The Egyptian god Set being called the "red-headed god" marked him as an outsider. It linked him to the red desert sands rather than the fertile black soil where most Egyptians lived. It also gave him the hair colour of a foreigner; Set was the god of foreigners. #mythologymonday#folklore#mythology#Egypt
Lev Greenberg and Daniel de Malach. "Settlement and Resistance in Israel/Palestine: Selected Issues and Historical Events from a Long-Term Perspective" (2023)
The original sin that led to the current systemic collapse was the unilateral withdrawal from #Gaza, misleadingly called "disengagement." The retreat was planned with the goal of foiling the establishment of a #Palestinian state, knowing that the severing from the West Bank and Israel and the siege would lead to a severe crisis in Gaza, resulting in violence against #Israel. Israeli policy since has been based on repeated violent reactions to attacks from the Strip, dubbed "mowing the grass," acquiescing to rocket fire that abandons the residents of southern Israel, and trying to force #Egypt to "take responsibility" for Gaza's residents.
[...] In the current circumstances, an opportunity has arisen to become disillusioned with the narrow military strategic concept of "mowing the grass" and the illusion of "decisiveness," and to recognize that Palestinians too want to live, just like us.
[...] Palestinian citizens of Israel are shocked by the murder of children and women by #Hamas and not only by the killing of their own people in the Strip, and this is a political foothold: top priority must be given to the sanctity of human life, meaning releasing the captives and stopping the firing.
[...] We need a timeout to rethink political alternatives to unilateral steps, to "disengagement" and the endless cycle of violence. The way to weaken the fanatical Islamist leadership that has taken control over two million Palestinians in the Strip is not through continuing the violent confrontation that benefits it. Political thinking in the current crisis must be based on the aspiration to give both Israelis and Palestinians hope for a future based on living together in peace.
Lev Greenberg is an Israeli sociologist and political scientist.
Daniel de Malach is an Israeli journalist and activist
Massoud Hayoun’s “When We Were Arabs” (2019) is described as “A vivid account of Massoud Hayoun's grandparents' lives in #Egypt, #Tunisia, France, #Palestine, and Los Angeles, in which he reclaims his family's Jewish Arab identity".
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
#Aphrodite Anadyomene, Aphrodite Rising from the Sea, as depicted in an #Egyptian blue faience statuette. Egyptian faience (tjehenet in ancient Egyptian) is a ceramic material that gets a glassy look from quartz reacting with alkali.
🏛️ Aphrodite Anadyomene made from blue faience, Ptolemaic #Egypt
"After #Hera inflicted madness upon him [#Dionysos], he wandered over #Egypt and Syria. The Egyptian king Proteus first welcomed him."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 29
🏛️ Dionysos and #Ariadne, #Coptic Egyptian tapestry from the 4th century CE.
Thank you, Ahram Online: #Art & #Culture, #Egypt’s leading English language newspaper, for this belated #birthday gift & honorable mention in your pages of my new #book, Quarantine Notes:
The glossary for August's erotic mythology story is going to be looooong 😳
In the story, #Dionysos and #Ariadne visit #Egypt, invited by the goddess #Hathor, and as I am not as well-versed in Egyptian history, it was tough getting the details right. I always aim to bring the ancient world alive and it is supposed to be a place where young gods like Dionysos and Ariadne seem like children to the ancient deities who ruled over Egypt for centuries if not millenia when the story takes place.
‘He is steeped in the traditions of Western #philosophy but comes from a world where the #desert reminds you constantly that you are surrounded by a vast inimical emptiness; the ancient #Christian hermits used to sit in the #Egyptian desert because from there you could place a toll-free call to #Paradise’