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.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
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