..is this Russian article (kindly pointed out and translated* by Israellycool reader Woland) reporting the words of a Saudi Arabian author.
In light of the Iranian occupation of the 3 islands belonging to UAE – Greater Tumb, Lesser Tumb and Abu Mussa, reporter from Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Mashal As-Sudairi, made an atypical statement about the meaningfulness of the pan-Arabic struggle against Israel.
As-Sudairi points to the fact that Israel is not the only “occupier” of the Arabic lands. Against the backdrop of half a century of crying about the illegal aggression and occupation of the “brother nation of Palestine” public opinion of the countries of the Middle East totally ignores the aforementioned “acquisitions” by Iran and the Turkish occupation of the Syrian Aleksandretty, which was renamed Iskanderun.
As-Sudairi writes “Occupation is occupation and oppression is oppression regardless of the race or skin color of the occupier. There is no doubt that Israeli occupation is a severe form of oppression, which we do not know how to deal with. When in the 1930’s we were offered 80% of Palestine and the Jews – 20%, we refused. Later in the 1940’s we were offered 49% and the Jews 51%, we refused again. Today we beg for 22% of Palestine that was totally occupied in 1967. Israel refuses and offers us only 20%, as retribution for our refusal in the 1930’s”.
The Saudi author notices that six decades “passed in useless uprisings in favour of Palestine, that have depleted our resources, capabilities and freedoms”. Next, the Arabic journalist does something extraordinary, incredible for a man that grew up in an unrelenting atmosphere of anti-Zionist propaganda. He writes: “I swear in the name of Allah, that if we had invested only 10% of what we spent on re-arming the Arabic armies against Israel, on what is left of Palestine, the population of the West Bank and Gaza would be now be enjoying living standards as high as in Singapore”
* you can verify that I am not mispresenting the translation by going here
