Odyssey – an epilogue: How did the cyclops evolve lately?

Excerpt of an op-ed by Hassan Hmeid, a Palestinian writer from Damascus

Headline: “The cyclops and the schizophrenia”

“Yes, I ask with sorrow and pain: Who said that the cyclops – the same barbaric creature in the Greek myths with one eye in the middle of his forehead and with satanic traits such as brute force, a large body, and eating human flesh, who began to kill, wound, intimidate, frighten, persecute, and imprison without attributing significance to divine law or human law – who said that he was put to death by Odysseus, as the legend relates? (sic., in the book Odyssey, Odysseus blinds but does not kill Polyphemus the cyclops) No, he is not dead.I am certain that he is not dead. He is here appearing in the Palestinian land and killing (since 1948) [parentheses in source], wounding, intimidating, frightening, persecuting, and imprisoning the members of the Palestinian people, because they sing during their wakefulness and in their slumber: My homeland, my homeland!

Here the cyclops is reappearing now in Jenin, and more precisely in its refugee camp. He is demolishing, destroying, murdering, and spreading terror and fear in the streets of the refugee camp. Here he is murdering nine of the camp’s residents, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounding more than 20 others, some of them very seriously (refers to Palestinian terrorists shooting at Israeli soldiers, causing a gun battle in which 8 terrorists and 1 civilian were killed; see note below -Ed.) – and there is no condemnation or opposition by the world’s states that pretend to be cultured, to defend human rights, and to defend the right of the peoples and nations to live in dignity and sovereignty, as if these states suffer from schizophrenia.”