A Rare Saudi Voice: Arabs Waste Time Trying to Destroy Israel

A Saudi Arabia columnist, in a rare expression of a pro-Israel view, wrote in the London-based Arabic-language daily newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that Arabs have wasted time and money trying to destroy the Jewish State.

Mash'al Al-Sudairi's column, translated by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), stated that although the "Jewish 'occupation of a part of Palestine constitutes great oppression,'" the Arabs have a history of self-inflicted blows" resulting from opposition to the re-establishment of the Jewish State of Israel.

"When, in the early 1930s, we were offered 80 percent of Palestine, while the Jews were offered 20 percent, we rejected the offer. In the late 1940s, we were offered 49 percent of Palestine, and the Jews 51 percent, and we rejected that [offer]," al-Sudairi wrote.

He criticized the Arab world for exhausting all of its resources over the issue of "Palestine" and wasting money and time. I am positive, [and am willing] to bet and even to swear by Allah, that if only 10 percent of the money that the Arab countries invested in arming their forces during the futile fighting [with Israel] had been invested in what was left of Palestine and its people, the West Bank and Gaza would now be enjoying a living standard higher than that of Singapore," he added.

Sudairi also commented on Iran's occupation of three Persian Gulf islands. "With all the turmoil over the Palestinian issue, we have completely forgotten that other Arab countries have been robbed of parts of their territories, in broad daylight, and we never uttered a word of protest," the Saudi columnist noted.

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