Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will always hurt me. Of course, the original words in this children’s idiom were “words will never hurt me.” But there goes another legend; words are often very powerful and have the possibility of hurting severely. This is why the war of words is intensifying as the Gaza War now enters its third week.

And speaking of words, it might interest the Barack Obama’s presidential transition team to hear some of the words being spoken around the Middle East right now. Much of the talk on the streets of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, as well as in other Arab capitals, be they Cairo, Damascus, Amman or Doha, is of anger and frustration at the continued bombing of the Gaza Strip by Israel and of the mounting number of civilian casualties — 900 and counting, as of Monday night.

Rarely has, what is often referred to as the Arab street — in other words, Arab public opinion — been so united around a single issue. The Middle East is quickly reaching a level at which the proverbial water will overflow the proverbial pot. Or to put it in other terms, the proverbial you-know-what is about to hit the fan.

All over the Arab world there is that same resentment over what Israel is doing to the Gaza Strip, just as there is resentment against their own leadership, which in many countries is accused of standing by idly watching while Israel tries to finish off Hamas; but of greater concern to the Arab public are the civilians caught in the crossfire.

In Qatar, home of the controversial Arabic television network, Al Jazeera, the network many Americans love to hate, the prime minister, Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani, said his country was ready to cut commercial ties with Israel if the Arab world takes a collective position to sever links in response to the “Israeli aggression” on Gaza.

Speaking on Al Jazeera TV (of course) he called for an emergency meeting of the Arab foreign ministers after Israel rejected the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, saying that the Arabs should freeze the Arab peace initiative and the peace process.

While the fact that tiny Qatar is calling for severing ties with Israel may not sound very threatening, it is nevertheless a very serious development and should be taken as such.

Qatar may have the smallest military force in the Arab world, but they do have the loudest voice — Al Jazeera — and its opinions are the most widely listened to in the Arab world.

What we are seeing here in Beirut — and in other Arab capitals — is a return to the post-June 1967 anger among the people in the street. A number of Arab regimes are finding themselves in rather precarious situations with public discontent growing exponentially and the Islamists becoming more prominent. The Arab world today is on the verge of a dangerous precipice into which much of the region could easily fall.

It would be useful at this juncture to look back and recall some of the results of previous Middle East wars.

The June 1967 Six-Day War gave Israel some breathing space for about 25 or so years, but it also brought about the birth of the Palestinian resistance and the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) adoption of what they called “armed struggle,” and what others called “terrorism.”

The 1982 invasion of Lebanon by Israel was meant to eradicate the PLO and distance the Fedayeen (guerrilla fighters) from its northern border, but instead the PLO ended up in Israel’s front and backyards. And it brought about the creation of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

With few exceptions, the Middle East wars created more problems instead of solving them. Yes, they bought Israel time, but they also brought to Israel — and the region — greater and more complex problems.

The situation today has reached the point where words — those being spoken on the streets of Arab cities — can no longer be ignored. The risk of not listening to what is being said may very well end up hurting far more than sticks and stones can.