is mine). The story is about a prisoner's sperm being smuggled out by a guard, who substitutes the sperm with his own. Since hundreds of children were born this way, the film undermines the honor and the morale of the Palestinians.
Rotten tomatoes writes:
Amira is a highly contrived, ridiculous melodrama seeping with endless implausible details that rob the story of any credibility it may have had. The biggest crime of the film though is its portrayal of Palestinian society.
The community of Amira - essentially a microcosm of Palestine as the film implies - is a band of freaks: a company of sexist brutes with not an ounce of empathy in their souls. The Palestine of Amira is a conservative, hypocritical place populated by merciless patriarchs only concerned with preserving their honor rather than safeguarding the daughter who grew with them and among them; a daughter who had no hand in the great shame they plaster her with.
This is an insultingly regressive, bafflingly over-simplified, imprudently outdated treatment of a Palestine clearly concocted by an outsider. Its take on identity is shallow and largely underexplored; its depiction of the downgraded status of women in middle-class families is Victorian in essence. At a time when the evolving discourse around women's rights across the region has shifted towards body integrity and equal rights, Diab is still stuck on honor and virginity.
