Sunday March 9, 2008, 10:28 am
I cannot send u a green star because I have sent you one within the past week-consider this a green star

Sunday March 9, 2008, 10:33 am
if this shows up twice it is a glitch in the care2 system for I posted this once already-this is an ironic twist -but it makes sence -no one fights harder than relatives.

Sunday March 9, 2008, 6:45 pm
Thanks Faith

Sunday March 9, 2008, 10:55 pm
Well of course they would share DNA, they both descended from Abraham.

Monday March 10, 2008, 1:26 am
well you know family quarrel worse than strangers.

Monday March 10, 2008, 2:21 am
Of course they are brothers! and they used to get along so well once upon a time...
I've got here a nice video about a soccer dream that some have had and that we should all have for Middle East.
a World Cup for Peace!

Monday March 10, 2008, 3:51 am

Everybody knows that they are brothers, at least genetically : they are all Semites, as in anti-semitic, which applies only to Jews.

But this knowledge is not likely to change anything because the problems of the refugees, Jerusalem, new settlements, the Wall & a free Palestine are still major obstacle to peace between them.

Perhaps the "once upon a time" that Thomas refers to in his comment is the early 19th century when Russian & Polish Jews escaping pogroms first settled in Palestine and set up Kibbutz whose inhabitants did live in peace with their Palestinian neighbors. But that was before the Israeli state came into being and Palestinian lands were confiscated and Palestinians became refugees in Jordan...

If you have a family home which you decide to share with poor relations from abroad, but the poor relations end up changing the ownership deed and relegate the original family to the outhouse or the basement, well, there are going to be BIG family problems !

Monday March 10, 2008, 3:55 am

Excuse me, I made a mistake: I meant the late 19th & the early 20th centuries, for the first kibbutz.

Monday March 10, 2008, 8:43 am

And, Thomas, soccer is not the only forum to provide dreams of harmony for the Middle East, between Israelis and Palestinians.

Have you heard of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, in which young Israelis and young Arabs, including Palestinians, play together ?

It was the brain child of both the late Edward Said, noted Palestinian intellectual, political analyst, writer, and his friend Daniel Barenboim, the Argentinian-Israeli conductor and pianist of world renown, even if the former couldn't bring it into being musically.

Originally, the orchestra was intended to bring together musicians from Israel and Arab countries, inc Palestinians, but after a first season, only Spain was willing to offer a permanent home to the orchestra & musicians, but the offer came with a condition : that Spanish musicians be included. And so the orchestra came to reflect a different combination of nationalities, than the one originally intended.

Be that as it may, Barenboim has taken this orchestra on world tours and to Palestine. Just before Christmas, I think it was, Barenbiom cancelled a concert scheduled in Ramallah because the Israeli authorities would not allow one of the Palestinian musicians to cross the border. Such are dreams...when they confront harsh realities.

Barenboim is also one of the rare -perhaps the only ?- Israelis to have received Palestinian citizenship because of his efforts to promote peace and understanding between the two peoples.

This news was covered last January by the Guardian; here's the article :

The Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has been granted Palestinian citizenship in recognition of his work in promoting cultural exchange between young people in Israel and the Arab world.
The Argentine-born musician is believed to be the first person in the world to possess both passports after receiving his new documentation at the end of a piano concert of Ludwig van Beethoven sonatas, which he performed in Ramallah in the West Bank at the weekend.

"Under the most difficult circumstances he has shown solidarity with the Palestinian people," Mustafa Barghouti, the Palestinian MP and presidential candidate said at the charity concert to raise money for medical aid for children in the Gaza Strip.

Barenboim, 65, who is musical director of the Staatsoper in Berlin and Milan's La Scala opera house, established his West-Eastern Divan orchestra with the American-Palestinian intellectual Edward Said in 1999 following a workshop in Germany. The orchestra's aim is to bring together musicians from Israel and Arabic countries to exchange ideas and perform together.

Barenboim, who is a regular and lively commentator on the Middle East conflict, said he was "moved and very, very happy" to receive the citizenship, adding that he accepted it because it "symbolises the everlasting bond between the Israeli and Palestinian people".

In a pointed reference to US president George Bush's recent comments on the Middle-East conflict in which he talked of Israel's "occupation" of the West Bank, Barenboim added: "Now even not very intelligent people are saying that the occupation has to be stopped."

Barenboim is considered a controversial figure by many in Israel, but less for the sympathy he openly shows towards the Palestinians and more for his promotion of the music of the 19th century anti-Semitic German composer Richard Wagner which he has conducted in Jerusalem.

He criticised the Israeli government after he was forced to cancel a piano concert in Ramallah after Israeli authorities said they could not guarantee his safety. More recently he held a press conference to protest the Israeli authorities' refusal to allow musicians from his Divan orchestra to enter Ramallah.

Monday March 10, 2008, 8:48 am

This kind of experiment is so necessary. There was a documentary about the orchestra when it first began, which was aired on TV here in France & Germany. It showed the musicians learning to live together during the first workshop that brought them together in Germany.

The Israeli musicians interviewed were so cut off from Palestinians that they had had no idea that there were any Palestinians who studied classical music or were world-class musicians. Israelis & Palestinians have a totally warped view of each other because of all the propaganda on both sides.

Monday March 10, 2008, 8:59 am
Thank you Jill for the article, very interesting indeed!