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Lately, I’ve been reporting on the recent political
realignments in the Middle East. In its effort to suppress Hamas Israel has
garnered the overt and covert support of countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia…
not so much because these countries are great friends of Israel—they are more
like friends of convenience—but because they despise and fear Hamas more.
The Times of Israel reports on a Friday statement from King
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
Clearly, the paper reports, the King has changed his policy:
Saudi
Arabia’s King Abdullah condemned the war in Gaza Friday as a “collective
massacre” and a crime against humanity, but stopped short of directly
condemning Israel for its ground campaign against Hamas.
Unlike
past Gaza wars, including the devastating 2008 offensive, the Saudi monarch did
not condemn Israel outright for the conflict, which officials say has killed at
least 1,500 Palestinians, mainly civilians, since it began on July 8. Israel
says 63 of its soldiers and three civilians in Israel have been also killed. It
says hundreds of the Gaza dead are Hamas gunmen.
Instead
King Abdullah appeared to suggest that both Israel and Hamas were responsible,
saying that the violence in Gaza has led to “various forms” of terrorism
whether from groups, organizations or states.
Strikingly, for a country that has funded its share of terrorism, the King denounced Islamist extremism:
In his
remarks, the king pressed Muslim leaders to unite against extremism, saying
terrorists are wrongfully carrying out deadly acts in the name of Islam and
tarnishing the religion’s “purity and humanity.”
His
remarks appeared to be directed at groups like the Islamic State and its
allies, which have taken over territory in Iraq and Syria and whose fighters
view the Western-allied Saudi ruling family as enemies.
“It is
shameful and disgraceful that these terrorists are doing this in the name of
religion, killing the people whose killing Allah has forbidden, and mutilating
their bodies and feeling proud in publishing this,” the statement said. “They
have distorted the image of Islam with its purity and humanity and smeared it
with all sorts of bad qualities by their actions, injustice and crimes.”
Beyond the politics, what matters most in this statement is
the King’s idea that the reputation of Islam in the world depends in large part
on the behavior of Muslims.
At a time when many Islamist organizations will denounce you
as Islamophobic if you dare utter the least negative thought about Islam, the
King has correctly placed the onus on Muslims themselves. Obviously, Muslims
cannot police all of the extremists in their midst, but leaders like King
Abdullah do well to shame the radicals and make clear to their coreligionists
that their good name depends more on them than on the prejudices of their
neighbors.
On the other side of the debate, Hamas supporters like Rashid Khalidi, close personal friend of Barack Obama are still blaming it all on Israel. So: Khalidi is more attuned to terrorists and extremists than the King of Saudi Arabia. Then again, so apparently is Obama.
Now, if only Saudi Arabia would open up its own society and
cease the anti-Semitic propaganda.
That notwithstanding, King Abdullah has surely made a step
in the right direction.
7 comments:
"(The king's) remarks appeared to be directed at groups like the Islamic State and its allies, which have taken over territory in Iraq and Syria and whose fighters view the Western-allied Saudi ruling family as enemies."
I'm surprised to read that at The Times of Israel. What worries the Saudis most is having a Greater Iran on Saudi Arabia's northern border. When the Bush administration capitulated in Iraq it left Iran (via proxy al Sadr) in control of the entire south of Iraq. Iran and Saudi Arabia are enemies, and the Saudis rushed to complete a fence to secure the border from infiltration from southern Iraq.
The Islamic State is Sunni, and is fighting the Iran-backed Shiites. This weakens and distracts the budding Iranian empire. It is far more likely the Saudis are arming and supporting the Islamic State, and that this support is what has allowed the Islamic State to achieve its notable successes.
Maybe I am missing something here that keeps telling me we have a way that is non military to ameliorate or solve most of these problems.
What drives Putin's power? What fuels terrorists, et al? OIL!
It would seem to me if we really wanted to put an end to most of the problems we deal with we would develop our oil and natural gas resources.
1. It would create jobs here
2. Exporting to Europe would take away Putin's power and cause real economic damage to those in Russia who are profiting
3. It would remove much of the money that finances terrorism
4. It keeps us from putting our people in harms way
5. Some of the money made in both the sale and creation of our resources would go to the development of alternative energy sources, especially in the private enterprise area
6. It would remove a lot of funding for the developing of nuclear weapons/WMDs by rogue states
7. The amount of people who might be helped would be a large part of our aiding those who need aid.
I suspect that others can come up with other items that would have a positive affect like since we are selling it we can have some control over the negative affects involved, if any. This seems to me to be a solution that is a WIN/Win for everyone except those who would use oil to kill and control others.
Lastango: Spot on. It all comes back to Iran. And now ISIS is rolling the Kurds and bringing their "peaceful" tidings of medieval sharia law to the north. Tough thing for me in all this is that I feel no sympathy for kings.
Dennis: The problem with your rationale is item #1. Obama only wats "green jobs," which means no jobs.
Tip
Tip,
I am giving my assessment of how to deal with the problem and yes I know that Obama is the reason we have many of the problems we do today. An interesting exercise is to see who provides the funding for many of the environmental groups.
“It is shameful and disgraceful that these terrorists are doing this in the name of religion, killing the people whose killing Allah has forbidden, and mutilating their bodies and feeling proud in publishing this,” the statement said. “They have distorted the image of Islam with its purity and humanity and smeared it with all sorts of bad qualities by their actions, injustice and crimes.”
Well, that's been going on since about 700AD, so... Purity? Humanity? Say what?
Islam literally means "submission." In this (temporal) case, it's Israel's submission, not theirs.
The forces of Islam have been pretty clear for over 60 years: Allah told them to kill all the Jews.
I don't see much pure conciliation from the House of Saud. They've got their own worries about Iran and the regional balance of power, not the perishing of a few million Jewish souls... if they even believe Jews have souls. No, methinks the 21st century Jewish extermination will be just as conscientiously prosecuted as the last... without no conscience at all. We'll all weep, asking how this could've happened again. We will have let it happen.
What is a small sovereign nation to do when a bunch of crazies are firing rockets at civilians living in a postage stamp-sized country? Where do you go? To the "country" where your uncle has a peaceful cottage? Where would that be?
The demands for Israeli restraint are vexing. Does anyone seriously believe Hamas is NOT using civilian facilities for arms stores and rocket sites? Really? I'm not sure you have to be an "expert" to figure that out. The result: more death, and exponentially higher casualties on the Hamas side that is firing all the rockets and digging tunnels. Can they not build underground shelters for civilians? They seem quite skilled with shovels.
It's odd. They want a Palestinian Authority. They get it. They run Gaza into the ground and elect (yes, elect) Hamas to be their government. Are things supposed to improve? The Middle East mullahs, kings and emirs have been using Israel as the reasoning for all their problems.
Pardon me if I seem a bit too cynical, but I've had enough. The Israelis seem quite restrained. Can you imagine what we would do if Mexico started launching missiles at us?
The bottom line is that Hamas, Hezbollah, and most of the Middle East monarchies, military rulers, authoritarian regimes and theocracies believe Israel has no right to exist. None. That is their starting position in any conversation. One cannot negotiate or be reasonable with people like that. You stand and fight like men. Your existence and your people's existence depend on it. All while the world bellows, moans, cries and riots for the delight of television cameras everywhere. The politics of despair and nothing more.
The Jews believe they're God's chosen people. They'd better, and they'd better fight hard to keep their homeland. Not many other people in the world think much of them. They're alone.
Tip
I have said elsewhere a few times, that if the Israelis acted as they have been accused of acting, the Muslims would be a lot fewer on the ground and a lot more under the ground.
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