PrintMarch 28, 2007
A moderate Arab voice
The estimable MEMRI blog brings us news of an Arabic language commentary in the London daily, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, by moderate scholar Dr. Mamoun Fandy. In he decries the arab world's approach to the Palestinian issue as having drained the Arab world of vitality for half a century, always placing obstacles to peace. The so-called Saudipeace plan, with its insistence on a right of return is but the latest example oif a failure to have the will to peace.
"For 50 Years the Arabs Have Been Walking Around the Palestinian Issue""King 'Abdallah Bin 'Abd Al-'Aziz's initiative has traveled the breadth and width of the Arab states and the world since 2002, until they [i.e. the Arabs] returned to it once more in Riyadh in 2007."It was inevitable that the initiative, like every Arab dossier, would tour like this... [The Arabs] have become convinced today that this tour is no solution, and have returned to the land of the 2002 initiative for the Riyadh summit... [But] the basic problem for the [summit] conferees can still be summed up in one word: 'rock.'"I am referring to... the boulder placed in the middle of the public road, which is surrounded by the cries of those with a vested interest in its remaining in place."In every country in the world, when a rock obstructs a road, the municipality hurries to move it aside to facilitate the flow of traffic. However, in the Arab world, someone throws a rock in the road, and instead of moving it aside, those claiming to be of sound judgment come up with [what they consider] the ideal way to deal with the problem of the rock - namely, placing a sign above it saying "Careful of the Rock."
Hat tip: James Lewis
