I agree with some of what you’ve mentioned, but still, it’s easy said than done, especially that you and me haven’t witnesses our parents’, siblings’, and loved ones’ brains and flesh brutally splashed before our eyes, with some brains even scattered on our hands.

Honestly Fadi, if you’ve lost some of those you love butchered the way the dead of Gaza were, in addition to you losing a leg and hand, would you be using such “moderate” rhetoric??? jad?

It really depends, you could direct the energy of the people and the anger into ensuring that this never happens again to anyone else, or you could direct it towards revenge and getting back. One is constructive and the other is destructive. Also, one is easy to wish for and the other is most probably the default behavior.

I really hope that we can focus our energies into changing the status quo to the better.

Zait ow Za3tar, I was partially playing the devil’s advocate when i asked Fadi, myselef, and anybody advocating the Palestinian cause to imagine all the atrocities Gazans went through– during those 23 days– personally happening to anyone of us.

And honestly, as easy as it is for us to theorize about what to/not to do, we still remain physically, emotionally, and psychologically remote from those who have been directly traumatized; a population of 1.5 million who’ve faced brutal inhumane circumnstances that will not fade away as soon as Israel withdraws from the strip. A lot of people will be returning to their homes ironically without dear family members, houses utterly razed to the ground, schools and infrastructure of the city destructed, lack of food and water supplies, starvation, and most tragically disturbed lives or lack thereof.

What we have to do I think, more than basically be concerned with our image and the way we are viewed by the West, which we sadly obsess about to the extent that we find ourselves remotely far from advocating the reality of the horrors visited upon Gaza, and concerned with how moderate and acceptable our rhetoric is. Yes, we should not be consumed with aggression and hatred; yet still, we shouldn’t tone our language/attitude down, subside the Palestinian cause, just to fit the ears of a remote West.
And yes, we still want a free Gaza and a free Palestine! Avi Shlaim, a former IDF and a professor at oxford, has written about the latest Israeli aggression in Gaza and has most wittingly pointed out in his article, “How Israel Brought Gaza to the Brink of Humanitarian Catastrophe,” the following:
The undeclared aim [of the war]is to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza are seen by the world simply as a humanitarian problem and thus to derail their struggle for independence and statehood.” Our effort shouldn’t only be focused on increasing awareness, whether on the West or elsewhere, of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but also enlightening the world about the righteousness of the Palestinian cause and their struggle for freedom. We should advocate freedom.
Not to forget that the majority of our effort should still be directed inwardly; towards Gaza and its people. With the amount of destruction caused by the Israeli war machine, it will take Gaza and Gazans a couple of years to get out of the humanitarian crisis they are plunged in. Therefore, food and medical campaigns, monetary and clothes donations, charity, and any form of assistance what so ever should still take place in Jordan and else where.. Such effort and support should be mobilized, advertised, and spread widely as to continue the flow of supplies to Gaza about the same way it was during the conflict.

secrataa, you are right, if I have lost any of my loved ones, I most probably would turn into an extremist myself. But, fortunatly this is not the case, I am in a position where I have to stand up for myself and loved ones not to end up in such state. I am in a position where I am at least been saved to stay sanely enough to call out for a better lives for those who have suffered and for those who have been saved the tragedy.

The issue here is not the western world and our need of their acceptance. The issue here is the entire world that has only one common things that drives it, which is humanity, and in which we have seen clear from people around the world marshing in the streets and calling out to save people in Gaza.

A humanitarian message would help us gain the support of the entire way. A religious/race based message would only help getting us more enemies. Israel knows that, and is playing by it very wisely. Unfortunately, we don’t.

أقتباس ” هل نستطيع خلع رداء الدين و العرق و التوجه نحو العالم بلغته الانسانية التي يفهمها؟: ”
ما هذه السذاجه والغباء يا أيها الفادي الانساني؟؟تريد منا أن ننسى فصلنا وأصلنا حتى نذهب لنتسول ونستنجد من هذا العالم بما حصل لنا؟؟،ما أين أتيت بهذه الحماقه والسذاجه؟ وهل تعتقد أذا تخلصنا من الذين والعرق سيئتي العالم مهرول لنجدتنا، ؟ أصحا على نفسك وبكفي سخافه