BUILDING PALESTINE: THE INDISPENSIBLE STATE FOR PEACE.... ATFP Gala 2010

BUILDING PALESTINE: THE INDISPENSIBLE STATE FOR PEACE....
ATFP Gala 2010

Dear ATFP friends,

We would like to extend to you the warmest of invitations to ATFP’s 5th Annual Gala to be held on October 20, 2010 at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C. This year, ATFP will recognize the outstanding contributions of four esteemed Palestinian-Americans, including Dr. Peter Mansoor, Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) for Distinguished National Service; Mrs. Naomi Shihab Nye for Excellence in the Arts; Ms. Betty Shamieh for Excellence in the Performing Arts; and Mr. Ghassan Salameh for Excellence in Business.

ATFP is honored and humbled to count such highly distinguished guests as T.H. Madeleine K. Albright, and T.H. Stephen Hadley as members of the 5th Annual Gala’s Honorary Host Committee. Amb. Albright and Mr. Hadley are joined by a long list of honorable Senators, Congressman, Ambassadors, and leaders of many influential public and private institutions who all support ATFP’s vision for a two-state solution and the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state. (A full list of the 2010 Honorary Host Committee members can be viewed here.)

We would be truly honored if you would join us at ATFP’s 5th Gala, to not only lend your support for a two-state solution and the work of ATFP, but also to help us amplify the strong American and Palestinian voices of success, moderation and commitment to peace.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Ritz Carlton—Washington D.C.
1150 22nd Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037

6:00pm - Reception
7:30pm - Program and Dinner

The event will be a black tie event.

Price : Ticket $ 250.00

For tables, sponsorships, and other information about the Gala, please contact us at (202) 887 0177 or e-mail us at gala_info@atfp.net.

The American Task Force on Palestine is happy to announce that it will be holding its Fifth Annual Gala on October 20, 2010.

Each year, ATFP’s Annual Gala honors Palestinian Americans in recognition for their outstanding contributions to the United States. The 2010 Gala will award the following honorees:

Dr. Peter Mansoor, Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) for Distinguished National Service;
Mrs. Naomi Shihab Nye for Excellence in the Arts;
Ms. Betty Shamieh for Excellence in the Performing Arts;
and Mr. Ghassan Salameh for Excellence in Business.

This year’s Honorary Host Committee members include T.H. Madeleine K. Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, and T.H. Stephen Hadley, former National Security Advisor as well as a group of Senators, U.S. Representatives, Ambassadors, Diplomats and heads of national and international institutions. The full list of the 2010 Honorary Host Committee's esteemed members can be viewed here.

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ATFP Resources on Palestinian State and Institution Building

ATFP's unique collection of online resources on Palestinian state and institution building, including hundreds of relevant documents

Middle East Peace Talks Statements
Official Statements of Heads of State from the Middle East Peace Talks held in Washington DC, on September 2nd, 2010.

Darwish & Dickinson

Darwish & Dickinson

Mahmoud Darwish
& Emily Dickinson
side by side
on my shelves
Alphabetically
aesthetically matched
loner by loner
into a happily ever after
of commingling

Poet to poet
meeting in me

in turn in time
book by book
and page by page

libraries build character

copyright ©2010 Anne Selden Annab

Honor

There is a fascinating news story this week about a stolen letter returned: Thinking man's mystery: Stolen Descartes letter returned

It has a happy ending... a happy ending only possible because of the research skills, the empathy, the Internet, the hard work and the good intentions of the people involved.

Recently I remembered this poem that I wrote many years ago, and I am posting it here in my Growing Gardens for Palestine blog, to honor Helen Thomas as she retires- to honor her as best as I can.

Other than being a human being, and oh yeah a woman, I have very little in common with Helen Thomas, but I do have great admiration for her legendary service.

Yesterday my dear friend and fellow blogger UmKhalil told me in a note that the last lines of my old poem describe her well...

An Arab Mind

To understand
an Arab mind
one must see Jordan in the Spring.

Wander through a Spring meadow,
cherish the brief blossoming
from brilliant poppy
to tiny delicate sunlit star-
purple thistles, blue flax, pinkish roses, all
come bursting from rock
and earth
and everywhere
where a seed might stray
there is bloom
and each bloom
seems infused
with purpose.

Enshallah...

Understand
that the Arab mind
holds the perpetual memory
of Spring:

Shivering, stand in wet snow
listening to thunder,
as sleet melts
into rainfall
diffusing,

as the sun's glinting light

pulls forth a pretty posy here and there

and barrages of bloom rupture the earth.

Day after day of bloom bursting
and the deep indigo
of an oriental night
is fragrant.

By day the desert heat
comes back
to claim all color,
washing the hills with brown stubble
which the goats will graze to aught.

Presume, as you stand on barren stone
that soon enough, next spring-

Enshallah...

This rock ledge will once again
brim
with flowers

and a crumbling castle
will be a thousand urns
of growth.


Anne Selden Annab

Years ago in the late 1980s, when my husband first introduced me and our newly born son to his extended family- and the Arab world, I wrote many poems about my impressions. I did not, however, write poems about anything negative. Although, perhaps, I could have written quite a long epic poem exploring how utterly exhausted-frustrated- furious- hormonal- helpless and everything else I felt when standing in line to get off one of several seemingly endless flights we had to take to get to Jordan. The steward of an Air France flight warmly complimented us on how our wide awake baby was so well behaved during the long flight, and my husband cheerfully bragged that it was easy to keep him quiet. HELLO- it was not easy for me at all!

I now see that incident, and my husband's comment, in a very different light- but at the time it ... well let us just say that there is at least one very long epic poem I refuse to waste time or effort creating!

The older we get the more I understand that even in the most difficult situations we can choose to do the right thing, even when it is the hardest thing to do. We can "rise to the occasion" as my Grandmother used to say.

This week there are many people, including Obama and Abbas, as well as many organizations and officials who are sincerely doing all they can to try to help create a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. Give them a chance please- listen and try to use empathy and compassion to understand what they have to say.

I do not know what will be. But I do know that both Palestine and peace need all our best efforts- now more than ever.

NOTES
Peacemaking takes courage, leaders

Israel must clarify Palestine's status

The Arab Peace Initiative

Unclench your fist... Live by the Golden Rule

Growing Gardens for Palestine

Refugees, Borders & Jerusalem

Freedom to me is ... (a poem)

Ibtisam ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

Ibtisam

Her long brown hair
holds lines
check points
and spelling bees
young America
and old Palestine

Deir Yassin
remembers
the sound of children
growing up- all ages
and moods
... and the massacre

and the refugees...

Her long brown hair
holds lines
of poetry
lifting in the breeze...
shoes get lost
on moonless nights
but memories don't.

Playing God ... poem by Anne Selden Annab

Playing God

If I were to make a flag today
for a one state Israel/Palestine,
a confederation to stop the conflict
with full and equal rights for all,
I would blend the sky blue of Israel
with the earth green of Islam,
to make each stripe a deep blue green... a teal
like around the eye of the dabbing duck
indigenous to Eurasia... a tertiary teal
blending primary and secondary colors.

Minority and majority rights
play hopscotch:
Every home
and every child is safe...

Every student ready and able
to learn real science... & art.

I'd add six tips to the central six point star.
One new point in between each old point,
transforming it into a twelve point star... a gear.
Each tip color might be a different hue...
... like a color wheel... a rainbow in the round.

And the flag would be hoisted
to help save the River Jordan
from being sludge

"The only deadly sin I know is cynicism" HLS

We need a Golden Rule Peace for Israel and Palestine

Why it's a good thing that Palestinians are returning to negotiations with Israel: "I find the reality of the occupation totally unacceptable and even a slim chance to end it is worth pursuing, and also because I have very grave concerns that if the conflict continues, it will further metastasize and morph into a religious conflict led by bearded fanatics on both sides over the will of God and holy places and therefore become much harder to resolve and much more dangerous for Israelis, Palestinians and all of their neighbors, if not the whole world." Hussein Ibish

Ziad Asali: The sensible Palestinian statehood plan

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt

The American Task Force on Palestine

Hallway leading towards Dr. Ziad Asali's office

The American Task Force on Palestine

"With the turbulence surrounding diplomacy and the Middle East peace process, it is more urgent than ever for civil society to unite around the obvious reality that a conflict-ending solution can only be attained through the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security.

The two-state solution became official US policy under President George W. Bush, and it is today seen as a national security priority under President Barack Obama. It has been adopted internationally by the United Nations, the Middle East Quartet, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Arab League and by successive Israeli governments." Build a partnership for Middle East peace within the United States By Ziad Asali

Dr. Ziad Asali of ATFP in his office

This past Saturday my husband Jaffar and I had a delightful visit with Dr. Ziad Asali the founder of the American Task Force on Palestine, his fascinating wife Nailia, and the brilliant Hussein Ibish, having arranged to stop by to see their 7th floor offices in Washington DC and to have a chat.

Dr. Hussein Ibish & Nailia Asali of ATFP

I went with trepidation- and I left totally impressed. These people really do know how to listen and speak to America, they know how the system works and how to influence policy in positive ways for Palestine AND America.

Impressive views from ATFP office windows

I feel honored to have been in their 7th floor offices, to have seen the intriguing artwork on the walls, gazed out the big windows to the busy city below- and sat in comfort in Dr. Ziad Asali's office as we spoke easily about awkward and difficult topics.

Ziad & his wife Nailia are charming, kind, compassionate, thoughtful, well informed, well educated people... both are very bright and experienced- seasoned but not cynical- obviously modest and interesting people indeed.

Hussien Ibish in his office

Dr. Ibish told me privately that "in all their work with the Arab-American community over decades, and for the past seven years at ATFP both Ziad and Nailia have been completely volunteers and have never taken a penny of compensation for their efforts. On the contrary, they've devoted a good deal of their private resources to helping to found and sustain this organization." (Visit their webpage to help keep them going- click on KEEP ATFP INDEPENDENT if you want to donate online or to find information on how to make a donation via mail, wire, fax or phone)

Dr. Ziad Asali has a knack for attracting and valuing the best and the brightest and he has assembled a highly competent team of articulate people, right in the heart of Washington DC where they can confer and do the most good.

They have compelling priorities: They believe in a healthy and serious debate to define and defend the national interest. Not long ago Dr. Asali testified before Congress (ATFP Press Release), and Dr. Hussein Ibish has been very busy with speaking engagements on college campuses. Ibish wrote a book, published this past year, patiently explaining what is wrong with the one-state agenda

The ATFP is dedicated to "advocating that it is in the American national interest to promote an end to the conflict in the Middle East through a negotiated agreement that provides for two states - Israel and Palestine - living side by side in peace and security".... furthermore the "ATFP is strictly opposed to all acts of violence against civilians no matter the cause and no matter who the victims or perpetrators may be. The Task Force advocates the development of a Palestinian state that is democratic, pluralistic, non-militarized and neutral in armed conflicts." http://www.americantaskforce.org/about_us

ATFP's website is a treasure trove of up to date, highly relevant information, news and opinion concerning Palestine. They don't use cheap tricks- they use hard work, careful analysis and diplomacy to do what they can to help end the contentious Israel/Palestine conflict...for every one's sake.

They are Golden Rule people through and through: By wisely nurturing a totally civilized, reasonable and sustainable conversation they are creating real respect for a real Palestinian state.

The Palestinian State and Institution Building Program
Documents detailing the state and institution building program of the 13th Palestinian Government, including the overall plan and priority interventions for 2010.

Need the facts on Palestine?

FOLLOW IBISH & the ATFP

"The fact is that the one-state argument completely lets Israel off the hook with regard to settlements. First, if it's one state, it hardly matters where people live (it might be a civil tort about payments for expropriated lands, at most). Second, if it's a single state, they're not settlements, because there is also no occupation. Third, it allows the Israeli right to say that the occupation is defensive and legitimate and so are the settlements because all forms of Palestinian nationalism are antithetical to the continued existence of Israel, a member state of the United Nations. All arguments about settlements and occupation immediately go right out the window. People who advocate a single state need to understand this clearly." Hussein Ibish

	Become Hussein's friend
	Follow Ibish on Twitter

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World Press Roundup: Middle East News

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The Arab Peace Initiative

copyright ©2010 Anne Selden Annab

The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

We need a Golden Rule Peace for Israel and Palestine

An Eastre Story... a visual poem celebrating Spring by Anne Selden Annab

from The Fairy Garden Poems
& dedicated with love to Jaffar

An Eastre Story... a visual poem celebrating Spring

copyright ©2010 Anne Selden Annab

The Fairy Garden Poems # 52

Freedom to me is ... (a poem)

Freedom to me is
the ability to err
and apologize...

Freedom to me is the right
to change my mind-
change my hairstyle
change my clothes
change my mood
change my purse
the right to explore ideas
and formulate my own
and the right to change my mind
and maybe yours...

The Right To Respect
the Right To Return
& The Golden Rule...

Freedom to me is
the right to admire beauty
and invest in dignity

Freedom to me is
the awareness
of change
and changing awareness

Freedom to me is
finding hope
no matter what or where...

Freedom to me is to honor
my own heritage
and hearth

My family- and yours
our marriage
all marriage...

and the intriguing history
of humankind.

poem & picture copyright ©2010 Anne Selden Annab

A Palestine To Return To ... poem by Anne Selden Annab

.....A Palestine To Return To

Palestine does not need more anger
that cup already runneth over...

I'd rather hold a chalice of clear
clean water
fresh hope
for a future
for a totally real true Palestine

A fully free Palestine for Palestinians
and guests....

A Palestine to be proud of...
a Palestine of old world charm
with modern freedom & infrastructures

A Palestine of gardens and orchards
and jobs

A Palestine of bird watching
and green technology
to preserve the pastoral history
and the ancient buildings and paths...
alleyways... markets... ambiance...
to be the perfect equilibrium between
what was- is- and will be
to be Palestine alive
and doing well.

A Palestine to return to
remembering
and wanting the best
for all offspring

Diligently defining
a heritage
to bequeath
to coming generations...

A Palestine to treasure
in everyday ways...
with all the real comforts
of a real home
for real people
good, bad and indifferent...
not a rally cry- but a real place

Palestine with a passport
and a stamp.

poem copyright ©2010 Anne Selden Annab