Posted on 07/31/2006 1:33:43 PM PDT by tessalu
JEDDAH: Ever since the seizure of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah sparked an Israeli offensive in Lebanon, Huda Fatani has set her alarm for 3:15 each morning, gotten up to perform her ablutions, then spent more than an hour on her knees praying for the success of Lebanese militia.
Despite her gruelling days at the King Fahd Hospital, where she works as a hematologist, Fatani said this was the least she could do to support the group fighting on behalf of all Arabs.
Hezbollah’s fight with Israel, viewed widely here as a battle between the militia’s David and the Jewish state’s Goliath, has solidified support for the militant group and left US credibility, already at an all-time low, in tatters. The conflict has highlighted how far apart the United States and the majority of Arabs stand on the most visceral conflict in the Middle East.
Arabs see the US refusal to press Israel, its ally, for a cease-fire as a clear bias toward the Jewish state and against Arabs. They also believe that US delivery of weapons to Israel makes the United States complicit in the deaths of civilians.
“The Palestinian government was kidnapped and jailed, Palestinians were being starved by Israel, and the US did not object,” said Fatani, 42, a mother of four. “But when Hezbollah captures soldiers to release prisoners, and Lebanon is attacked by Israel, instead of telling it to stop, the US rushes bombs and missiles so it can kill more Palestinians and Lebanese.”
The United States has blamed Hezbollah for provoking Israel, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said any peace plan should deal with the underlying problems causing violence in the region, a reference to Iranian and Syrian support for Hezbollah, an armed group potentially stronger than the Lebanese army.
But many Arabs say they think the United States has the equation backwards, that it is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian and Lebanese land, with US support, that fuels the conflict.
The United States’ Arab allies — Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt — initially blamed Hezbollah for the violence, calling its seizure of the soldiers miscalculated adventures. But a high civilian death toll, widespread destruction in Lebanon and strong popular support for Hezbollah have forced a shift in their stance.
Egypt, one of a few Arab states with relations with Israel, said it was trying to resolve the crisis through contacts with the Jewish state, according to the Akhbar al-Yawm newspaper in Egypt. Saudi Arabia dispatched its top diplomats to Washington to press for a cease-fire, and when that failed, issued a strongly worded statement warning of the possibility of a wider regional conflict if Israel refused to exchange Arab land for peace and relations with Arab states.
Hezbollah, emerging as the new champion of the Palestinians, has managed, for the most part, to close sectarian ranks and win the support of Sunni majorities in most Arab countries.
Several Wahabi clerics in Saudi Arabia, however, have refused to support Hezbollah’s fight against Israel. They believe Shias are not proper Muslims.
The Website of a popular preacher, Nasser al-Omar, tells followers that contrary to Hezbollah’s claims, it is not fighting on behalf of Sunni Muslims in Palestine and is instead a tool in Iran’s hands.
But prominent and popular clerics in Egypt and Saudi Arabia have defended the militia, saying this was a time to remain united and bury sectarian animosities.
Arabs for the most part have celebrated Hezbollah’s attacks in Israel. “I was so happy,” Fatani, sitting at home in jeans watching Al-Jazeera, recalled feeling when she heard about Hezbollah strikes against Israel. “It was the first time in 50 years that Israelis feel what Palestinians and Lebanese have been going through.”
When Al-Jazeera announced a new Hezbollah strike on an Israeli chemical plant, she looked toward the sky and said, “God be praised,” then got down on the floor, her forehead to the carpet, and recited a short prayer of thanks. In demonstrations in Egypt, people carried posters of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah and the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdal Nasser, seen as the father of Arab nationalism.
Sabri, the Saudi student, said he wished he could demonstrate to express his anger at events or volunteer to fight in Lebanon, but that it was not allowed by the government.
So instead Sabri, who wears his long hair in a ponytail under a cream-and-orange turban, prays for Hezbollah’s victory and shows his support by driving around with a picture of Nasrallah taped on the back of his red and white Mini Cooper. If the authorities ask him to remove the picture, he said, he would replace it with a sign that reads, “God bless those who engage in miscalculated adventures.”—Dawn/Los Angeles Times News Service
Allah of the Koran is not the God of the bible. You can check it out yourself. The God of the bible tells of his laws and what it right and wrong for us.
The god of the Koran, has his own set of rules and they differ from the God of the bible. They can not be the same.
Wrong! it's the Jewish David against the Satanic Muslim
Goliath.
The US stands against terrorism. How can aiding Israel in it's war against terrorists be considered a blow to our credibility?
Offensive?????????? Hezbollah struck first. Israel struck second. Hezbollah struck offensively. Israel struck defensively!
Can countries have such things as credibility?
But many Arabs say they think the United States has the equation backwards, that it is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian and Lebanese land, with US support, that fuels the conflict.
Hezbollah, emerging as the new champion of the Palestinians, has managed, for the most part, to close sectarian ranks and win the support of Sunni majorities in most Arab countries.
Arabs for the most part have celebrated Hezbollah’s attacks in Israel. “I was so happy,” Fatani, sitting at home in jeans watching Al-Jazeera, recalled feeling when she heard about Hezbollah strikes against Israel. “It was the first time in 50 years that Israelis feel what Palestinians and Lebanese have been going through.”
so what do we have here? where is the call for free and democratic arabia? where are the calls for freeing the Lebanese from the death grip of Hezbo, Assad and the Iranian mullahs? we have not yet seen based upon these statements an acceptance of the history of the last 50 years. add to that the Iraqi statements of earlier today castigating Israel and we have a complete picture of faded visions of the arabian greatness and islamic hegemony from days of yore.
I have searched for news from all around the world for all kinds of opinions. It is up to each one of us individually to sort out the truth, and I do try to look at it all.
Even 6-year olds figured this out on the playground in very short order--pick on someone bigger than you, and get the immortal crap kicked out of you.
These morons will never learn.
Just a pig in a poke here, but I'm guessing Faiza Saleh Ambah did not give the US much "credibility" long ago.
The article is BS!
Israel is one of our few friends in the world. Stabbing them in the back will not make socialists and jihadists like us -- if anything, it will encourage their destructive impulses.
The problem with Islam is not the Koran per se. Their civilization didn't develop in the same fashion as the west.
Religion generally is a static process demanding unquestioning submission, while politics is a process offering participation, discussion, and lawmaking founded in consent.
Christian civilization got around this contradiction with the separation of Church and State. Christianity grew up alongside the Roman government. Jesus taught that one should "render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." Augustine developed this idea in the City of God, and St. Gregory implemented the Pastoral Rule in the 5th century, imposing the duty of civil obedience upon the clergy. The idea persisted in medieval times with the distinction between regnum and sacerdotium.
Islam doesn't have this tradition. They grew up by plundering, raping, and killing the infidel. Sovereignty for them rests with Allah and his Prophet (pigs be upon him), and legal order for them is founded in divine command. Unlike the West, there is no entity called "the Mosque." Like the Leninists, Islam seeks to control the state without being a subject to the state.
About a year ago I saw a map on this site that really drove the point of how small Israel really is home.
It showed a map of the region with a quote box coming from the tiny speck that was Israel and the quote box said something like "Israel is a travesty against God and it cannot be allowed to stand" (that may not even be close).
I wish I had save it. It really would fit this thread.
I've noticed a pattern....Most Arab/Muslims who make pronoucements in the court of world opinion are liars.
Too bad we can't give covert aid like Iran.
A troubling article. If the "moderate" muslims are siding with terrorist organizations, then what many pundits have opined is truly coming to pass; a culture/religious war between Christianity/Judaism and Islam.
Given that the Palestinians aren't Arab, the support of muslims for the Palestinians is suspect. The Palestinians are muslim pawns. A handy reason for muslim anti-Semitism and hatred of the US.
In military parlance, an offensive is conducted whenever a military force ventures forth from its base of operations to conduct operations. Israel has done this, and has done this well.
Hez/Hizbollah struck first, and Israel struck second, but it is correct to classify what Israel is doing as an offensive.
Whatever they are doing, it is better to be on the BACK of the Israeli attack, and not in front! ;)
What are the palis if not arabs?
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