The Gazan comes alive as he dies, while the others die as they live

US President Donald Trump's Gulf trip, organized to raise money, witnessed interesting events. The excessively exuberant displays of joy staged for Trump, who had come to take money from them, should of course be a subject of political psychology. Very interesting analyses can be made from this angle. The eagerness to display something of Arabness in an exaggerated manner to their heavyweight guest, with hospitality protocols peculiar to traditional Arab Bedouin culture, of course also reveals a rush to conceal much more important values of Arabness. Does what is displayed here say anything at all about Arab honor, culture, values?

The way young girls greet a stranger by swinging their hair from side to side is, as far as we know, not at all a gesture that would be welcomed among Arabs after Islam. The women rushed into that show seem to be deprived of every right, granted no personal traits whatsoever, as if they had come out of the depths of the Arab jahiliyyah. Who could expect someone passing through the middle of such a parade to be curious about, or admire, anything belonging to the Arabs?

"WHERE IS ARAB HONOR?"

During this lavish welcome of Trump, Israel, which has the full support of the US and has become as spoiled as can be with this support, was bombing civilians in Gaza again. As a result of the genocide Israel has carried out in Gaza since October 7, nearly 60 thousand people, at least 20 thousand of them children, have lost their lives. These attacks, in which hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, nurseries and newspapers have been bombed, are carried out with US bombs, weapons and of course full political support. That these attacks continued without stopping during Trump's trip, and at least 100 people were slaughtered in a single night, is in fact a great scandal on behalf of the Islamic world. As the Lebanese artist Julia Boutros cries out in her famous song in the face of these massacres to which the Palestinians are exposed: "Where is Arab honor?"

EVERY CHILD WHO DIES IN GAZA ALSO KILLS ARAB HONOR

The children being slaughtered are not only Palestinian; targeted together with them is Arab honor itself. Arab honor does not stand up at all through great shows of power, through exaggerated displays made by spending billions of dollars. Every child who dies in Gaza also kills Arab honor. In Gaza, not one stone is left upon another, and while an attempt is made to clear the area through a genocide by condemning people who are to be deported to starvation, what is being swept away is Arab honor. While the conscience of the whole world aches and rushes to revolt, Arab honor, which does not stir, is drying up and withering away together with this drought of conscience.

POWER IS NOT IN THE WEAPON ITSELF, BUT IN THE HAND THAT HOLDS THE WEAPON

When each of them buys hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons from the US, a strong Arab presence does not emerge, nor does a power that will save Arab honor. They had all bought hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons before too. With these weapons, each of them could not even cope with any problem at their head. Just as all those weapons in Yemen could not prevent the Houthis from taking over Yemen, in Sudan, in Libya and in many places they served and serve no purpose other than sedition and mischief that trample Arab honor and dignity. After that much weaponry has failed to form a deterrent against Israel in Gaza, after it has failed to prevent the most savage, most inhuman genocide of the age, it will make no contribution to Arab honor. In contrast, the brave men in Gaza, needing no one, expecting no favor from anyone, with the war they waged with their own means, made Israel, and hence the US that supplied those magnificent weapons, rue the day. Power is not in the weapon itself, but in the hand that holds the weapon. The owners of that hand, which relies on no one but God, are today saving not only Arab honor but the dignity of all humanity.

THE DISPROPORTION BETWEEN THE POWER AND THE HELPLESSNESS OF ARAB LEADERS

The disproportion between the power of Arab leaders, displayed with great pomp, and the passivity they display toward attacks that in fact target their existence and honor inevitably brings up the concept of honor. Of course, that the Arabs do not see the many massacres and humiliations they have been exposed to in Syria, in Gaza, in Yemen, in Iraq and of course in Palestine, by Israel and the US or by their own civil wars, as an event damaging Arab honor is a much stranger, much more pitiable situation. Yet an honor that can be attributed to the Arabs is a whole; in the face of a violation of rights suffered by any Arab, something should immediately be set in motion in those who hold this sense of honor. The genocide and deportation that Assad carried out against his own Arab people for 60 years, while reducing Arabs everywhere in the world to the position of refugees, asylum seekers and wretched ones, was also damaging Arab honor. But the leaders of the Arab countries, unfortunately, were never even hurt by this situation. Let alone being hurt, most Arab countries did not even open their doors to Arabs who had to flee Syria to save their lives.

Yet Israel's genocidal, inhuman massacres in Gaza damage, wound human honor and dignity and lead to an uprising of conscience. People accept it as if it were done to themselves and rebel.

Meanwhile, we say that every Gazan who dies buries with him the honor of the Arab leaders, but the Gazan does not die under these bombs, nothing happens to his honor; on the contrary, the people of Gaza present to all humanity the perfect example of existing with honor. The more the Gazan dies, the more he comes to life; the others die as they live.