Still the songs channels and the movie channels are broadcasting like it's business as usual. Some people are making the extra step, donating money, but is this enough? Are they pressuring their governments enough? 22 in the Kuwaiti parliament are pushing the government not to receive Abbas. Are other Arab parliaments taking similar steps?
Asked what he felt about the Western nations' failure to condemn Israel's actions or take diplomatic action against the country, Mounir said, "It's what we expect -- the West made Israel, protects it. Chavez said that it is the USA's murder arm -- he tells the truth, the rest of the world don't dare to. If more countries had leaders like him and Morales, Israel would not be able to survive. We Arabs need leaders like them.
Muna Al-Shawa, a 34-year-old housewife and mother whose family came from Nazareth, was upset and frustrated by the lack of concerted practical action to stop Israel, though she saw the Western protests as a cause for optimism. I look at the awful, awful pictures on TV, the babies dying, the children, the women -- that could be my children, my family, me -- it is breaking my heart," she told the Kuwait Times. "We need to seriously act, stop talking and making speeches and act.
Demonstrations are not enough in the Arab world because demonstrations won't change anything. Demonstrations in Europe are different because they change governments' views. I was happy to see the Europeans, Americans, the Western people protesting; from what I saw on TV and read, the feeling and anger there is unprecedented -- even during the beginning of war against Iraq there were no big demonstrations like this, this powerful. I hope the West will not close its eyes and go back to sleep again once this massacre ends.
Jawdat Abu Shamala, a 38-year-old shop manager from Gaza who still has family there, was worried for his family and critical of Hamas, saying that it had failed to act strategically or to consider the importance of timing in its actions and that it should have waited for GW Bush to leave office before taking on Israel.
Hamas was warned by Egypt that Israel would retaliate. Even a big country like Syria is waiting for Obama to be in office. I wonder why Hamas couldn't wait. My family -- mother, brothers, sister, nephews, nieces, thirty-five relatives -- are in Deir Al-Balah [a coastal area in central Gaza that has come under bombardment from warships, as well as missiles], this is driving me crazy -- I can't eat, can't sleep for worrying. I phone them every day, but sometimes the phone doesn't work. And I watch the news and I pray all the time. I don't think Hamas did this right, even though they are the victims along with the rest of Gaza. I just want it to end. E-mail: ruth@kuwaittimes.net
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