Where is the Arab world outrage on Gaza?

Gaza The absence of visible outrage in the Arab world is a reflection of its overall detachment to the Gaza conflict, analysts say. Many governments in the region are consumed by domestic instability. Or they believe the war is not between Israel and Palestinians, but rather between Israel and Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been classified as a terrorist group by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and some other Arab countries.

“The Arab street has become indifferent to what happens to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” said Mkhaimar Abusaada, a political science professor at Al Azhar University in Gaza, referring to the attacks on mosques. “Many Arab countries are busy dealing with their own internal problems - Iraq, Syria, Libya, for example. And part of the Arab street believes this war is against terrorism, radicalism, and not against the Palestinians.”

In Israel’s latest assault on Gaza, Israel destroyed more mosques than in other military offensives in 2009 and 2012. Surprisingly, there has been little outrage from the Palestinian street or from the broader Muslim world.

Violent upheavals across the Middle East, political analysts say, have acclimated Muslims to seeing their houses of worship under siege. Arabic news channels and Facebook and other social media have been filled with scenes of mosques pocked with bullets and damaged by attacks in recent conflicts and revolutions in Egypt, Syria and Libya.

The shock value is over, say analysts. “A strike against a mosque is no longer sensational because of how commonplace it has become in conflicts around the region, and between Israel and Hamas,” said Nathan Thrall, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group covering Gaza, Israel, Jordan and the West Bank.

According to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, 63 mosques have been destroyed and 150 have been partially damaged. Ten Muslim cemeteries were also targeted.