This intifada has been globalised. The revolution has been digitised. The Internet was in its infancy in the Arab world during the first intifada and satellite TV had yet to reach the region. All that has changed and, with it, control of information. In the highly politicised Arab world, where Western media are viewed with suspicion and authoritarian governments tightly control information, uncensored images and free debate have a profound impact.
People now receive much more information, nearly instantly, from a variety of media sources.
And like all peoples, they interpret that information within the context of their own experience, and use the tools at their disposal to act on the conclusions they draw from it. 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.