Two Parallel Lines... Do They Meet?

15-9-2018
They drew red lines in Khartoum......so they carved into the Arab mind three no’s... (no reconciliation, no peace, no recognition)...this is how a friend began to speak to me...an elderly woman...her name Umm Saber...she is originally from the countryside..she emigrated..to a foreign country..because she was dissatisfied..as she told me...with what Arabs, including the Palestinians themselves, are doing...to resolve the issue of her Palestinian people..whose suffering she has witnessed... since the year of the Nakba...but she visits her relatives..sometimes..and I met her..at a gathering..for expatriates..in Ramallah..and we became friends..at that time...and she had obtained an immigration visa..to the United States some time ago..but as she says..blood cannot become water..!! However it was clear she was an astute old woman..(a shrewd one)..so I sniffed that she had high-level connections there abroad..and it seems that, as she confided to me...she knows the truth about the situation in Palestine and the Arab world..to the letter..in the lands of exile..it seems their freedom there is not like our eastern freedom...with its customs and traditions..here. We compose poetry...often..!!.

So she sat and talked to me sometimes with political stories and sometimes with riddles...and tales whose appearance was...disconnected events...for her Arabic is heavy. And a portion of her speech, if not two thirds, babbled in English....since she left abroad long ago..and accordingly I will recount her conversation with me with some editing. As is required.!!....She said in effect:....that..the Arab League for you is like a loving mother....she embraced her children and took care of them..since birth..she tells them bedtime stories..........and the days passed... and the times turned... and when they grew strong ... Lebanon was occupied... then Iraq... ..so the mother offered...to her children...advice that there was nothing to prevent them..from swallowing their anger..and meeting evil with good!! Maybe...in the end they will hear us. Whoever is with you, go with him..!!..So a group of those children allied with the occupiers against their brother Iraq..... to tame him, as they were told he had strayed from the path...and the children fought and killed. And destroyed the brother, with the help of the occupier....just as they were told....that they should also move...as was said by..one of the Qatari officials..to their sister Surba...so they destroyed...and expelled their sister from the custody of the mother— the Arab League—...and they were told..there is another brother in Libya who is ill..so visit him..and they visited.....but this brother did not return...to his previous health...for he took an Arab medicine..whose composition...came from abroad...and his body has not recovered vigor until now..despite the mother’s continual prayer..that he be healed....and then came our brother Yemen....and they were told to go....to him..and strike him on the head in turn....to expel a spirit that had possessed him....so they killed his sons......and they continue to this day....at the same time that the loving mother...our Arab League...went to Riyadh...indeed she was summoned!!..with her legitimate sister..our maternal aunt..the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation..to welcome..the family’s foreign friend, the Khawaja, coming from Washington....to deliver welcoming poems...so the Khawaja packed them into the obedience house...there...to make them pay from their savings....so they paid while smiling.....for we are a people who do not hold grudges...nor do we hate...and we honor a lot...so we slaughter some of our own...to display a good reception! ...until we forgot our brother..Yemen..and we did not visit our kin there ..and we did not send him the medicine..to recover..rather we denied him..it..until he would learn....for the mother — our Arab League — has a theory in Arab sociology that deprivation...leads to recovery.

..and the brothers fought each other ...afterwards in the Gulf... the Khawaja told them ...and his words ...my eye...things cannot be put into two words...where he said to them in your home.....a man...must be tamed....and in a moonless night...the brothers hurled...words at one another..and they strangled one of their brothers..Qatar..and cut off his milk and nourishment..and closed the gates...and despite that the loving mother...whispered to one of her favored sons..and said to him ...weren’t you together yesterday like butter and honey in Syria...what has changed you...?...and their sister Kuwait went to mediate among her brothers...people of her generation...and she got lost..and fell silent except for permissible words...

The eldest sister...Egypt..they took money from their pockets and gave her...a gift.....but their big sister became suffocated..and could not breathe...naturally until now...no one knows what happened...some say...they asked her for things...so she went with some of them...to tame the brother..Yemen..but as it appears..the group wants...other things..that their big sister must know alone!!!

As for the sister Palestine...for the sake of helping to solve her issue..they divided the Arabs into two Arabs...!!..And in order to spare the sister Palestine further calamities...some brothers said..to her..and in order to save time...and effort..let us see for you...who is troubling you...whom you consider your enemy....and we will go..visit him in his house..and probe his lairs..maybe we have solved this floor without anyone being hurt..you see we have long been accustomed to visiting them...but nobody knows!!..because we are cousins!!..so they went there..to Israel....but their laughter rose after minutes of entering..there....during the visit...and they came out sulking..in front of their sister Palestine..and they told her you are wrong..the group is good..but you do not know how to deal with them...and the sister with two hearts— from the upheavals of time— asked them in surprise and said.. O people we are wrong ..really...!..didn’t we give them what they wanted and more ..a little......in Oslo !!..but they did not reciprocate the kindness and give us...what we agreed upon long ago....so they said to them ok...you get out of it..and we will escort the Khawaja in Washington..let us know something...good...but you must not open your mouths. They told them — “your mouths” — ..even if it hurt you...for he wants our common interest..and the Khawaja hinted to his friend that ..as he told them....in order to resolve the issue...your sister Palestine must forget what is in her head. Completely. And the talk she tells....only .....is there no proverb in your Arab League...that one should not plow the field—the plowman.— except the calf!!...for you are brothers...even if among you something that is unbelievable.!!. It seems he told them...that you are more entitled to solve your problems yourselves so proceed to settle ...what you have...from the sons of your sister Palestine...and take a share .from here as well..and leave a share....and stuff them ..in your way...and give those who remain..some money to make them some small projects to eke out a living....and no harm will come of it...and thus..you will rid yourself of this headache..we and you and the group — Israel —....and you will all in the region become friends..and let your mother the Arab League adopt Israel...and consider it like her daughter....it will benefit you ...she knows better than you.. !! And it is possible that we change for you ..your mother’s name...to a new name befitting the new Middle East.... My old friend added...that not a single one of your Arab groups hesitated for a word..so they said to the Khawaja: Very well may you live long....we are settled....
I was astonished by this old woman..for she spoke of the region as if she lived in it. But when she wanted to continue her story about the remaining children of the Arab League.. she changed the subject a bit. I said to her, O Hajja..may God prolong your life..and according to your information..and your riddles..mashallah..after all that....will the two parallel lines meet? Israel, the usurper..and the Arabs of the three Khartoum no’s...she said to me...and after I was surprised that there remain no’s among us..she said that the two lines may meet repeatedly in secret and in public...but she said..and despite all that....she expects according to what she heard ..from one of the related soothsayers..that it is possible..!! It may be that this will be in (the sacred valley of Ṭuwa)..there..in Sinai...the opposing parties will meet..she is a point of convergence for the parallel lines....a new theory..in the world of politics.!! You see nothing is far from the Arabs...!!

I said to my friend...listen I do not know you and you do not know me...as if I did not hear you.!!..because clearly you are speaking in one valley and we are speaking in another..let us stay away from politics..because pursuing it shortens life!!. You are exaggerating things....and I promised her however ...after having lunch at Samer restaurant in Al-Bireh.- Ramallah...because she had heard of this restaurant..from her friend John Kerry,..the former United States Secretary of State...during President Obama’s tenure when he came to Ramallah to mediate between Israel and Palestine...he insisted at the time on eating shawarma sandwiches ..and he sat with some of the Palestinian public who happened to be there ..during that visit..yet my friend did not get angry with me for what I had said to her before lunch....and said It’s OK..!! and I completed in English.. It's OK...We're Still Friends...... We're Arabs!