Posted on 09/30/2007 10:51:39 AM PDT by shield
Despite Saudi calls to halt the construction of the security fence, senior diplomatic sources said that Israel will not cease building just to encourage Saudi Arabia's participation in the upcoming peace summit, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Until recently, Israel had rejected the terms upon which Saudi Arabia said its attendance was contingent. The Sunni-led nation is demanding a complete withdrawal from the Golan Heights, Gaza and Judea and Samaria, among other things.
However Israel views the Saudis' participation in the conference as essential to its success.
"Israel has its own security needs that we have to address," an official said. But the official said that Prince Saud al-Faisal's comments, which included more positive remarks about the Mideast meeting, were "interesting," adding that Israel always took into consideration what the Saudis have to say.
However the Saudis are demanding that Israel make territorial concessions first, and only afterwards will it gain recognition of its existence.
(Excerpt) Read more at web.israelinsider.com ...
No, I’m going to tell you that Islam is a relatively new religion.
Did they say this in English or Arabic?
Unless they said it in Arabic, it ain’t worth the electrons to carrying across the net...
Islam was founded centuries after Christianity.
Christianity has barely been around for 2 millenia.
In contrast, Judaism has been around 10,000 years (5,000 years of recorded history).
Arabs predate Judaism, as do Persians, and have been at war with each other since their beginnings.
The conflict for which you opine between Jews and Arabs started only recently in historical terms...after the founding of Islam (itself a releatively new religion as noted above).
Saudi Arabia hasn’t offered, at all, to recognize Israel before last month.
Thus, they softened their position. They blinked.
Now, you can and will dismiss this blinking as being unimportant, trivial, a distraction, whatever...
...but you will likewise miss your chance to understand what key players are doing because you are refusing to accept that the Sauds blinked.
Moreover, you refuse to educate yourself on the Historical background of the region...insisting upon viewing the Middle-East as though it has only existed since Islam was invented.
Thus, you are ignoring the larger Historical perspective as well as dismissing the latest moves of the key players involved.
Ergo, there is no way that you can make an accurate analaysis of the Middle-East unless you simply get lucky.
But hey, in the meantime you should call *me* the fool, among other names, a few more times. That will make you look clever, surely.
You’ve got the name-calling down pat, I’ll give you that much.
Gosh, we should really take the Saudi demands into account. /sarc
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