Gulf media outlets have been reflecting resentment at the apparent failure of Arab governments to take more decisive action over the crisis in Gaza. The Gulf press has largely steered clear of criticizing Hamas, with some commentators even showing support for the Palestinian Islamist group. This stands in contrast with other parts of the Arab world, where the poor relationships between governments and Hamas have led to unsympathetic and sometimes hostile coverage of the group, particularly in the broadcast media. Since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza on 8 July, more than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed, including large numbers of women and children. More than sixty Israeli soldiers and some civilians have also lost their lives. The predominant theme in articles in various Gulf newspapers is that Arab governments, and indeed the wider Islamic world, have failed to take a firm stance on developments in Gaza. One particularly scathing attack came from Khaled Al-Maeena on the pages of the English-language Saudi Gazette. He said that at a time when the Arab masses "are seething with anger and frustration", there is "a deafening silence within the halls of Arab governments". "The helplessness of the Arab states has surprised even the enemy," he said. Al-Maeena also suggested that countries outside the region had taken firmer action than many parts of the Arab world. "Some states (not Arab of course) have withdrawn their ambassadors from Israel," he pointed out. "Argentina has issued a directive that any one of its citizens joining the Israeli army will be stripped of his citizenship. Bolivia declared Israel a 'terrorist state'." The same idea has been reflected by commentators in other Gulf states, who appear to see a link between the stance of Arab governments and their relations with the outside world, particularly the United States. In its editorial on 3 August, Kuwait's Al-Jarida newspaper urged Arab rulers to take off "the cloak of fear for their seats [of power] and [reject] the attempts by major countries to blackmail them". It demanded "a clear-cut and strong" position against Israel. In the same vein, Bahraini newspaper Al-Ayam carried an article by Ubaidali al-Ubaidali in which he said that there was "a noticeable Arab failure" in terms of the situation in Gaza. "We now see attempts to beg at the doorsteps of circles in the US," he said. "We are now also seeing attempts aimed, consciously or unconsciously, at saving Israel's face." In the 1 August edition of the Qatari daily Al-Rayah, Babakr Essa sharply criticized "the Arab, Islamic nation", which he said had been standing idly by while the children of Gaza "are being burnt alive". "This is while we, like bereaved women, are crying over our weakness and inability to react." For Essa, the Arab regimes would have shown more positive support for the Palestinian cause if they had collectively withdrawn from the UN to "denounce its weakness and the weakness of the Security Council". The fact that Hamas is considered to be an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood has caused serious damage to the Palestinian group's relationships with a number of Arab countries, most notably Egypt and Saudi Arabia as both countries designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist group. This has had an impact on media coverage of the situation in Gaza. Some Saudi-funded outlets, like Al-Arabiya TV, have appeared unsympathetic in their reporting, while several Egyptian media organizations, both print and broadcast, have been fiercely critical of Hamas. In contrast, the group has largely escaped criticism from Gulf press commentators, some of whom have even praised the Palestinian "resistance". In Saudi newspaper Okaz, Abdel-Muhsin Hilal said that Israel "targets" children for two main reasons. "It wants to intimidate their fathers to stop the resistance and to prevent the emergence of another generation that adopts resistance," he said. In the same vein, an editorial in the UAE's Al-Bayan newspaper on 3 August said that the Israeli attack on Gaza "is not a casual incident or a reaction to the firing of some rockets towards Israel. It is a planned scheme and part of a long-term strategy to liquidate the Palestinian national project." Praising Hamas's military capability, an article in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida said that the real reason for the "Israeli aggression" is to "nip these rockets in the bud" before they develop further and become "a threat to the security of Israel". There have been also campaigns on social networking sites in some Arab countries to support Gaza. As part of such campaigns, more than 150 thousand tweets were sent out on Twitter in Bahrain on 10 August with the hashtag (#we_are_all_Gaza). The campaign featured several Bahraini political leaders and human rights activists, and focused on the tragic reality experienced by the Gaza Strip, while stressing the need to support the Hamas resistance and to lift the siege on Gazans. Secretary General of prominent opposition group Al-Wefaq Association, Sheikh Ali Salman, wrote that people must stand with the truth, and the truth is with the people of Gaza fighting against the Zionist aggression.
