And the next Saudi to be beheaded is....

...Mr. Abdulateef al-Mulhim (if that is his real name). Writing for the English-language Arab News, his article is entitled Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy. Fairly typical stuff, it would seem, until you actually...read it:

On the anniversary of the 1973 War between the Arab and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The questions now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people. And the harder question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars? But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people....

The Arab world wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel, which they considered is their sworn enemy, an enemy whose existence they never recognized. The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people...

Israel now has the most advanced research facilities, top universities and advanced infrastructure. Many Arabs don’t know that the life expectancy of the Palestinians living in Israel is far longer than many Arab states and they enjoy far better political and social freedom than many of their Arab brothers. Even the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip enjoy more political and social rights than some places in the Arab World. Wasn’t one of the judges who sent a former Israeli president to jail an Israeli-Palestinian?

The Arab Spring showed the world that the Palestinians are happier and in better situation than their Arab brothers who fought to liberate them from the Israelis. Now, it is time to stop the hatred and wars and start to create better living conditions for the future Arab generations.


Brave stuff.  Most of it would seem almost self-evident to the average American, but I think this piece might come as a shock to much of our political class, who has bought into the Arab tales of woe for almost half a century.  One might even imagine Barack Hussein Obama arguing for the opposite side of this debate, and instructing  Mr. al-Mulhim on how the very Israeli superiority the Arabs envy is actually something they should in fact despise, and even destroy, in order to build their own self-worth,  which is more valuable than any free election...

But Abdulateef knows better than that.  the only question is how much longer will he be allowed to say it?  And will we ever has a president with the guts to echo the same sentiment, the same obvious truth, which would finally shift the battleground away from Israel and onto the Arab nations themselves?

Would be a game changer.  Too bad I don't see it happening...