http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071806J.shtmlYet as consistently as the Arab governments fail to get busy "moving their asses" toward something resembling a solution to this crisis, just as consistently are the people repressed by those same governments raising their voices.
On Friday, tens of thousands of Arab protestors hit the streets, condemning the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and their actions in the Gaza Strip. 5,000 angry protesters gathered at a mosque in Cairo carrying banners that read, "Hey Arab leaders, you should be united." In Amman, over 2,000 demonstrators gathered at a mosque after Friday prayers, shouting "Zionists get out, get out!" and "Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan are one people!"
Thousands marched in Gaza, waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags.
Meanwhile in Baghdad, thousands of angry Iraqis marched, praising Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, while denouncing Israel and the US for the attacks. Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr hinted that he may be prepared to put his Mehdi Army militia into action against the Americans due to the Israeli actions in Lebanon and Gaza.In an earlier piece titled "An Alliance of Violence," I detailed how violence perpetrated on the people of Palestine by the Israeli military has immediate ramifications in Iraq. The same is now brewing yet again.
In Kuwait, protesters rallied in front of the parliament building, shouting "Death to Israel!" and "Death to America!" Meanwhile, a Kuwaiti lawmaker named Musallam al-Barrak lashed out at his and other Arab governments when he stated, "Arab countries can do nothing but condemn."
There is a frightening undercurrent of rage among the people in the Middle East toward their governments: The Arab world is on fire over the injustice meted out against the Palestinian people, as well as to the Lebanese. The Israeli people are deeply angered at their government for failing to provide security (of course our corporate media would never report on the fact that hundreds of thousands of Israelis oppose their government's actions in Gaza and beyond) - instead, preferring peaceful resolutions rather than brutal, unjust, failed occupation and ongoing acts of aggression.