I came across an article about Arab/Israel conflict. Which I am posting for member's perusal. My reasons for this are two:
Firstly it shows how some of the Arab intellectuals feel about the role of Arab Monarchies in the Arab Israel war. Secondly, to point out that there are at least two historical inaccuracies in the article.
King Hussein of Jordan actually returned to Amman just before he died. Only act he performed was to replace his brother Price Hassan bin Talal with his own son. This was seen on TV by many including myself. Therefore incident relating to removal of the Crown Prince Hassan by Madeline Albright is a fabrication mentioned therein is a total lie.
Second lie in the statement that Abdul Aziz Ibne Saud was put in power by the British is incorrect. British had installed Sharif Hussein, a decedent of Imam Hassan (RA) who founded the Hashmite Kingdom and was great grand father of King Hussein of Jordan. House of Saud actually kicked the Hashmite out of Hijaz with the support of the Wahabis.
The article also chooses to ignore to fact that Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwaan – al Muslimeen) gunned down President Anwar Sadaat during a military parade in front f the whole world, again something I witnessed myself.
I, therefore, have serious doubts about the accuracy of the data quoted by Dr Bakhtiar. I would also like to remind the honorable members that one must search for the truth, no matter how bitter. For example, my insistence that Hitler was an evil person doesn’t mean that I support Israel. Similarly, when I point out inaccuracy in the following article I am in no way supporting Zionists. I simply believe that two wrongs don’t make a right and one must be swayed by the fabricated stories.
Quote
By Dr. ABBAS BAKHTIAR
(Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar lives in Norway. He is a management consultant and a contributing writer for many online journals. He's a former associate
professor of Nordland University, Norway and can be contacted at:
Bakhtiarspace-articles@yahoo.no.)
Betrayal is the only truth that sticks- Arthur Miller
The Arab Collaborators
The often asked question, when it comes to the Palestinians, is about the role
of Arab countries in the Palestinian struggle for freedom. The people not
familiar with the political landscape of the area often see the Middle East as
two camps, Arab countries on one side and Israel on the other. The reality is
totally different. Israel has seldom been alone. Beside its usual American,
French, British and other staunch allies, she has had the hidden backing of
several Arab countries.
For close to 30 years now, many Arab countries have been collaborating with
Israel; some like Egypt (gained independence: 1922) and Jordan (gained
independence: 1946) openly, while others like Saudi Arabia (founded: 1932), UAE
(founded: 1972) and Kuwait (founded: 1961) from behind the scenes. The reasons
for this collaboration vary from country to country but
they all have one thing
in common: the rulers of these countries are all dictators and need foreign
protection from their own people. Some such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and
UAE were put in power by the British. The founder of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz
bin Saud (the kingdom is name after him) was put in power by the British. The
same goes for the others, except Egypt which experienced a coup by the army
officers in 1952, resulting in the ousting of the monarchy and the accompanying
British influence. But the Western influence returned with Anwar Sadat.
All
these countries are dictatorships and
all are under pressure from their people. What they cannot accept is any
democratically elected form of government in their mist. They fear that if an
Arab government becomes democratic they may have to become one themselves, hence
losing power. One of the things that they love about Mahmoud Abbas, the
Palestinian president, is that he won the election not by popular vote but by
popular method of rigging the election; something that these Arab leaders
understand and respect.
In contrast, Hamas really represented the aspiration of the people. As soon as
Mahmood Abbas’ term as president is over and he had to stand for re-election,
he would surely lose. In contrast, Hamas really won the
municipal elections in
2005 and the Parliamentary election in 2006. The elections were supervised by
international observers, many from Europe, and US.
Palestinians were fed-up with the corrupt regime of Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah.
They wanted to clean house. But as soon as Hamas took over, the US and the
Europeans put an embargo on Hamas, calling it a terrorist organisation and not a
peace partner. Israel closed the borders and refused to let anything into Gaza.
Egypt also did the same.
What is not mentioned much in the media is that this was done with the complete
approval of the Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. After all, Egypt could have
opened its border for transfer of food and fuel. The reasons behind this
hostility were and are that Hamas is a truly elected government and worst of
all, Hamas is a branch or an off-shoot of Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt.
Muslim Brotherhood has a branch or related organisation in Jordan as well.
Egypt and Jordan are worried that should Hamas survive and show its resistance,
their people may get the idea that they can also resist the tyrannical rule of
these despots. One must not forget that Muslim Brotherhood represents the only
serious challenge to the Mubarak’s rule in Egypt.
Egypt
The 81 year old Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has been “president” since 1981 (28
years). He has won every election with a comfortable majority. He is much loved
by his secret services. Prior
to every election he arrests and imprisons all the
opposition, ensuring a “clean” election. Torture is so widely used and
accepted in Egypt that US outsources torturing of some its prisoners to Egypt.
This alone should tell you volumes about the nature of Mubarak’s rule. He is
now trying hard to crown his playboy son as his successor. But the Americans are not so sure if the son is capable of keeping the 80 million Egyptians in line
and are therefore looking for alternative candidates. The head of the feared
main secret service is one of the prime candidates
along with some of the top
generals. Challenging him is the Muslim Brotherhood organisation, enjoying grass
root support from all sections of the Egyptian society including Lawyers,
doctors, judges and
student associations. Not surprisingly, US and Israel call Muslim Brotherhood
a terrorist organisation.
By all accounts, the Muslim Brotherhood be it in Jordan, Egypt or the occupied
territories such as Gaza runs a clean operation, running many charity
organisations and providing services to the poor and the needy. As such wherever
they are, they pose a threat to the corrupt regimes, since they provide an
alternative to the people of that area.
Jordan
King Abdullah II of Jordan, born of a British mother, educated in the West,
including the Jesuit Center of Georgetown University, was brought to power by
the CIA. His Uncle was a long time crown price, yet after his father died in a
US hospital, Madeline Albright, Clinton’s Secretary of Estate flew to Jordan
to inform the Jordanians that the King on his death bed had changed his will and
named his son Abdullah as his successor. The new king Abdullah II is married to
the Queen
Rania, a Palestinian.
The majority of this Kingdom of 5 million people are Palestinians who are not
very friendly to this King. In 1967 there was a Palestinian uprising (led by the
PLO) against King Hussein (ruled: 1952-1999, the father of the current king),
which resulted in heavy casualties among Palestinians. In addition, the Kingdom
is currently full of Iraqi refugees who resent the King’s help to the
Americans in invasion of their country. On top of all this, we have the Muslim
Brotherhood which tries hard to abolish the monarchy. King Abdullah
relies
heavily on the US support and backing for staying in power. King Abdullah also
sees a natural ally in Israel, a country that can come to its aid in case of
another uprising.
Saudi Arabia (House of Saud)
I don’t have to tell you much about Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom is run by the
84 year old, ailing Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. His personal wealth is
estimated at $21 billion
USD. He rules a clan of 8000 princes who in turn rule
the country. Saudi Arabia is the centre of corruption in the Arab world. The
Saudi rulers corrupt everything with their money. Lacking the necessary mental
power or physical courage, they try to stay in power by subterfuge, lies, and
deception. They fund the real extremists on the one hand while portraying
themselves as the protectors of the Western interest on the other. They preach
intolerance and xenophobia to their people decrying the Western decadence, while
spending a lot of time enjoying the life in
the West. They pay the West for
protection against their own people and they pay the extremists to do their
fighting elsewhere. Saudi rulers are indeed the worst of them all.
House of Saud is also the financier of the so called Arab Moderates and the
extremism that they cause. House of Saud financed the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan
to fight the Soviets. They later financed the Taliban. They also paid Saddam
Hussein to fight Iran. Then they paid the Americans and Egyptians to fight
Saddam Hussein. They are the financiers of death and misery. They
finance
anything, anywhere, as long as this reduces the threat to their illegitimate
rule. They are currently financing the civil war in Somalia, bandits in
Baluchistan (Pakistan and Iran) and god knows what else. They are detested by
their own people and neighbours yet loved by Bush, Cheney and the oil companies.
As long as they provide the money and oil the US is willing to tolerate them.
And guess what? The Muslim Brotherhood hates the House of Saud too. This makes
them a threat and hence they have to be dealt with.
The Collaboration
As can be seen, each country has a selfish reason to eliminate Hamas, but each
is restrained by its population. Israel has no such a restraint imposed on it.
She not only can wage a
terrible war, but she also gets assistance from Arab
countries. Indeed it is the second time (the first was the invasion of Lebanon
in 2006) that Israel is getting open and solid support from these Arab
countries. The invasion of Gaza was discussed in Egypt before its
implementation. Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are Israel’s active partners.
Egypt is actively involved in stopping all aids from getting to Palestinians in
Gaza save a token few trucks. These few trucks are allowed to go through so
they
can be filmed and shown to Egyptian people. All demonstrations are banned, and
all Egyptian volunteers for Gaza are either arrested or sent back.
There are hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the Muslim world that are
willing to go to the aid of the Palestinians, but the Egyptian authorities
don’t allow them passage. Egyptians even stop medical aid from passing through
their territory. This is part of a report from Associated Press:
RAFAH, Egypt: Frustration is mounting at Egypt’s border with the Gaza
Strip, where many local and foreign doctors are stuck after Egyptian authorities
denied them entry into the coastal area now under an Israeli ground invasion.
Anesthesiologist Dimitrios Mognie from Greece idles his time at a cafe near
the border, drinking tea and chatting with other doctors, aid workers and
curious Egyptians.
“This is a shame,” said Mognie, who decided to use his vacation time to
try help Gazans. He thought entering through Egypt, which has a narrow border
with the Hamas-ruled strip, was his best bet.
“That in 2009 they have people in need of help from a doctor and we can
go to help and they won’t let us. This is crazy,” he added.5
In addition there are many Iranian
cargo planes full of food and medicine which
have been sitting on the tarmacs in Egypt for days waiting for permission to
deliver their cargo. Egyptians even denied the medical aid sent by the son of
the Libyan President Qaddafi to land in Egypt.6
One thing is clear: these three countries do not want the Israelis to fail in
their mission of totally destroying Gaza. Hosni Mubarak said so himself. The
daily Haaretz reported that Hosni Mubarak had told European ministers on a peace
mission that Hamas must not be allowed to win the ongoing war in Gaza.
As Egypt physically aids the Israeli military by denying food, fuel and
medicine to the civilians, the House of Saud helps Israel by giving her time and
diplomatic cover. When Israel started its invasion there was an immediate call
for an Arab summit. Saudi Arabia and Jordan (along with Egypt of course) delayed
the summit. The Saudis along with the UAE said that they had another meeting to
attend to and therefore Palestinian issue had to wait. After a few days when the
summit was eventually held, they issued the same old statements. Yet this time
same as the Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 2006, they blamed the victims. In
a statement, Saudi Arabia blamed Hamas for Israel’s continuing offensive in
the Gaza Strip. Saudi Arabia, after blaming Hamas, declared that it will not
even consider an oil embargo on Israel’s supporters. She then again blamed
Hamas.
By this time, the three Arab countries along with Kuwait and UAE began singing
the old song: international community is not doing anything about the
catastrophe that is taking place in Gaza. It seems that these Arab tyrants have
no shame at all. This reminds me of a quote from Marquis De Sade (1740-1814):
“One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too
old to blush.”
These Arab leaders (many are indeed too old to blush) are complicit in the
murder of so many civilians, especially young children. According to Agence
France-Presse, quoting the medics on the ground, fully one third of all people
killed have
been children.7 How can these Arab leaders justify this to their
people?
The answer is that they cannot. Israel knows this and for the second time can
show the Arab street that their leaders are nothing but a bunch of old
hypocrites. These Arab leaders are now exposed and can do nothing but to
cooperate fully with Israel and US. What stand between them and their people’s
rage is their army and secret services; which in turn are supported by US.
Israel has cleverly exposed these leaders for what they are: collaborators of
the worst kind. These Arab leaders have brought an unimaginable shame to their
people.
To quote Lucien Bouchard: I have never known a more vulgar expression of
betrayal and deceit. Our hope is now with the people of these countries to clean
this stain from their honour.
1. ABC News Norway. “Røde Kors sjokkert over Israel,” (Red Cross Shocked by Israel), 8 January 2009.
2. Aljazeera.net. “UN: No fighters in targeted school,” 8 January
2009.
3. Aljazeera.net. “Israel fires on UN Gaza convoy,” 8 January 2009.
4. nytimes.com. “For Israel, 2006 Lessons but Old Pitfalls,” 7 January 2009.
5. The Associated Press. “Doctors stuck at bottleneck on Egypt-Gaza border,” 6 January 2009.
6. google.com: hosted news. “Egypt denies Kadhafi’s son permission to land at airport,” 6 January 2009.
7. Agence France-Presse. “Children make up third of Gaza dead,” 7 January 2009.
Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar lives in Norway. He is a management consultant and a contributing writer for many online journals. He's a former associate
professor of Nordland University, Norway and can be contacted at:
Bakhtiarspace-articles@yahoo.no.
Unquote.
