With a grain of salt: Israel's love for Arabs

Mohamed Salmawy
October 31, 2008

Israel is an Arab-loving state with ties to several Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan with which it has forged peace agreements. It’s also hoping to reach similar agreements with the rest of the Arab states. It uprooted Palestinian Arabs from their land, and evicted them from their homes only out of love for them and for their land.

Indeed ever since Israel rose from the ashes of the Palestinian State which has been wiped off the map, it has been declaring that it wants to live in peace not only with the people whose land it has ravished, but with all Arabs, even those whose land is too far to ravish as was the case with land it has invaded in Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.

And because of its love for Arabs and in its concerted effort to reach peace with them, Israel stands fast against any Arab in international events. After its attack on Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, Egypt’s candidate for the post of Director General of UNESCO and lobbying against his nomination out of fear for the rest of the UNESCO’s 192 members from Hosni who presumably sets fire to any book in sight, it has now started another campaign against Arab League membership to the Union for the Mediterranean.

The logic behind this campaign is based on the idea that the Arab League has always been antagonistic to Israel and hence should not be rewarded with membership into the new union as if one of the conditions of being admitted into international organizations is loving Israel and not being in enmity with it.

After pressure from France and other European countries, Israel reluctantly agreed to merely give the Arab League a monitoring role in the union. And because Israel loves Arabs, — as we said — and wants to co-exist peacefully with them it has agreed to allow the Arab League delegate to audit all sessions but without uttering a single word, expressing an opinion, or voting on any decision, all despite the fact that the Arab League as a Mediterranean organization predates this new union and the state of Israel itself. continued>>