A morgue assistant pulling out drawers holding the mutilated corpses of Palestinians killed in clashes with Israelis. Doctors pummeling the chest of a dead Palestinian in a desperate attempt to revive him. The body of a tiny infant, swathed in bloodied blankets, held up by a grieving parent.
These raw images -- aired almost daily on Arab television since the Palestinian-Israeli clashes erupted a year ago -- haven't lost the power to touch the hearts of Arab viewers.
Indeed, they have fed a great buildup of Arab anger -- not only against Israel but also against the US, its chief ally, already resented throughout the Middle East for imposing 11 years of sanctions and launching repeated airstrikes on Iraq.
Many also see the invasion of American culture as an assault on the Arab way of life, from Hollywood movies sneaking in by satellite to women demanding greater rights.
That anger has left many Arabs grappling with conflicting emotions over the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
On the one hand, they denounce the attacks as a massacre that Islam shuns. But on the other hand, many wonder whether the US deserves sympathy when, they argue, it has alternated between playing the role of supporter of Israel and of mere spectator in the yearlong Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"We feel outraged by what happened in the United States, but we want the world to feel the same for the daily Israeli killings of Palestinians, the demolishing of houses and the humiliation of the people," said Wafa Mohammed, a shop owner in Jordan.
"If the United States had sympathized with the Arabs, the destruction that took place in the United States wouldn't have happened," said Mohammed Tohami, a 22-year-old Egyptian frame maker.
"There's a feeling among Arabs that the United States is totally responsible for what's happening in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," said Imad Shueibi, a Syrian political analyst.
Taking such resentment into account, most Arab governments, including key US allies, have been careful about giving the US the Arab and Islamic cover it needs for its war against terrorism.
US President George W. Bush, who has threatened to punish Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia for harboring Osama bin Laden, is assembling US forces in the Gulf region for a retaliatory strike.
Arab leaders urged the US -- which so far has offered little public proof of bin Laden's involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks -- against hasty military action before the culprits are identified without a shred of doubt.
"What I don't stop telling the United States is: don't rush into it. Wait until your investigation is completed," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview published Saturday.
Mubarak offered Egypt's cooperation in hunting down the assassins, calling for an anti-terrorism coalition under UN auspices. But he warned that any US retaliation resulting in the deaths of innocent people would fuel greater hatred of the US and any allies who participate in the anti-terrorism coalition.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary