“I Have Lost Faith in Arabism”… Southern Lebanon Is Burning

By Mohi Eddin Ghunaim – Jordan
There is no longer room in the heart for hollow slogans, nor in the mind the ability to believe the myths we were fed about “one Arab nation” and a “shared destiny.” Today, as I watch southern Lebanon burn under the fire of aggression, and see the southern suburbs reduced to rubble over the heads of their residents, only one question gnaws at my conscience: Where are the Arabs?
When were we ever “the best nation brought forth to mankind”? Was it in the era of timid statements? Or in the age of pale condemnations that neither nourish nor satisfy? Or when innocent blood became mere numbers in news bulletins—read without trembling, forgotten without shame?
Southern Lebanon is not burning alone… with it burn all claims of brotherhood, all speeches of unity, and all the fiery poetry that echoed in our ears for decades. There, in the devastated villages, people are not searching for resolutions from Arab summits, but for a roof to shelter their children, and for a homeland that is not bombed whenever the war machine decides to display its power.
Systematic displacement, cold-blooded killing, destruction of infrastructure, and the targeting of civilians… all of this unfolds before a world that claims civilization, and Arabs who claim belonging. But the painful truth is that Arab silence is no longer mere incapacity—it has become complicity through silence, an undeclared betrayal of everyone bleeding there.
Palestine is lost… yes, it was lost when it was left alone to face the machinery of death. And today, Lebanon walks the same path, while we settle for watching—or worse, for division, accusations, and settling petty scores at the expense of greater causes.
What kind of Arabism is this that does not rise to support the oppressed? What dignity remains for a nation unmoved by the cries of children beneath the rubble? If Arabism means this silence, this helplessness, this hypocrisy—then I declare it without hesitation: I have lost faith in an Arabism that neither protects, nor supports, nor even protests.
What is happening in southern Lebanon is not a passing act of aggression—it is a moral test, one in which we have all failed. Either we redefine the meaning of belonging and reclaim the minimum of dignity, or we admit that we are no longer a nation, but merely scattered peoples united by name and divided by interests.
History will not be merciful, and future generations will not forgive. A day will come when every silent person will be asked: Why were you silent… when you could have raised your voice?
Southern Lebanon is burning… is there anything left in us that deserves to be called Arabism?