PASS THE HAMAS AND TAHINA
Jimmy Carter fails to understand Middle Eastern Language
Jimmy Carter’s visit to the Middle East region has sparked a controversy over his meeting with Khaled Mashaal, or K Ma as he is known to the local paprazzi on the streets of Damascus. Apart from my own prejudices surrounding Carter’s visit, I was skeptical that anything could actually arise of the visit, except more legitimacy of Hamas as a political organisation. Then in a press conference, Carter announced that Hamas is willing to accept a pre-67’ Palestinian state. Instinctively, a gut reaction would be “that’s progress”. Unfortunately, this air of relief only remained in the gut as immediately after that K Ma added a small technical detail, a “hudna”, which is a ten year truce.
Lets just say that should Hamas get the pre-67 borders, they will not be hosting barbeques and siestas for that 10 year time out. Why would they? After all, the withdrawal from Lebanon and from Gaza didn’t bring peace but rather reinvigorated the militant struggle.
Peace in Hebrew is Shalom and in Arabic it is Salaam. Jimmy, I am afraid your definition of peace doesn’t sound remotely similar to the Hebrew or Arabic translation. Again, the word is lost in translation.
Jimmy Carter fails to understand Middle Eastern Language
Jimmy Carter’s visit to the Middle East region has sparked a controversy over his meeting with Khaled Mashaal, or K Ma as he is known to the local paprazzi on the streets of Damascus. Apart from my own prejudices surrounding Carter’s visit, I was skeptical that anything could actually arise of the visit, except more legitimacy of Hamas as a political organisation. Then in a press conference, Carter announced that Hamas is willing to accept a pre-67’ Palestinian state. Instinctively, a gut reaction would be “that’s progress”. Unfortunately, this air of relief only remained in the gut as immediately after that K Ma added a small technical detail, a “hudna”, which is a ten year truce.
Lets just say that should Hamas get the pre-67 borders, they will not be hosting barbeques and siestas for that 10 year time out. Why would they? After all, the withdrawal from Lebanon and from Gaza didn’t bring peace but rather reinvigorated the militant struggle.
Peace in Hebrew is Shalom and in Arabic it is Salaam. Jimmy, I am afraid your definition of peace doesn’t sound remotely similar to the Hebrew or Arabic translation. Again, the word is lost in translation.
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