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. If the Arab world can stand solidly behind the Palestinians in the negotiating there might be hope that a just alternative to continued Israeli military occupation will evolve. Nothing less will satisfy the Palestinians. Nor will it satisfy their Arab family. Maggie Zanger, a former assistant editor of Middle East Report magazine, teaches journalism at the American University in Cairo.