The Arab world wants friends, not masters

The savage bombing of Gaza, its total demolishing and the targeted killing of Palestinian children by Israeli airstrikes truly shocked people across the world.

Images of blown-apart children, mutilated bodies, burned out mosques and churches gained worldwide attention, perhaps not through mainstream media as much as through Twitter and Facebook.

Social media highlighted the Palestinian plight and human suffering, the holocaust, the annihilation of a people whose only request is to live in freedom, peace and dignity.

But the mainstream media in the United States adopted a totally callous approach. Almost all mainstream networks, such as CNN, Fox and their affiliates went ballistic accusing Hamas of “attacking Israel,” holding the movement responsible for the current situation and threatening the security and stability of Israel!

Some anchormen even fabricated lies.

Others totally ignored the Palestinian side and focused on imaginary tunnels and rockets!

They conveniently omitted to bring to everybody’s attention that supplied American weapons, bombs and rockets were blowing children to bits, killing the sick and elderly in the hospitals and killing and maiming worshipers as they prayed during the holy nights of Ramadan.

Not a war, a massacre

This was not a war. It was a massacre goaded by the U.S. media. The media, which was blatantly biased, indirectly encouraged it by blanking out the attacks and creating hysteria.

Media depravity reached new heights when even live programs were censored by the previously respected C-SPAN. Members of academia who were critical of the genocide were brushed aside or not given space or airtime.

While Latin American countries, themselves the victims of American foreign policy, stood up and questioned the Palestinian genocide, no European or Western leader had the guts even to whimper.

The U.S. government and its lawmakers followed the media in asking for Hamas to stop its aggression!

Canada was a bigger culprit and I would really ask our businessmen to stop meeting any Canadian delegation like what has been done with the Russians. This move should apply to the European Union countries and the United States, which was the most belligerent.

Obama signed extra funds for Israel’s Iron Dome program and huge shipments of laser guided bombs and rockets were dispatched to replenish Israeli arms stocks.

To these European countries and the U.S. the lives of Palestinians are not worth anything.

To them, we Arabs are just a market, gas stations and a people that can be swayed by words of "you are allies and trading partners."

This may have been the case before but the Arab masses are now waking to this fact. And what they are seeing is unpalatable. They now want to be taken seriously and treated at par.

No more trade delegations that include diehard Zionists more intent on selling and cheating and filling their pockets. No more journalists who come here looking for domestic issues, no more lack of empathy and no more taking us for granted.

No peace without justice

The West should understand that while we have failed in some aspects yet we have a desire to stride forward and progress.

To do that we need peace and you cannot have peace without justice and giving the Palestinian people their rights.

You cannot have peace when the hopes and aspirations of people are trampled upon. You cannot have peace if the West completely ignores human rights issues and, on the contrary, strengthens totalitarian regimes for economic gains.

All these machinations have to stop immediately. Otherwise the West will find itself facing the scourge of terrorist acts that will sadly develop from these injustices, as those who have no recourse to legal process will resort to terror.

The West should treat us as equals. We want friends, not masters.

This article was first published in the Saudi Gazette on August 9, 2014.

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Khaled Almaeena is a veteran Saudi journalist, commentator, businessman and the editor-at-large of the Saudi Gazette. Almaeena has held a broad range of positions in Saudi media for over thirty years, including CEO of a PR firm, Saudi Television news anchor, talk show host, radio announcer, lecturer and journalist. As a journalist, Almaeena has represented Saudi media at Arab summits in Baghdad, Morocco and elsewhere. In 1990, he was one of four journalists to cover the historic resumption of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Russia. He also traveled to China as part of this diplomatic mission. Almaeena's political and social columns appear regularly in Gulf News, Asharq al-Aswat, al-Eqtisadiah, Arab News, Times of Oman, Asian Age and The China Post. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter: @KhaledAlmaeena