Sorry for taking so long to write the promised report about the weekend in Jordan. There simply aren't enough hours in the day to finish all the work I've taken on. But I do have a lot on my mind, and there's definitely a big post coming up very soon. (Hey, you know me - I always come through in the end, right? ;) )

Meanwhile, here are some Very Important Links.

I am absolutely delighted to introduce the new blog of my friend, Fayrouz Shaqrawi. It's called The Land of Sad Oranges, and knowing Fayrouz I am quite sure that hers will become an important voice of clarity and sanity from Israel and Palestine (or the Palestinian territories, or whatever you want to call it - I'm tired of arguing about terminology).

Fayrouz is Palestinian. She is also Israeli. And Muslim. And brilliant, charming, kind and articulate. She speaks Arabic, Hebrew and English all fluently. Today she lives in Jerusalem, where she attends university, and works in Bethlehem. Please go over to her blog and welcome her to the blogosphere.

More links:
Part Four of Jill's memoir, "Not Jewish?! What are you doing here?" is up on the One Jerusalem site. And it just keeps getting better and better: in this hilarious chapter, our heroine introduces her readers to The Israeli Male and his relationship with cars, roads and women. Tip: make sure you are not drinking or eating near your computer whilst reading; otherwise you'll be wiping stuff off the keyboard.

Stephanie Fried has had a very disturbing run-in with a London-based dance publication that refused to publish her article about an Israeli dance troupe simply because of its provenance. Her posts about the incident are here and here; Allison picked it up here, and Rachel , who blogs about modern dance, wrote about it here - with additional information that should (but probably won't) cause some people to re-think their dogmatic positions.

And finally, my latest GVO post is here.