Back to square one

[bemildred]

Sixty years ago this month, my mother rushed one morning into the bedroom that I shared with my younger brother, Suhail, and told us to dress quickly because we are travelling by sea very shortly to nearby Beirut, Lebanon.

We had had quite an evening the night before - April 22 - in Haifa, our Palestinian hometown - a horrific night because of the sound of gunfire was deafening, keeping both of us wide awake. I recall the blankets that my father had placed over our window so that stray bullets would not harm us while we were asleep.

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A recent visitor to the West Bank, Edward Abington, Jr, who was the US consul general in Arab East Jerusalem during the Clinton administration, said he came back to Washington "convinced more than ever that the two-state solution is dead as a doornail".

His finding: "There is absolutely no willingness on the part of the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) to change the situation on the ground from the stranglehold they now have."

http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/region/10204290.html

[bemildred]

1. Delete, my mistake. nt