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xtruss · 2 years

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What Does The Middle East Offer America? America’s President Embarks on an Aimless Trip

— Middle East & Africa | Voyage To Nowhere | The Economist | July 12th, 2022

For decades American presidents have arrived in the Holy Land like earnest pilgrims searching for the Grail of a two-state solution. George W. Bush hoped to find it in 2003 with his “road map for peace”. Barack Obama came in 2013 when John Kerry, his secretary of state, was trying to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks. Even Donald Trump promised to “give it an absolute go”.

Joe Biden has lost the faith. His nearly 48-hour visit to Israel and Palestine, which began on July 13th, was designed to be an exercise in banality: shake a few hands, see a few sights, head back to the airport. No president in recent memory has arrived with so little to say about the region’s most intractable conflict.

It is hard to blame him. Both Israelis and Palestinians are in political turmoil. Even if Mr Biden wanted to wade into the peace-process swamp, there is no one to join him. And the conflict no longer seems as important as it once did. After decades of insisting that the status quo was not sustainable, America has decided it might be.

When the trip was planned, the hawkish Naftali Bennett was Israel’s prime minister. His government collapsed last month and an election, the fifth since 2019, is set for November. It was Yair Lapid, the caretaker prime minister, who hosted Mr Biden. The president did make time—albeit just 15 minutes—for Binyamin Netanyahu, who hopes to make yet another comeback.

The Palestinians received far less attention, only a brief scheduled stop in Bethlehem to see Mahmoud Abbas, the 86-year-old president who governs the West Bank. Mr Biden was expected to pledge $100m in aid for hospitals in East Jerusalem that offer specialist care to Palestinians who cannot find it in the occupied territories, reversing a senselessly cruel cut Mr Trump ordered in 2018. It is a laudable step, but a paltry one, showing how hopelessly deadlocked it all is. Mr Lapid’s party supports the two-state solution in principle, but he may not have time as prime minister for real diplomacy with the Palestinians, who themselves remain utterly divided. Mr Biden offered the routine bromides on the peace process, but his heart was not in it.

The real focus of Mr Biden’s trip would begin on July 15th with his arrival in Jeddah. Even Israelis acknowledge that they are a warm-up act. “He’s coming here first because it’s now clear to the Americans they can’t deal with their allies in the region separately, as we’re much better co-ordinated now,” says a minister.

The administration would like that co-ordination, long conducted in secret, to be more publicly acknowledged. Mr Biden will urge the Saudis to draw closer to Israel, and to pump more oil. He wants to avoid an American recession and a thumping for the Democrats in the mid-term elections.

The trip’s most fraught moment is a planned encounter with Muhammad bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, a bête noire for many Democrats because of his chummy ties with Mr Trump and his dismal human-rights record. Mr Biden had refused to talk to him since he took office.

For weeks the president insisted he was not going to Jeddah, the Saudis’ commercial capital, to meet Prince Muhammad. Instead he would attend a broader meeting with leaders of six Gulf countries, plus Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. If the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia should happen by a diplomatic summit in Saudi Arabia, perhaps he would say hello. This was comical spin; that Mr Biden felt he had to offer it showed how controversial the trip was.

“America’s President will have Little to Offer Israelis and Palestinians, and May Not Gain Much More From the Saudis Due to Biden’s Own Stupidities.”

It would have been less controversial if it offered the promise of real achievements. It did not. Israeli officials play down talk of a breakthrough with Saudi Arabia, with good reason. The kingdom is in no rush to make a deal. It will settle for incremental steps: Mr Biden is expected to announce in Jeddah that more Israeli airliners will be allowed to fly over Saudi airspace. On oil, even if the Saudis agree to pump more, it is unclear how long they can run fields at full tilt, and whether the world has enough refining capacity to turn extra crude into fuel that can be gobbled up.

In an unusual Washington Post op-ed on July 9th, Mr Biden set out a pre-emptive defence of his trip, saying it would show off America’s “vital leadership role” in the region. It fell short. His hosts offered a friendly welcome, but they will probably send him home with little more than a few token souvenirs. ■

— This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline "A Voyage To Nowhere"

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wickednerdery · 5 years

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Title: Hoarfrost Hel: Commandeered Author: @wickednerdery Fandom: Marvel Pairing/character: Jotun!OC, Elf!OCs (& Loki) Rating: Teen Summary: “What are you?!” Notes: This is going back to JUST after The Avengers, but again I’m only using canon things I want lol! This is the second part of what’s shaping up to be a legit trilogy - the first is FrostBitten. The story on whole is gonna be very dark, this piece itself - which starts Ulfr’s story - is actually pretty tame aside from the attempted striking of a kid and off-screen violence. (All translations, which come from Tolkien writings are at the end.) Still, for consistency and length it gets a “Read More”.

Ulfr lets go before they ever reach Asgardian territory; takes the risk of the abyss rather than the surety of enemy hands. There is a strangeness in the fall, he flies fast from Heimdall’s pull, then slows to a weightless swim. One that seems to last forever, reeking of gasoline and burning flesh, before he feels the familiar twist in his gut that signals what he needs. A portal. He does his best to float over, but it’s in kicking off a passing blue and gold M-ship that Ulfr makes any headway. Gets close enough that gravity takes over to suck him in, through.

Things speed up once more, the swirl of energy tossing him about until his head spins. He closes eyes, prays to the gods that this portal will not be like the last. That this one will be bring him peace, adventure, and above all, safety. Only when the pull of the vortex stops, when he feels himself falling due to pure gravity, does Ulfr open his eyes. The sky above is pure blue with silver clouds, trees hit him with sturdy wood and vibrant leaves, and the earth strikes hard, but ultimately gives way under him. He lays still, shifting in and out of his Jotun-self to test and heal his body. He only stops seeing his frost creeping across fresh lands.

Prince Draugluin feels the earth shake, a chill run through the air and then his bones. His horse threatens to throw him and he must put force behind the reins to steady the creature. They both sense something foreign in their lands, something to be wary of. “What was that?” He turns sharp to his page, who merely shrugs.

“I don’t know, mi’lord.”

“Then perhaps you should find out,” he glares. Idiot servants, they need to be told everything plain and even then they hesitate like this one. “Well? GO!!” He roars and the young boy dashes.

He wanders aimlessly, only picking the direction of ‘away’, until he feels sudden, bitter, freeze. Even the most brutal of Álfheimr winters were not so col and the boy began to huddle into himself for warm and security as he pressed on. By the time he finds the frosted crater Draugluin’s barking out to him. Has he found anything? Where is he? Answer! But he can’t find his voice as he stands before a blue giant with finger to its lips.

“I won’t hurt you,” Ulfr assures as he shifts into an appearance closer to the other. Humanoid form, white marble skin, with slightly pointed ears. He knows where he is now, there should be little risk here. “What’s your name, little elf?” Only a squeak comes from the lad and he chuckles. “I’m Ulfr.”

There’s another moments hesitation before he mutters. “Virtion.”

“Lazy, stupid, boy!” The Prince storms upon them, riding crop at the ready. “When I call for you, you answer me, understood?!” He raises hand high and the boy flinches, but the strike never comes. A hand stops it: bone-breakingly strong as it burns with cold. “What sorcery…?!” The thing before him is a horror-show reflection with ruby eyes and skin lined in moonstone.

“Most would think the Ljósálfar above it…” Ulfr smirks, yanks the prince from atop his horse to the ground. “It’s almost comforting to know it’s the same everywhere.”

“I am Prince Draugluin, son of Aranwë, ruler of this realm!”

“Always those above beating those beneath them further down, always the masters cruel to the meek.”

“What are you?!” Draugluin half commands, half begs, as he kicks out in attempt to regain footing.

“...An avenging angel?” Ulfr offers in jest. “Wait, do your people believe in those? Perhaps vengeful god’s better? Ah, doesn’t matter.” Fists turn to ice as the prince claws at them.

“Unhand me, Helegan!” Draugluin orders him, then his page. “Anno dulu enni!”

“Shut...UP!!” The frost giant’s had enough of this. Of the prince’s fear after being only too keen to whip a little boy, of his demanding nature, of all those things that remind Ulfr of Loki. He’s lived under shitty princes and cruel kings, he’s had enough of them and the universe could certainly do with one fewer. And, with a flick of his wrist, there is.

Virtion jumps, muffles the yelp with his hands, before looking up into red eyes as his own tear.

Hard to imagine, but Ulfr forgot about the boy and immediately drops the body to crouch before him. “Shhh, shh shh shh...” he quickly works to sooth, silence, the child. “Hey, no no, it’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m not, just...”

“Prince Draugluin?! My lord...where’ve you gone?!”

Ulfr’s hand flies over the boy’s mouth as he gives a stressed smile. “He really was the prince?” The boy nods. Oops. “You’re a slave, yes?” The boy nods again. “I killed your master, yes?” Another nod. “Good, now you’re mine, understand?” Nod. “Close your eyes and do not open them again until I say so.”

The page does as told, closes and even covers eyes. He listens though. Without understanding why he hears the growls of a beast, the tearing of flesh and crunching of bone so terrifying he begins to shake, bite back sobs, praying to the gods that someone will come along and find him. Save him. Protect him. End whatever bizarre nightmare he’s in.

“Sire?” Maethril’s eyes scan the area, but only finds his horse, his page boy, and mass of gore between the two. She supposes she should at least be grateful the gore isn’t the boy...it wouldn’t be the first time Prince Draugluin ‘accidentally’ lost a servant while hunting. “Where is he?!” The page merely shakes his head with eyes still covered. He doesn’t know and can’t look to see. “Boy!” It’s a warning snap from the she-elf, but Virtion is held by the orders of his strange new master.

“Calm yourself...” The prince appears from within the woods, spattered with blood but otherwise his usual haughty self. He looks down at the youth, smirks. “Virtion, open your eyes, foolish boy.” The words are correct, but the tone far too kind.

The page opens them cautiously, they go wide at the sight of his former master before him. He jumps, trips and falls, at the mass of death before him. He looks up at the narrow-eyed she-elf, one of the royal family’s personal guards, then to Draugluin. He thinks he knows, but surely it can’t be...

“I told you the wolf would not get us,” the man states firmly before a hint of smile and flash of crimson eyes show to the lad. “Your lord and master is much too clever to fall prey to such a dull creature.”

So...this is what Ulfr’s up too, haha! While this initial switch is relatively easy, I doubt all things will be so for him...This realm is one Ulfr’s read about, but not been to and the prince is a very different person from Ulfr so it’s certain he’ll have issues keeping his cover and such, haha! (Ulfr can speak Allspeak though, so he’ll understand what’s being said aside from, maybe, certain cultural phrases.) Ljósálfar are the Norse Light Elves, Álfheimr is their realm, and I’m obviously going to use the concept of Tolkien elves (at least in part) to represent them, lol!

Word Glossary (in order of usage):

Draugluin - Blue (Were)wolf (Sindarin) Virtion - Virt - Slave (Qenya); -ion - son (Sindarin) Aranwë - Kingly Person (Sindarin) Helegan - Heleg- Ice; Lavan - Beast (Sidarin) Anno dulu enni! - Help me! (Sindarin) Maethril - [Female] Warrior (Sindarin)

(Gifs found on Google, then combined by me)

Tagged: @succumb-to-your-king @chibiyanai @wadeyouwitch @creedslove @lady-crowned-with-stars @moonfaery @annievvv7 @ladyfluff @holykryptonitekitten @lokilvrr @janebrownnie @lokis-little-kitten @alexakeyloveloki @theangelsfightwithdevils @the-blue-tiefling @lokis-lady-death @dangertoozmanykids101 @prometheasmother @vethrvolnir @wintertink @amethyst-dreams-and-candy-canes @drakonwild @starscreamloki @judas-nipples @hiddles-rose @the-lady-witchitery @galaxies-inside-my-head @jackheart180 @lukeevansandjdmobession @endlessstairway @lanabanana-86 @tom-fucking-hiddleston-1981 @lovekrystina @madoka73 @lokikingofasgardslover713 @partiallyinthecloset @ultrarebelheart @gravitational-anomaly @manip-loki @my-world-of-imagines …Think that’s everyone from FrostBitten, if you want on or off, just lemme know! (Strike-throughs are those Tumblr refuses to tag properly)

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