Posted on 06/05/2003 4:47:03 PM PDT by Stultis
JEDDAH, 6 June 2003 — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, nearly withdrew from the summit with US President George W. Bush in Egypt because of US pressure to speed up Arab normalization with Israel, it was reported yesterday.
Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, said Prince Abdullah rejected a US request to mention in the final summit communique that the Arab parties agreed to normalize ties with Israel as part of steps to build trust with the Jewish state.
Prince Abdullah threatened to pull out of Tuesday’s summit held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort at Sharm El-Sheikh before Bush stopped him after making sure the US delegation retracted the clause, the newspaper said.
According to sources close to the summit participants, differences emerged between Washington and the five Arab states represented at Sharm El-Sheikh, particularly over the issue of normalization with Israel.
The Egyptian news agency MENA reported later that differences over normalization had delayed the official opening of the summit.
Saudi Arabia in particular insisted that normalization should be comprehensive in exchange for Israel’s return of occupied land, according to sources close to the participants.
This is the Saudi Abdullah, among other things, head of the Saudi Nation Guard, whose explosives get used to blow up Americans in housing compounds the Saudis refuse to protect.
This is the type of crap that makes rational folks see red and makes conservatives like me have serious doubts about real peace being achieved in the ME. The House of Saud can't seem to see the handwriting on the wall yet. Probably never will either. If the Islamics and Arabs keep this up, they'll finally get a real war with the US. One they'll regret for eternity.
I'll assume that this is rhetorical, but just in case...
Arabs (including so-called "Palestinians") and Jews are both semites, semitic people, culturally and genetically (for those born to the group, not converts, obviously). They all claim descent from Abraham. Jews from Isaac and Arabs from Ishmael. Look up the story on the internet. The whole thing is a 4,000 year old family feud. Who is the true descendent of Abraham, the first born, though born of a slave, or the second born, born by Abraham's wife?
Of course, the descendents of Isaac did keep to Abraham's belief in the one God, while Ishmael's descendents say that they abandoned that belief, until brought back to it by their prophet after some 2500 years of apostasy.
You also have to wonder what happened to all the other people contemporary to Abraham and to their descendents to buy into this simplistic view, but reality isn't as important in this context as what these people believe about themselves. That is what drives their actions, historically true or not.
I think you'll see it. So far, this whole "road map" is shaping up to be nothing more or less than a means to demonstrate to even the liberal media and socialist Europe that the Palestinians and Israel's other Arab neighbors don't want peace and won't even concede to Israel's right to exist. It's an interesting play on Bush's part, and I look forward to seeing how it works out.
You do know the old line about why there are no Arabs in the Star Trek universe? "Star Trek takes place in the future, where(when) there are no Arabs"
Islamic ones of course. The decendents of Corporal Max Klinger and Marlo Thomas are doing just fine in the future. Not to mention Massad Ayoob's kin, who have practically taken over the place. :)
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