Regular readers will know there is hardly anything that comes out of Chief Palestinian Propaganda Minister Saeb Erekat’s mouth I consider worthwhile, let alone true. But even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I agree, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, although far from being pro-Israel, really ripped the palestinian leadership. Here are some of the things he said::
- “The reason why I decided to speak tonight was that in recent days, I have heard shocking statements quoted from the Palestinian leadership.”
- “What I heard from Palestinian leadership in recent days was truly painful to hear. This low level of discourse is not what we expect from officials who seek to gain global support for their cause. Their transgression against the Gulf states’ leadership with this reprehensible discourse is entirely unacceptable.”
- “However, if we want to look at it from a different perspective, it is not surprising to see how quick these leaders are to use terms like “treason,” “betrayal,” and “back stabbing,” because these are their ways in dealing with each other.”
- “The Palestinian cause is a just cause, but its advocates are failures …There is also something that successive Palestinian leadership historically share in common; they always bet on the losing side, and that comes at a price.”
- “Amin al-Husseini in the 1930s was betting on the Nazis in Germany, and we all know what happened to Hitler and Germany.”
- “.An Arab people occupied and Kuwait, alongside the other Gulf states, had always welcomed the Palestinians with open arms and was home to Palestinian leaders. Yet we saw Abu Ammar in Baghdad, embracing Saddam, and laughing and joking with him as he congratulated him for what had happened. This has had a painful impact on all the peoples of the Gulf, especially on our Kuwaiti brothers and sisters, specifically the Kuwaitis who stayed in Kuwait and resisted the occupation.”
- “Another shock followed when we saw deluded youths in Nablus dancing joyfully in celebration of the missile attack on Riyadh, holding pictures of Saddam Hussein.”
- “We even went further as a state and justified to the whole world the actions of the Palestinians, while we knew that they, indeed, were not justified, but we did not wish to stand with anyone against them, nor did we wish to see the consequences of their actions reflected on the Palestinian people.”
- “Who are the allies of the Palestinians now? Is it Iran, which is using the Palestinian cause as a pretext at the expense of the Palestinian people? Is it Iran and Khomeini, who want to liberate Jerusalem through Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria?…Or is it Turkey, which Hamas leaders have thanked for its stance in support of Hamas and the Palestinian cause?”
- “These people, as I have said before, are disillusioned..”
- “Why did the Nakba of 1967 happen? Because President Abdel Nasser, God rest his soul, made a strategic decision that was based on inaccurate or false information from the military leadership that existed at the time.”
- “The second thing was the effort he exerted to save the Palestinians from themselves, because the Palestinians were largely present in Jordan, with Abu Ammar’s leadership based there, and they decided for one reason or another that it was time to liberate not Palestine, but Jordan.”
I agree, Saeb, people should watch the interview, although I am not entirely sure you did!
