{"id":43567,"date":"2026-03-26T13:35:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/?p=43567"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:36:06","slug":"netanyahu-and-trump-the-killing-of-childhood-from-gaza-to-tehran-tel-aviv-and-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/?p=43567","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu and Trump\u2026 The Killing of Childhood from Gaza to Tehran, Tel Aviv, and the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poetry: Ashraf AboArafe<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Zahra\u2019s Pink Dress…<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It was never just a dress,
\nit was a small dream\u2014
\nembroidered with the laughter of a child
\nwho had not yet learned
\nhow the heart hides its fear
\nwhen the sky begins to roar…<\/p>\n

Zahra\u2026
\nwrote in her notebook:
\n“Today, I went with my mother,
\nand we bought a bright pink dress
\nfor my birthday.”<\/em><\/p>\n

She did not know
\nthat pink
\nwould become
\nthe color of absence…<\/p>\n

O her birthday that never came,
\nO cake that grew cold
\nbefore the candles were blown,
\nO mother who baked a dream\u2014
\nonly for ashes to consume it…<\/p>\n

In the corner of her notebook,
\nher words remained warm:
\n“I wish my father wouldn\u2019t be gone…”<\/em><\/p>\n

But absence
\nwas faster than wishes,
\nand the hand of death
\nwas closer
\nthan the hand of her father…<\/p>\n

What kind of world is this,
\nwhere a dress is stolen
\nfrom the closet of joy,
\nand childhood is hung
\non the walls of war?<\/p>\n

And as if Zahra
\nwas not alone\u2026
\nIn Gaza too,
\nlittle dresses
\nwait for birthdays that never come,<\/p>\n

and children
\nwho resemble her\u2014
\nin laughter\u2026
\nand in loss…<\/p>\n

What justice is this,
\nwhen powerful names
\nlike Benjamin Netanyahu
\nand Donald Trump
\nbecome heavy shadows
\npassing over children\u2019s notebooks\u2014
\nextinguishing ink\u2026 and breath?<\/p>\n

Zahra did not grow older\u2026
\nbut she is no longer afraid of absence.<\/p>\n

She found her father\u2019s hand
\nin a place untouched by bombs,
\nuntouched by politics…<\/p>\n

There\u2026
\nshe wears her pink dress
\nas she wished,
\nno war delays her birthday,
\nno world
\nsteals joy
\nfrom the eyes of children…<\/p>\n

They did not stop
\nat killing innocence
\nin Gaza\u2026 or Palestine.<\/p>\n

Their shadow stretched
\nto Yemen\u2026 Iraq\u2026 Lebanon\u2026 and Syria\u2026<\/p>\n

And it was never the end\u2014
\nbut the beginning
\nof a widening map,
\ngrowing larger every day,<\/p>\n

until it reaches
\nEgypt\u2026 and T\u00fcrkiye,
\nin whispers of threat
\nand shadows of design…<\/p>\n

As if childhood
\nin this region
\nis destined for loss.<\/p>\n

Why the Middle East\u2014
\nalways the stage of wounds?<\/p>\n

And why does the story stretch
\nto Venezuela\u2026
\nthen to Cuba?<\/p>\n

Is it because innocence
\nhas no voice?
\nOr because power
\nknows where to strike\u2014
\nwithout consequence?<\/p>\n

With deep sorrow,
\nthey have surpassed even vampires\u2014
\nnot in myth\u2026
\nbut in reality.<\/p>\n

Childhood was not spared\u2014
\nnot even in Tel Aviv,
\nnor across the occupied land.<\/p>\n

For when politics ignites,
\ninnocence becomes
\nthe first victim\u2014
\nwithout exception.<\/p>\n

A child\u2014
\nanywhere\u2014
\ncarries no guilt
\nto pay the price of the powerful…<\/p>\n

And they are not alone\u2026<\/p>\n

There are also
\nthe institutions of the international community
\nthat see\u2026 and do nothing.<\/p>\n

Those who claim humanity,
\nyet stand aligned
\nwith power\u2026 or with silence.<\/p>\n

Those who participate in the shadows\u2026
\nand those who remain silent by choice\u2026<\/p>\n

For silence\u2014
\nin the face of massacre\u2014
\nis not neutrality\u2026
\nbut hidden complicity.<\/p>\n

And the question will remain,
\nsuspended above the ruins of children:<\/p>\n

Who killed Zahra?
\nThe bullet\u2026
\nor the silence
\nthat did not stop it?\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poetry: Ashraf AboArafe Zahra\u2019s Pink Dress… It was never just a dress, it was a small dream\u2014 embroidered with the laughter of a child who had not yet learned how the heart hides its fear when the sky begins to roar… Zahra\u2026 wrote in her notebook: “Today, I went with my mother, and we bought …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,388],"tags":[17044,23085,23086,3624,3857,23087,23084,1494],"class_list":["post-43567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chief-editor","category-slide","tag-and-the-world","tag-childhood-from","tag-gaza-to","tag-netanyahu","tag-tehran","tag-tel-aviv","tag-the-killing-of","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43567"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43571,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43567\/revisions\/43571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}