First, the Saudis are pledging $1 billion to rebuild Gaza. Talk is cheap. They’ve made these pledges before, and yet, they don’t seem to come through for anything but paying off the families of suicide bombers. Funny, that.
Next, the Saudis are threatening to take the Saudi peace plan off the table.
The Saudi King Abdullah on Monday said the Arab initiative offering peace with Israel will not remain on the table forever.
The king stressed that Israel has to understand that the choice between war and peace will not always stay open.
And that’s the way to negotiate. Threaten. Refuse to make any compromise whatsoever, just insist that Israel follow your plan or else. Israeli leaders have stated that the Saudi plan is a good place to start negotiations. Each time, that has been answered with the insistence that the plan is non-negotiable.
Strangely, the AP leaves out those details. The AP also leaves out something very important. Its description of the plan:
The Arab peace initiative demands Israel withdraw from all land captured in 1967 in exchange for official Arab recognition.
Left out is the part of the plan that demands that Israel let the millions of Palestinian “refugees” into Israel, including the fourth- and fifth-generation “refugees” as designated by UNRWA, the only organization in the world that allows people to inherit refugee status. Yes, that’s right—a third-generation Palestinian American is considered a “refugee” by UNRWA and would be able to settle in Israel via the Saudi plan.
By the way, the link above, under “Refuse to make any compromise”? It’s from over a year ago. The Saudis have not budged an inch on their insistence that Israel accept their plan, or never have peace. Sound familiar? It should. That’s the Arab way of dealing with Israel. “We lost, so you have to do what we say.”
Yeah, how well has that worked for you so far, Abdullah?
You should see the front pages of the newspapers over here. Full half-page photos of bloody children and crying mothers. We have a new section in Arab News called “Day X” and it is all news and all reaction [from locals] to Gaza’s “struggle” telling us all just how awful and horrendous it is there. It is absolutely sickening to see such utter “untruths” being put out like in such callous disregard. If you’d like I can try to scan some of the photos in – along with the stories – and e-mail them to you.
No, thank you. I don’t need to see those photos.
I’ve seen the South African press and commented on it from time to time.