The pianist Gabriela Montero has posted from Istanbul:
TONIGHT’S CONCERT IN ISTANBUL HAS BEEN CANCELLED due to the violent situation in Gaza..
Erdogan has called for three days of mourning and all public events have been cancelled.
We gather that Juilliard has summarily fired a…
The US violinist has announced she is still…
The Metropolitan Opera has appointed Daniele Rustioni as…
First reports from British tenor Freddie de Tommaso’s…
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It’s the beginning. The beginning of the end.
The lines of battle are drawn.
Western classical music, mown down by bullets
Children’s ballet shoes swinging on the winds of change
Tyranny changing long loved cadences into shattering gunshots.
Jerusalem Jerusalem Jerusalem.
And all the while Brexit arrives with its promise of Britten, Walton and Coates, played by mandolin lovers from the south coast.
It’s really the beginning of the end.
. . . or is it the end of the beginning, I forget.
Yesterday my wife posted a Facebook album with 118 photos centered around children who are victims of war. I’m not sure, but I don’t think a FB account is necessary to look at them. They are here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156508196651474.1073741938.566356473&type=1&l=43379bec74
And I read that 60 more people were shot dead yesterday. There are too many politicians of hatred on both sides.
And who has the world to thank for the mess…ignited by Trump and his ego with his egoistic move of the American Embassy!!
True. The man is insane.
The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 – “An act to provide for the relocation of the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and for other purposes” – passed the Senate by a vote of 93-5 and the House by a vote of 374-37.
Under the Constitution of the United States the President has exclusive authority to recognize foreign sovereignty over territory. The Senate and House bill has thus been interpreted as only advisory. Nevertheless, it belies US claims of a neutral stance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — as if, of course, further evidence were necessary.
See the scathing editorial in the NYT about Trump’s decision:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/opinion/israel-gaza-trump-embassy-palestinians.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
This is a remarkable stance for the Times and illustrates the incredible divisions that have evolved in American society.
The only reason the embassies weren’t in Jerusalem in the first place is that British politicians in the 1940s lacked the courage of British soldiers.
That Democrat-loving NYT and their audience capture!! Still haven’t gotten over HRC’s loss. So many axes to continue to grind.
Thugs rioting in Gaza ………… is the fault of a US president????? He’s just implementing a law, passed by Congress in 1995 that the previous presidents didn’t have the testicular fortitude to implement. BTW, only one nation doesn’t have it’s capital recognized by all other nations (except the US). And only one nation calls itself a Jewish state. Both are Israel. Coincidence???
Yes
Excuses, excuses, excuses. That’s all you get from Palestine and its apologists. Terrorist leadership of Hamas and still the Left clings onto the victim ideology – which actually continues to kill. Let them get rid of their cancer (Hamas) and express at least a modicum of good will towards Israel. As a first step let them say “I take it back; we don’t want to see you exterminated”. Thereafter they can move to a meaningful dialogue. They kill their own people in the meantime.
Add that only one nation is told that it must not defend itself.
Well, the people who have been attacking Israel for 70 years, and promising to destroy it, have some of the responsibility.
While I can’t wait for Trump to leave office, let’s put things into perspective.
Jerusalem is Israel capital. Every country has the right to chose the city to be its capital. Trump decides to move US Embassy to the West part of the city (which is not even disputed territory),
This crazy Hamas, an organization that vowed the destruction of the whole Israel, incites its people to destroy the border. Israel then shoots to kill those that are about to invade its territory. Any country would do the same. People die. And Trump is to blame?
Two additional comments:
1) People are completely delusional if they think that Israel will let go Jerusalem’s Old City.
2) Has Erdogan said or cancelled any concert or event because of the hundreds of thousands of people killed in Syria (including the Kurds killed by him or with his consent)?
Erdogan = Hypocrisy at its best.
Suggested reading, Roberto…
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/israel-palestine-nakba-day-refugees-displacement-solution-a8350616.html
Thanks for sending this to me, Sam. But The Independent is the last place in the world for me to get the facts. Actually, seconds to the last. Fox News is the last one.
I’ve been following Israel and Palestine since I was born. I am tired to hear people say that the only solution for the problem is XYZ, for which what they mean is virtually the end of Israel.
Turkey really shouldn’t ride on a high horse here. Erdogan’s actions against journalists, any kind of opposition and the brutal oppression of the Kurdes all speak for themselves.
Saying that: seeing those smug faces of current US dignitaries at the opening ceremony ( Kushner plus wife, Mnuchin and Cruz, to name a few shining examples ) I thought for a moment I had landed myself in an episode of The Sopranos…
Erdogan is a very dangerous man, but apparently not as dangerous as the Trump daughter and son-in-law. This kind of equivalence and ridiculous hysteria is a reason fewer and fewer people are talking any notice of the Left these days.
Trump hasn’t divested his business from his presidency, therefore all his family businesses take advantage of this situation as we are speaking.
Dictator Erdogan is far less dangerous when compared to the Don, as it is the man with the biggest inauguration crowd ever who has control over the nuclear codes, and that comes with a maturity level of a 12 year old.
Very well put, Michael.
The Don has the nuclear button and it is very unlikely that he is going to use it anyway, but Erdogan has another button that can release another million migrants in Europe over the night.
Trump may not use the nuclear button to start with, but he may well seek a confrontation that can reach the point of no return quickly, like it nearly did in Syria a few weeks ago.
With Bolton and Pompeo being some of his main advisors my optimism is limited.
Erdogan needs the West, otherwise his economy, e.g. tourism, is going to the dogs and taking him with it. So he will play that game very carefully, and unlike Trump he has a strategy beyond the next tweet.
Finally a bow to reality — whether or not Erdogan wishes to accept it.
Imagine anyone actually thinking of the Turkish leader as a paragon of virtue … lol. Even Ottoman über-hegemonist Enver Bey Pasha was more of one than him.
Israel’s capital has been in West Jerusalem ever since Israel has existed. That’s where its government institutions are. West Jerusalem has always been majority Jewish and was not part of the area captured in 1967. It has never been contested, other than Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s claim that all of Israel is “occupied Palestine”.
Perfectly correct … but this will not be accepted by the anti-semites who lurk here and around the world, particularly in the EU.
They go nuts over 60 dead recently in Gaza (50 of whom Hamas admits are their own “soldiers,” but say nothing at all about syria (with the aid of russia and iran) killing tens of (hundreds of?) thousands of Syrians or turkey murdering Kurds in a wholesale manner. But of course, they are certainly not anti-semitic! HAAAAAAA