My letter to the NYTimes RE Israeli Defense Minister Compares Beloved Palestinian Poet [Mahmoud Darwish] to Hitler & For Palestinians, Raising Arabian Horses Is ‘the Hobby of the Poor’

Mohammad al-Eisawi, 39, and his son Majd, 5, atop an Arabian horse named Furys near Issawiya. Photo Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

Israeli Defense Minister Compares Beloved Palestinian Poet [Mahmoud Darwish] to Hitler
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/world/middleeast/avigdor-lieberman-compares-mahmoud-darwish-to-hitler.html?_r=0
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For Palestinians, Raising Arabian Horses Is ‘the Hobby of the Poor’ By JAMES GLANZ and RAMI NAZZAL JULY 13, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/world/middleeast/for-palestinians-raising-arabian-horses-is-the-hobby-of-the-poor.html?action=click&contentCollection=Middle%20East&pgtype=imageslideshow&module=RelatedArticleList&region=CaptionArea&version=SlideCard-1

Dear Editor,

Regarding "Israeli Defense Minister Compares Beloved Palestinian Poet to Hitler" & "For Palestinians, Raising Arabian Horses Is ‘the Hobby of the Poor’ "

"The poem is always incomplete, the butterflies make it whole."  To A Young Poet - Poem by Mahmoud Darwish

The beloved Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, wrote many different things- and many different things have been written about him.  Friday 7 June 2002, The Guardian published a fascinating article on Darwish by Maya Jaggi : Poet of the Arab world. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jun/08/featuresreviews.guardianreview19 "Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence; it breaks walls down... I always humanise the other. I even humanised the Israeli soldier," which he [Darwish] did in poems such as "A Soldier Who Dreams of White Lilies", written just after the 1967 war. Many Arabs criticised the poem, but he says: "I will continue to humanise even the enemy... The first teacher who taught me Hebrew was a Jew. The first love affair in my life was with a Jewish girl. The first judge who sent me to prison was a Jewish woman. So from the beginning, I didn't see Jews as devils or angels but as human beings." Several poems are to Jewish lovers. "These poems take the side of love not war"

Taking the side of love not war, I won't tweet or blog my outrage that the "Israeli Defense Minister Compares Beloved Palestinian Poet [Mahmoud Darwish] to Hitler". No need to add into the click bait hate mongering found on every side- everywhere... on every topic. Yes we need to know the facts, but in hoping for peace and an end to the very real plight and suffering of the Palestinians (and Israelis) I'd rather notice and reinforce the magic of "Raising Arabian Horses" which has the capacity to coax us all into "the same arenas, where the conflict briefly melts away and everyone admires the horses"

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

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