I was really looking forward to the new year especially since both the Hijri and Gregorian new year fall only within a couple of days of each other so it’s a new year both religiously and globally. But the crisis in Gaza has seriously put a damper on everything. Like they say on the world news channels:
“380 Palestinians and 4 Israelis killed.”
Take it straight from the horse’s mouth, a (so-called) Wahabi Saudi, the Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine is the pulsating heart of all things that lead to Islamic terrorism and the injustice of it all is the true axle of evil. More on that last sentence later.
Hopefully 2009 will get more peaceful as it ages.
Saudiwoman's Weblog 
Will Palestine ever know peace? What’s happening there is a tragedy and the world seems to be apathetic. You are so right that this is the main cause for all the terrorism in the world. Blind support for Israel by the world powers just begs for more trouble.
Hopefully 2009 will somehow bring us all peace.
Don’t call yourself a Wahabi or a so called wahabi because there is an independent thought and interpretation of Islam called Wahabism . it’s the Islam of Saudi Arabia , Afghanistan and Pakistan and its spreading in other countries. that’s what I believe.
I’ll comment later on the root cause of terrorism. X
An editorial worth noting can be found at:
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2008123125401
I would commend specifically the point:
“In short, the Israelis have waged a much more effective campaign as silent killers than Hamas with its bombastic statements and weak rocket attacks.”
Does this not point out the fact that non-violence is the only truly effective way to protest and be effective?
The example of Mohandas Gandhi should inspire us.
As long as Palestinians within Hamas succumb to the cheap intoxication of violence, they will merely compound and be viewed within the existing world prejudice of Arabs and Muslims as violent fanatics.
And, therefore, due to taht prejudice, Palestinians will be considered as little more than petulant children.
Their suffering will be dismissed as an inevitable consequence of their violence.
To be effective, they must cease all violence as a matter of principle.
The path of non-violence liberated Pakistan, India and Bangladesh from a powerful British empire.
Were violence to be formally and decisively renounced, while sequentially pursuing non-violent resistence, then the world would be forced to consider the plight of Palestinians notwithstanding existing prejudices.
Surely as Arabs we have it within us to consider paths that are not self-destructive of our own goals, and not indulge in the adolescent temptation of violence?
Surely we can do better?
Happy New Year!!
I am completely disgusted by what is happening in Israel/Palestine. So irritated that I had to do a rant on my blog, and my blog isn’t about social or political commentary…but I just had to get it out: http://blackchickinsaudi.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-hate-to-be-bigoted-but.html
Inshallah!
Yes, Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory causes much of the tension in the Middle East. But Israel dismantled its settlements and withdrew from the Gaza Strip. What was its reward? Rockets.
If Yemen fired thousands of rockets at Saudi Arabia, do you think the Saudis would be content with just one or two “tit-for-tat” strikes?
Firing rockets is an act of war. If the people of Gaza want the casualties to stop, all they have to do is stop firing rockets.
Mark Weston.
I would take issue with the statement:
“If the people of Gaza want the casualties to stop, all they have to do is stop firing rockets.”
Casualties occur in Gaza due to Israeli policies regarding lack of enough support for nutritional/caloric efforts of the UNWRA, as well as the extreme poverty created significantly by the Israeli blockade.
Moreover, while Israel withdrew from within Gaza, as you note, it maintains control of Gaza’s ability to engage in all external commerce, thereby creating a significant level of economic deprivation that results in higher levels of mortality and morbidity among Gaza’s population.
I agree that violence of all kinds must be stopped and immediately.
But, even were that to occur, the situation in Gaza would be very far from benign.
Non-violent resistance is the solution and key.
All instruments of violence should be destroyed, and then a spirited campaign of non-violent resistance should be enacted.
To do so would confound Gaza’s enemies, who indulge in prejudiced views of Gazans [and all Arabs and Muslims] as fundamentally child-like and irrationally violent and emotional.
To the extent that Gazans indulge in puerile violent displays, they only serve to confirm these prejudices.
Gaza could become another Hong Kong or Singapore with its maritime location, lack of most other natural resources, and high population.
It should insist on such a positive future for itself.
Its truly sad and disgusting at the same time what Israel is doing. Israel has killed more than 400 ppl in Gaza! sounds like genocide to me
Reminds me of a hoarding out up an Indian media house in Bombay when Clinton visited India many years back. It asked,
“Mr American President, How many Indian lives are equal to one American life?”
Here the question would be, “How many Palestinian lives are equal to one Israeli life?”
My suggestion would be that we must never be drawn in to the situation in which we try to compare the value of one life against another.
All violence must be avoided.
At the same time, we must engage in an effort to strive for justice.
Justice will not, however, be achieved in the use of more violence.
Justice will be the attainment by all parties of their just rights.