I'm proud, not ashamed, to be a friend of the United States. But I'm
frustrated.
The Palestinian people are burdened by tremendous suffering and
calamity as a result of the continuing aggression of the Israeli
government and the insane policies of its leader. While Islamic countries
should continue to focus on fighting international terrorism, confronting
Israeli violence against the Palestinians should be a priority.
I am sympathetic to the suffering of the American people and the anger
of the American leadership over terrorist attacks on the United States.
However, I now feel great sympathy with the suffering of the Palestinian
people and the anger of the Palestinian leadership because of the
terrorist Israeli aggression against them. I am saddened and feel pain for
what happened to thousands of innocent people in the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11. But I feel the pain and suffering of 3 million innocent
Palestinians from a terrorist Israeli operation.
I understand and respect the priorities of the United States, but I
also respect and understand the priorities of 3 million unarmed
Palestinians. I acknowledge that the Palestinians' greatest crime is their
insistence on resisting the military occupation of their country. This
strange principle of resistance to military occupation of one's country
seems to be difficult for many American political, intellectual and media
elite to comprehend -- even though it has been practiced by others in the
past, such as Nelson Mandela in South Africa under apartheid and Gen.
George Washington during British colonial rule, and even Menachem Begin
during the British Mandate of Palestine.
These leaders from different countries and different continents share
one thing in common. They were all labeled as terrorists by the occupying
military force at the time. So what is the real crime, when the
Palestinians resist the Israeli military occupation of their country?
No sensible person can accept or support the killing of innocent people
anywhere in the world -- and that includes innocent Israelis. This also
applies to the innocent Palestinians. No sensible or decent person can
accept the degradation of the dignity of an innocent person anywhere in
the world -- including the dignity of innocent Israelis. This also applies
to the innocent Palestinians.
It makes no sense to ask President Yasser Arafat, who was elected by
the Palestinian people and who is currently under siege inside two rooms,
to stop the violence in the occupied territories while the Israeli forces
destroy his security apparatus and kill and detain his security
officers.
This is not an opinion, it is a fact. No leader in the world can
guarantee that no one will resort to violence; but I can guarantee that a
desperate and oppressed person whose dignity has been insulted and who is
willing to die cannot be stopped by any means. I am convinced that the
government, army and security agencies of Israel have lost the war
regardless of how many battles they win.
The Palestinians are victims of the Israeli occupation. The Israeli
people are also victims of the Israeli occupation. And now America's
worldwide interests are victims of the Israeli occupation. The policies of
the Israeli government continue to prove that Israel is a strategic burden
on the United States in times of crisis in the Middle East. Israel's
policy of violence against 3 million Palestinians -- Christians as well as
Muslims -- is seriously jeopardizing the extent to which U.S. policy can
succeed in its declared war on international terrorism, which has enjoyed
the support of the Islamic world from Pakistan in Central Asia to Morocco
on the Atlantic Ocean.
I believe that the Islamic world, with its 1.2 billion people, will
continue to fight terrorism, but priority should be given to a united
stance in the face of Israel's terrorism against Palestinians. Israel's
actions are changing the equation of, and seriously affecting, the
international war on terrorism. This change has been imposed on us as
Arabs and Muslims; we did not choose it.
Accordingly, the Israeli government should bear the full responsibility
for this change in the position of the Islamic world. This is my personal
view. I do not arrogantly presume to speak on behalf of the leaders and
peoples of the Islamic world. But something tells me that if the near
future proves that my feelings reflect those of the leaders and peoples of
the Islamic world, then the danger is grave and imminent.
The big losers in the end will be the Israeli people, who elected a
prime minister who has the audacity to compare Israel's violence against
Palestinians with what the United States is doing in Afghanistan. This is
a big lie. The United States did not occupy Afghanistan, and it did not
build settlements in Afghanistan, and it did not attack or humiliate the
Afghan people. Based on international laws and norms, the United States
was justified in defending itself following the attacks on New York and
Washington on Sept. 11, attacks directed by officials in Afghanistan and
their terrorist allies. What Israel is doing now is the exact
opposite.
The Arabs have offered an initiative under which Israelis and Arabs
would live together in total peace and security -- a normal existence as
peoples and sovereign nations. This is what the Arab leaders committed
themselves unanimously to at the Beirut summit on March 27, based on the
initiative of Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, which was endorsed
worldwide, including by the United States.
The Israeli government has rejected the Arab offer of peace and has
responded to it with violence, destruction and collective punishment
against 3 million Palestinians.
Am I insane or a fanatic because I choose the Arabs' offer for peace?
Am I insane or a fanatic because I condemn the acts of violence against
innocent Israelis? Am I insane or a fanatic when I condemn the Israeli
oppression of Palestinians?
Is it difficult for the political, intellectual and media elite in the
United States to decide between these two choices? Life is choices, so let
us choose, as President Bush said, good over evil.
The writer is Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States.
Mideast
Opinions
