Saudi Arabia Identifies True Cause of US-Saudi Tension - Jews
The new Saudi ambassador to the United States is full of helpful advice:
The new Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday that the prospect of diplomatic relations between the two countries depended only on the actions of the government of Israel... According to Al-Faisal, "Nothing has done more to damage Western and Islamic relations than the uneven handling of affairs between Israel and the Palestinian people," adding that "it is this cause above all others that has given lifeblood to this evil cult of hate that has fed the followers of Al Qaida."
At first we were confused, because we were under the impression that the 15 Saudis who crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon did some damage. But then we realized that, according to Saudi Arabia, 9/11 was also an Israeli plot, so that cleared things up.
Luckily, the Saudis have a solution - weaken Israel:
Saudi Arabia would be willing to normalize relations with Israel only after the Israelis adopt the Arab League peace initiative, which calls for full withdrawal to the 1967 lines... "As I mentioned, the peace initiative, the Arab peace initiative, the Abdullah peace initiative, envisions all that [full diplomatic relation]. Once there was an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory, there would be normalization of relations, the Saudi ambassador told the Post following a speech in Washington.
Remember that for Arab countries, normalizing relations with Israel doesn't really mean normalizing relations - they still break their military or diplomatic or cultural treaty obligations whenever it suits them. But even if that wasn't true, the current security situation still means that partial normalization with the Arab world at the expense of security for Israel would be a disaster: if Israel normalized relations with Saudi Arabia, would that in any way compensate for either the massive security threat from Iran or the daily threat from Hamas and Islamic Jihad? It does Israel no good to temporarily make peace with one Arab country if it makes it easier for other Arab countries - with the tacit approval of Israel's new peace partner - to wipe them off the map.
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
The new Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday that the prospect of diplomatic relations between the two countries depended only on the actions of the government of Israel... According to Al-Faisal, "Nothing has done more to damage Western and Islamic relations than the uneven handling of affairs between Israel and the Palestinian people," adding that "it is this cause above all others that has given lifeblood to this evil cult of hate that has fed the followers of Al Qaida."
At first we were confused, because we were under the impression that the 15 Saudis who crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon did some damage. But then we realized that, according to Saudi Arabia, 9/11 was also an Israeli plot, so that cleared things up.
Luckily, the Saudis have a solution - weaken Israel:
Saudi Arabia would be willing to normalize relations with Israel only after the Israelis adopt the Arab League peace initiative, which calls for full withdrawal to the 1967 lines... "As I mentioned, the peace initiative, the Arab peace initiative, the Abdullah peace initiative, envisions all that [full diplomatic relation]. Once there was an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory, there would be normalization of relations, the Saudi ambassador told the Post following a speech in Washington.
Remember that for Arab countries, normalizing relations with Israel doesn't really mean normalizing relations - they still break their military or diplomatic or cultural treaty obligations whenever it suits them. But even if that wasn't true, the current security situation still means that partial normalization with the Arab world at the expense of security for Israel would be a disaster: if Israel normalized relations with Saudi Arabia, would that in any way compensate for either the massive security threat from Iran or the daily threat from Hamas and Islamic Jihad? It does Israel no good to temporarily make peace with one Arab country if it makes it easier for other Arab countries - with the tacit approval of Israel's new peace partner - to wipe them off the map.
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
