Gaza, Qaddafi, And Starbucks

With the Israeli offensive on Gaza dragging into its third week, demonstrators around the globe have been pouring into the streets expressing their outrage against Israel's indiscriminate bombardment of residential neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip. In the Arab world, demonstrators have also turned their anger towards their leaders. They have been demanding the expulsion of Israel's ambassadors from Egypt and Jordan and the opening of the borders between Egypt and Gaza.

In Egypt (the largest Arab country), demonstrators carried placards demanding "To stop the Gaza Holocaust", and "Gaza, Forgive Us."

"Your Royal Highnesses and Your Excellencies--(we) Spit (on you)!"

Along with the images of bloodied children, scenes of destruction and carnage in Gaza, debates on Arab disunity have increased in the Arab media. The Arab public and opposition groups have been vocal in criticizing their own governments for not doing enough to help the people of Gaza. When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled Israel's ambassador from his country over its onslaught on Gaza, a Kuwaiti Islamist MP called for moving Arab League headquarters from Cairo to Caracas. He added that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez "has proved that he was more Arab than some Arabs."

Since Hezbollah emerged victorious in the "Arab street" in the aftermath of the Israeli war on Lebanon during the summer of 2006, so-called moderate countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan were heavily chastised for their role in criticizing Hezbollah and its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for provoking the war with Israel. Today, the same countries are being attacked for conspiring against Hamas. The crisis in Gaza has managed to divide the Arab world yet again, further widening the gap between Arab regimes and their people.

Rumors have also been floating of Egyptian collusion with Israel. One circulated article claims that two days before Israel's invasion of Gaza, Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni visited Cairo and met with President Hosni Mubarak. There, Livni told Mubarak of the attack on Gaza and got Mubarak's approval for a "rapid, surgical operation" aimed at overthrowing Hamas and clearing the way for the return of Mahmoud Abbas and his men. According to this claim, 400 members of the Palestinian security forces under the command of former Palestinian National Security Advisor Mohammad Dahlan are currently waiting to take over the Strip once Hamas is defeated.

King Abdullah of Jordan has also warned that "there is a conspiracy being concocted against the Palestinian people, their future and right to establish their independent state."

Conspiracy? No way!

Also, Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi has demanded an open door for voluntary participation of Arabs to fight beside the Palestinians in Gaza. Qaddafi urged Arab countries to reactivate their common defense treaty to face the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, saying that any Arab country victim of any aggression should be defended by all Arabs who must fight beside it, which is in accordance with the legality of international law. Right!

Meanwhile, the sentiment of the Arab populous was captured in this widely circulated photo over the internet which shows a demonstrator carrying the Palestinian flag with a message written on it in Arabic. It reads, "Your Royal Highnesses and Your Excellencies--(we) Spit (on you)!"

BTW, did I mention that here in the U.S. Arab Americans in solidarity with Gaza have been boycotting Starbucks? For the last couple of weeks, internet conspiracy theorists have been spreading a story that Starbucks is funding the Israeli attacks on Gaza!

Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV

Comments

[FairTalk]

{{Rumors have also been floating of Egyptian collusion with Israel. One circulated article claims that two days before Israel's invasion of Gaza, Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni visited Cairo and met with President Hosni Mubarak. There, Livni told Mubarak of the attack on Gaza and got Mubarak's approval for a "rapid, surgical operation" aimed at overthrowing Hamas and clearing the way for the return of Mahmoud Abbas and his men. According to this claim, 400 members of the Palestinian security forces under the command of former Palestinian National Security Advisor Mohammad Dahlan are currently waiting to take over the Strip once Hamas is defeated.

King Abdullah of Jordan has also warned that "there is a conspiracy being concocted against the Palestinian people, their future and right to establish their independent state."}}

See Vanity Fair "The Gaza Bombshell," which describes and documents the US CIA covert operation, coluding with Egypt, to provoke a Palestinian war, and funding and arming Dahlan, and training his thugs in Egypt.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804

[justice2008]

Egypt does not want an Islamists entity next door considering the Mubarak regime has been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood

[jad114]

When was the last time Arab leaders were able to rescue the Palestinians?

Palestinians are on their own. Either they fight to the bitter end with Israel or make peace with it.

[joz22]

Palestinians are the indigenous people. Eastern European coloniolists can return to their countries. It happened before with the Crusaders.

[cohen238765]

Stop Blaming Israel! Gaza is an Arab problem. It can be re-built wit petro $

[newsjunkie5]

what petro $?

the ones being stolen by the US?

[leonardox1]

Arab leaders are full of hot air. All what they care about is fattening their wallets and bellies. They are busy building skyscrapers and driving Ferraris while the Palestinians starve. Enough lies!

[newsjunkie5]

This is so sad. I can't believe this has continued on for 3 weeks and it doesn't seem to be lessening or even on a path to end anytime soon. What can we do as citizens to stop all of this unnecessary bloodshed of thousands of innocent children?

Boycotting Starbucks is only a start...

[leonardox1]

This is stupid! You are falling for stupid rumors. I'd boycott Starbucks for other reasons but not because of these rumors.

[newsjunkie5]

From what I hear they are not just rumors.

Two weeks ago, Starbucks relased a press release stating that for the next 2 weeks all of is proceeds would be going directly to Israel to support its security efforts.

I also heard that McDonald's, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola also made the decision to give all of their proceeds to Israel for the next 2 weeks too, but I have not found any press releases about the latter three.

[jazzman]

Why should Arab countries be unified when there are attacks on other Arabs? Whites in Europe don't unite automatically when one of their countries is involved in conflict. There are many conflicts that have occurred in Asia and Asians haven't always uniformly sided with the other Asian country. I think such unity is more difficult to achieve than it sounds. Arab countries have as much difference between them as some European countries do. The idea of Arab unity is a pipe dream that doesn't exist in the real world.

[justice2008]

There are no Arab leaders. There are puppets. They've been trading with the Palestinian cause for the past 60 years. Maybe the massacre in Gaza will wake up the people to rise up against these tyrants.

[joz22]

"Your Royal Highnesses and Your Excellencies--(we) Spit (on you)!" I hope that the holder of that slogan will not visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt or other Arab dictatorships!

[SiberianRat]

Boycott Starbucks!

[alexa07]

Boycott the Democratic & Republican parties by withdrawing from them & becoming an independent to protest the collusion of the majority of our politicians with Israel!