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FIRST: SAUDI ARABIA’S ROADMAP
NOW: BUSH’S MID-EAST CONFERENCE
Letter from Ruth Matar (Women in Green) Jerusalem
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Dear Friends,
In today’s Jerusalem Post (August 23, 2007) there is an Op Ed article by Daniel Pipes, entitled: BANNED: ‘BIBLES, CRUCIFIXES, STATUES AND STAR OF DAVID’. (Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum in the United States.)
On reading Mr. Pipes’ article I recalled that I had written on that very topic some years ago, but I could not remember where and when. Thank the L-rd for Internet and my good friend Debbie, who knows how to track down old articles, even if given the scantiest information.
It turned out that this illusive article was a transcript of my weekly English radio program on Arutz Sheva, Israel National News, of July 23, 2003, just four years ago.
I am including herewith the entire op-ed article by Daniel Pipes from today’s Jerusalem Post, and part of the transcript of my Arutz Sheva English Radio Program of July 23, 2003. I implore you to read both articles carefully.
BANNED: ‘BIBLES, CRUCIFIXES, STATUES AND STAR OF DAVID’
Daniel Pipes, THE JERUSALEM POST
August 23, 2007
Saudi Arabian Airlines declares on its English-language Web site that the kingdom bans “Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols such as the Star of David.” Until the Saudi government changes this detestable policy, I say its airline should be barred from flying into Western airports.
Michael Freund focused attention to this regulation in a recent Jerusalem Post article, “Saudis might take Bibles from tourists,” in which he pointed out that a section on the SAA Web site, “Customs Regulations,” lists the disapproved articles above under the rubric “Items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam.”
Freund followed up by calling the SAA office in New York, where “Gladys” confirmed that this rule really is applied. “Yes, sir, that is what we have heard, that it is a problem to bring these things into Saudi Arabia, so you cannot do it.”
An unnamed official at the Saudi consulate in New York further confirmed the regulation. “You are not allowed to bring that stuff into the kingdom. If you do, they will take it away. If it is really important to you, then you can try to bring it and just see what happens, but I don’t recommend that you do so.”
RESPONDING to the Saudi ban on churches and Bibles and Stars of David, some would ban mosques, Korans and crescent moons in the West, but that is clearly untenable and unenforceable, given the freedoms of speech and worship. The Koran, for example, is not a Saudi artifact and cannot be held hostage to Saudi policies. However closely it identifies with Islam, the Saudi government does not own the religion.
Further, as Stephen Schwartz of the Center for Islamic Pluralism points out, signs in Saudi airports warn Muslim travelers that the airport’s mutawwa’in (religious police) confiscate Korans, other Islamic literature and Muslim objects of non-Saudi origin.
While discriminating specifically against Shi’ites and Ahmadis, this policy manifests a broader insistence on Wahhabi supremacism. More broadly, the Saudi leadership runs a country that the US government has repeatedly condemned as having “no religious freedom” and being among the most religiously repressive in the world.
SAA, the state-owned national carrier and its portal to the world, offers a pressure point for change. To take advantage of this vulnerability, Western governments should demand that unless the Saudi government at least permits “that stuff” to come in, SAA faces exclusion from the 18 airports it presently services in Europe, North America and Japan.
Were those routes shut down, Riyadh would face a tough choice:
• Ignore this action. Allowing Western airlines to service Saudi Arabia without reciprocity would presumably be too great a humiliation for the monarchy to abide.
• Cut off the Western airlines in return. Cutting off the Western airlines would unacceptably isolate Saudis from major markets and premier destinations.
• Permit non-Wahhabi religious items. That would leave the Saudis with no choice but to accept the import of “Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols such as the Star of David.” Further, once these materials are allowed, other benefits would likely follow, such as permitting non-Islamic religious buildings and services in Saudi Arabia for the millions of non-Muslims resident there. Muslims who reject the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam would also eventually benefit from this loosening.
Such joint action would also send a long-overdue signal to the despots of Riyadh – that Westerners have thrown off their servile obeisance to their writ.
WHO WILL be first to act? Which national government or municipality will arise from the customary dhimmi posture and ban SAA (slogan: “We aim to please you”) from its runways, thereby compelling the kingdom to permit infidel religious items, monotheistic and polytheistic alike, into its territory?
Where are you Athens, Frankfurt, Geneva, Houston, London, Madrid, M laga, Manchester, Milan, Munich, New York, Nice, Osaka, Paris, Prague, Rome, Vienna and Washington, DC?
If no government acts, what about a delegation of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and others boarding an SAA flight with much publicity, openly displaying their religious artifacts, daring the airline to confiscate them?
Or which public service law firm in those 11 countries will bring local human rights suits against SAA as an arm of the Saudi government?
This issue provides an opportunity for left and right to unite against radical Islam. Who will take the lead to confront Saudi discrimination, arrogance and repression?
The writer ( www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum.
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Transcript from Ruth Matar’s Arutz Sheva Radio Program, July 23, 2003
Last Sunday, July 20, I listened to a panel discussion on Fox TV. The discussion was about the fact that President George W. Bush’s approval rating had gone down considerably, as much as 14 points, that is from a high of 71% to 57%. The panel of experts discussed the reason for this drop. Two main explanations were offered:
1. The weak economy
2. The developing guerilla war with daily attacks on US Forces in Iraq.
I want to suggest that there is a very important additional reason for President Bush’s sagging popularity, his approval and support for the so-called “Road Map to Peace”, which is in effect the Saudi Arabian plan for Israel’s destruction.
Saudi Arabia is unfortunately wielding undue dangerous influence over the Bush Administration.
Firstly, let us deal with the troubled economy which Bush is facing. The Saudis OWN a huge chunk of America’s economy. The Saudis flexed their muscles shortly after 9/11 by pulling billions of dollars out of the US stock market when the United States, against Saudi wishes, revealed that 15 of the 19 terrorist attackers were Saudi nationals. That was to serve as a warning to the United States that America was in the grip of Saudi financial might.
And the Saudis certainly feel that they virtually control the American economy. For instance, the Saudis practically own Citibank and they have seventeen trillion dollars invested in the United States.
The Saudis have also reacted with anger to a lawsuit for damages filed by families of September 11victims against Saudi banks and charities.
There is no doubt that the Saudis hate Israel, have a boycott against all Israeli products, and will not do business with companies that have anything to do with Israel.
It was pressure from Saudi Arabia, even threats to cut off all relations with the United States, which caused President George W. Bush to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state, and to divide the Holy Land. Even his father, President Bush Sr., did not promote a Palestinian state when he was in office. In fact, at the Madrid conference after the first Iraqi war, he declared that the establishment of a Palestinian state was NOT United States policy.
Saudi Arabia is the evil power that is manipulating the United States policy toward Israel. It is the major force behind the murderous Road Map conspiracy. Is this little desert kingdom with its collection of 3,000 oil-rich princes blackmailing today’s only super-power?
The second cause for President Bush’s declining popularity is the guerilla war against US Forces in Iraq.
Back on May 1st, on the deck of the aircraft carrier US Abraham Lincoln, Bush declared victory and said: “It’s over in Iraq.” But what about our American troops being picked off two at a time day after day? A senior US military official was quoted as saying: “Everyone in uniform is a target.”
If you watch TV, you don’t know where the killing scenes are coming from, Iraq or Israel. In both cases the enemies’ tactics are the same. Ambush! Suicide bombers! Snipers! Even women suicide bombers!
The Arabs in Iraq are excellent pupils of the Palestinian terrorists. Palestinian terrorists entered Iraq through Syria during the war to help their Iraqi brothers. Palestinians trained Iraqis to be suicide bombers, and also as snipers. Foreign fighters such as Jordanians and Palestinians are currently being held for questioning by the Americans for being agents and provocateurs and for killing American soldiers. Many of these foreign fighters, by the way, are dependent on Saudi money.
President Bush has taught the Palestinian terrorists an important lesson. Terror pays! Terror pays, and if your sponsor Saudi Arabia so demands from the United States, terror pays big time. Even though the Palestinian terrorists have murdered more than 1300 innocent people since the Oslo Accords, they are being rewarded with a Palestinian state. Are the Palestinian Arabs grateful for this American largess? For instance, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz (March 30, 2003), reported that the Palestinian Authority renamed the main square in the city of Jenin in honor of the Iraqi bomber who murdered four American soldiers in a suicide car bomb attack on March 27, 2003 in Iraq. The Iraqi Arabs cannot fail to learn that terror is not punished, but rewarded by the United States.
The Saudis practice the most violent form of Islam – Wahabism – which calls for a global Jihad – death to ALL unbelievers – and that includes all unbelievers – Jews and Christians alike. Never forget the graffiti in Arab countries: “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.” Both the United States and Israel are at war with the same enemy, radical Islam, whose ambitions are global domination. The Koran has arrived, and it has come to try to devour the Bible!
Unfortunately, President Bush does not seem to understand that appeasement of these ambitions of radical Islam is dangerous for America. His Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has the same attitude toward Saudi demands, instead of defending our American freedom of religion.
I have just read Colin Powell’s book, “My American Journey”, published by Random House in 1995. Appeasement of Saudi Arabia which, after all, American troops were sent to defend, is obvious throughout his book. Colin Powell is proud of all the deals that he makes with his friend Prince Bandar, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States for the last twenty years. He boasts of the familiarity between himself, the poor kid from the South Bronx, and the Prince from a royal palace!
All of Colin Powell’s concessions were in Saudi Arabia’s favor.
The following are a few quotes from Colin Powell’s book starting on Page 474.
“At this early stage, morale among our troops was high, but the desert was a bleak, forbidding world, hedged in by Muslim moral strictures uncongenial to GIs from the Western world. At one point, Prince Bandar warned me, “No Bibles”. “Are you kidding?” I said. We were being inundated with Bibles from religious groups, and I could imagine the military trying to tell these folks: “The Arabs will take your sons, but not their Bibles.”
“Saudi customs officials will have to confiscate the Bibles,” Bandar insisted. We finally worked out a deal whereby we flew the Bibles directly to our air bases, while Saudi officials looked the other way.
Then Bandar informed me that no religious services could be held on Arab soil for our Jewish troops. “They can die defending your country, but they can’t pray in it?’ I asked.
“Colin, be reasonable,” he answered. “It will be reported on CNN. What will our people think?”
We found a practical solution. We planned to helicopter Jewish personnel out to American vessels in the Persian Gulf and hold Jewish services aboard ship.
Bandar also worried about crucifixes. I told him our soldiers would be ordered to wear them inside and not outside their T-shirts.”
* * * *
The most significant quote from my July 23, 2003 transcript is the following:
“There is no doubt that the Saudis hate Israel, have a boycott against all Israeli products, and will not do business with companies that have anything to do with Israel.
”It was pressure from Saudi Arabia, even threats to cut off all relations with the United States, which caused President George W. Bush to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state, and to divide the Holy Land.
“EVEN HIS FATHER, PRESIDENT BUSH SR., DID NOT PROMOTE A PALESTINIAN STATE WHEN HE WAS IN OFFICE. IN FACT, AT THE MADRID CONFERENCE AFTER THE FIRST IRAQI WAR, HE DECLARED THAT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PALESTINIAN STATE WAS NOT UNITED STATES POLICY.”
I would also like to emphasize the importance of the excerpts from the same transcript, relating to Colin Powell’s autobiography, “My American Journey”.
Colin Powell tells us he is proud of all the deals that he made with his friend, Prince Bandar, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States. Sadly, all of Colin Powell’s concessions were in Saudi Arabia’s favor. The following are two examples that I find exceptionally ludicrous:
“BANDAR INFORMED ME THAT NO RELIGIOUS SERVICES COULD BE HELD ON ARAB SOIL FOR OUR JEWISH TROOPS.
“WE FOUND A PRACTICAL SOLUTION. WE PLANNED TO HELICOPTER JEWISH PERSONNEL OUT TO AMERICAN VESSELS IN THE PERSIAN GULF AND HOLD JEWISH SERVICES ABOARD SHIP.”
”BANDAR ALSO WORRIED ABOUT CRUCIFIXES. I TOLD HIM OUR SOLDIERS WOULD BE ORDERED TO WEAR THEM INSIDE AND NOT OUTSIDE THEIR T-SHIRTS.”
Dear Friends,
Why are these two cited articles so important and relevant?
Both these articles highlight a worrisome relationship between today’s superpower, the United States, and a Muslim desert Kingdom with its collection of 3,000 oil-rich princes.
Saudi Arabia is, unfortunately, wielding undue dangerous influence over the Bush Administration. The Saudis were able to gain the approval and support of President George W. Bush for the so-called “Road Map to Peace”, which is, in effect, the SAUDI ARABIAN PLAN FOR ISRAEL’S DESTRUCTION!
With President Bush’s recent plan for a Mid-East International Conference in November of this year, it appears the United States and Saudi Arabia are working together towards the same goal: the two-state solution, carving a Palestinian state out of Israel’s Biblical heartland!
It all started with Saudi Arabia’s Road Map. Is Bush’s plan for the November Mid-East conference meant to be the final nail in Israel’s coffin?
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
Ruth Matar
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