The indefatigable Tom Gross flagged my attention to this column in Saudi Arabia’s English-language newspaper, the Arab News:
On the anniversary of the 1973 War between the Arab and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The questions now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people. And the harder question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars? But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people…
The piece continues:
I decided to write this article after I saw photos and reports about a starving child in Yemen, a burned ancient Aleppo souk in Syria, the under developed Sinai in Egypt, car bombs in Iraq and the destroyed buildings in Libya.
The column provides a much-needed reality check, and a glimmer of hope that decades of incitement and eradicationist rhetoric might eventually wear thin. It reminded me of Salemeh Nematt’s November 25, 2004 column in the pan-Arabic daily Al-Hayat when he observed with considerable boldness: ”It is outrageous and amazing that the first free and general elections in the history of the Arab nation are to take place in January: in Iraq, under the auspices of American occupation, and in Palestine, under the auspices of the Israeli occupation,” before asking what that said about U.S. and Israeli intentions, and what it revealed about Arab political culture.
Perhaps it would behoove some in the political class in Washington to recognize what those in the Middle East are beginning to see: The fault is not always Israel’s.
Obama must dismantle Israel. It is a requirement of his world view, and his identity. n nJust as taxes had to be raised even though they would reduce government income because of 'fairness', so it is that Israel must be cut down. n n nThis racialist sociopath must be removed from office.
Obama must dismantle Israel. It is a requirement of his world view, and his identity. n nJust as taxes must be raised, even if it reduces government income, because of 'fairness', so must Israel be cut down.
If there is any remaining chance of a reasonable future accomodation between the Arab world and Israel, it resides in people like the intrepid Mr. Al-Mulhim. I read his courageous article yesterday, amazed that such an idea could be expressed in an Arab publication. The bleakness of the prospects for peace have lead many of us to become justifiably cynical over the years, But Mr. Al-Mulhim's words, published with his editor's permission, and the apparent acquiesence of Saudi officials, is reason not to give up hope entirely.
If it were not for Iran's race to Armageddon, which may culminate in a year or two at the most, Arabs in general may at the present rate come to conclude that Israel "is not the problem" by the year 3000.
Such expressions can only, ironically, arise out of those countries who openly thrash the Islamists, Nazis, Salafists and lunatics with an unbending fury. Otherwise they'd succumb to the filthy mob in the street screaming for another Holocaust.
"But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people…" nWhat's an "Arab National"? Is it like a "Hebrew National"? n
It's like a Hebrew National, only shorter and thinner.
One thing that is overlooked is that Saudi Arabia and the Arab world are not at all concerned about Israel having nukes, but are utterly terrified of the Shiites in Tehran having one. Rather telling that, no?
The enemy of my (temporary) enemy is my (convenient, but only for so long as I need him) friend. Translation: Israel is but a temporary accommodation, if any.
ztrakyga, If your post is a response to mine, I'd answer that well before Iran started on its nuke hunt, the Israelis were believed to have nukes themselves (despite the strategic ambiguity that they employed). Even then, the Arab world wasn't much afraid of Israel's nukes because they knew Israel wasn't going to hand them over to some terrorist group or drop one on Riyadh out of the blue. The same cannot be said of the mullahs in Tehran. That all being said, I'm pretty certain that the Arab world will consider Israel a friend for a day if on that day Israel does to the Iranian nuke program (or the mullahs themselves!) what most of the rest of the world wants them to do. Despite the inevitable official public proclimations to the contrary. I'm under no illusion though that the Arabs are going to fall into lasting love with Israel any time soon.
Exactly. Israel's emasculation of Iran will be a gift of allah to the umah, just as Jewish doctors or caliphate advisers in the past were, or Western technology is now. It will do nothing for Israel's right to exist among them, for that is anathema to Islam.
The fault is not always ours, either.
There's a clear reason why no Arab nation ever recognized Israel after 1948–their rulers wanted to go on living. The King of Jordan openly spoke about recognition and was murdered in Jerusalem, his "occupied" Jerusalem thereafter. In 1981 Anwar Sadat shared his fate. n nFace it, when an Arab speaks or writes the way this journalist did he or she are taking their lives into their hands. Let's see how long this one survives.
If only Al-Mulhim and Salemeh Nematt are harbingers of a new Arab view of Israel. I don’t doubt that many other clear thinking Arabs understand that Israel is not their enemy but a valuable asset, a link to modernity, a bridge to the West which will become all the more precious once oil stops buoying Arab economies.
But are there enough such Arabs and is their perspective likely to prevail in the foreseeable future? No. That time is very distant. Because in the opposite seat of that seesaw is Islam and a teaching that makes a sovereign Jewish state an abomination and direct contradiction of Mohammed’s life and his Koran and the word of God.
That is very heavy, and it will leave enlightened Arabs dangling high up in the air for a very long time yet.
99% of the blame belong to the Muslim world and the West. The leadership of the Muslim world is full of fanatics who will not hesitate one second to send their citizen to death to satisfy themselves while pretending that it is the will of A…..h!
i hope he wrote it under a nom de plume because he just wrote his own obituary