And you never thought that Arabs could do things efficiently! It
took the Arabs to stage a three-ring circus with only one ring! The
huge ringed table with all the sheiks in their bed sheets sitting
around it was the best circus in town -- or at least in any town
where they don't admit Jews. This bunch was the nastiest looking
group of grownups sitting around a table since Frank Nitti presided
over meetings of the Mafia (they also probably would not let a Jew
join) on the TV show "The Untouchables."
These Arab leaders, not one of whom was elected in any sort of
even remotely, democratic process, were to decide how to deal with
the Israeli-Palestinian problem, specifically to consider the
proposal of Crown Prince Abdullah, that if the Israelis would go
back to their pre-1967 borders, the Arabs would then recognize
Israel.
For Israel to move back to the pre-1967 borders would be to
place the country in a militarily indefensible position. It would
also ignore the reality that the way Israel obtained its present
boundaries was as a result of defending itself against Arab
attempts to destroy the state of Israel in 1948, 1956, and 1967. To
surrender this position in exchange for an Arab recognition of
Israel is an absurdity. The Arabs could, once the new boundaries
are in place, simply break off diplomatic relations -- a common
event in dealings between nations. The Arab sheiks must have been
playing with their sheep too long if they believed that the Israeli
leaders were so desperate or foolish to fall for this nonsense. And
yet, incredibly, the Western world said the Arab proposal was "a
good first step."
If a burglar who had already broken into your house three times
in the past said to you, "I recognize that you have a right to
believe that I would not burglarize your house again," would such a
declaration by the thief be considered "a good first step" in
preventing him from trying to rob it again? Would the fact that he
previously burglarized it three times make it more or less likely
that he would do what he intended to do, no matter what he said?
Yet, this moronic quid pro quo was what brought the Arab leaders
together.
The first problem was that the Egyptians made it clear that they
would not show up for the party. Egyptians generally, if you meet
them at a party, and they perceive that you are Jewish, will take
great pains to explain to you that they are not really Arabs. That
3,000 years ago one of the local Nile nymphs fooled around with a
camel salesman from Nubia passing through the neighborhood on his
camel, and what developed from them jumping all over each other
that night in a stone-age motel, was the beginning of the country
of Egypt -- so they are not really Arabs. They basically took the
position that they had already recognized Israel, and anyway, who
wants to fool around with a bunch of people who can give you the
Tenth Plague that would smite your first-born children?
Arafat, on the other hand, was a different story. First he said
he was coming to the summit, then he said he didn't know if the
Israelis would let him out of his room to come, then he said that
they would let him come, but he didn't know if they would let him
back. When he said he could not risk leaving (which disappointed
everybody in the neighborhood since they would finally get a chance
to air out his room and throw away their gas masks), he said he
would talk to the assembled Arabs by video. After that was agreed,
he changed his mind and said he would not speak to them at all, and
as a matter of fact, his delegation, that did attend, walked out of
the conference.
As a result of all this, nothing was accomplished, except for
exchanging telephone numbers of some camels who were interested in
trying something new, and the Arabs went home to their sheep, some
even to their wives. Arafat, went back to his specialty: the
killing of women and children and having his people blow themselves
up to get a one-way ticket to Paradise. All of this gives rise to
the unworthy thought that if Arafat preaches to his followers that
the quickest and best way to get to Paradise is to blow yourself
up, why doesn't he set a personal example for them to follow. This
would save a lot of trouble, since, from the information we have
available, there are no return tickets from Paradise.
The big problem that Palestinians have is really with their own
oil-rich brother Arabs, not the Jews. Jordan kicked them out,
Kuwait kicked them out and the gulf states, after the Iraqi war,
got rid of them. Although they were one of the few supporters of
Saddam Hussein, Iraq only allows a small number of Palestinians to
live there. The only country to grant them full citizenship is
Israel. There are 1,131,000 Palestinians living in Israel, all of
whom are Israeli citizens. Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the
other gulf countries, each do not have, as citizens, half the
number of Palestinians as does Israel. Saudi Arabia, a major
financial backer and instigator of the Palestinians, has only
approximately the same number of them living in their country as
does the United States. Maybe the Arabs know something about the
Palestinians that the rest of the world does not. Perhaps we should
all pay a little closer attention. Remember the advertising slogan
of the old Packard automobile, "Ask the man who owns one."
topics:
Iraq, Israel, Oil
