The Muslim world has concluded that Israel has instituted its own jihad against the Islamic world, or at the very least has displayed incredible disrespect. Calls for jihad emanate from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Algiers, Algeria, and governments reluctant to engage in war with Israel only further distance themselves from a disaffected people who had no role in putting them in power in the first place. Borders began to break down as Arabs from London and Paris began nearly effortless, regular communication with their peers in similar businesses, areas of studies, or political persuasion in Beirut, Lebanon and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. While the right response might be hotly debated, a sense of Palestinian solidarity has settled in across the Arab-Muslim world. Unlike during the first intifada, Arabs and Muslims now have an easy detour around the official Arab media and the US media, which precious few in the Arab world would describe as other than grossly biased toward Israel.
Arab youth flocking to Internet cafes have no memory of the various Arab-Israeli wars.
But the base sense of outrage that first welled up with the widely disseminated television images of the shooting of young Mohammed al-Durr has solidified into a new sense of Arab pride. All things American are no longer seen as entirely cool. McDonald's is boycotted, flags are burned. Money is collected for Palestinian hospitals. The Palestinian challenge to Israeli occupation has digitally expanded to become an Arab and Muslim challenge to the role of Israel in the region and of the US as an honest broker in any solution.