Mohamed Elgjini (Helsinki, Finland), 23 February 2007

on Not an Enemy of Israel, by Guido Steinberg

Since when are Saudis an enemy of Israel? And since when is Saudi Arabia a major player in Middle East politics? Well, let's start with Israel's attack on Iraq's nuclear facilities. Israel then used the Saudi air space without notification about its objective in Iraq. The Saudi government protested to the US – as if America is the guardian of international norms…

Your article praises Saudi Arabia for not being the enemy of Israel. Of course Saudi Arabia has never been an enemy of Israel, despite the discontent with Israel's occupation of Palestine.

The 2002 Arab summit in Beirut had shown that the Saudis are short-sighted: Riyadh proposed a normalization of relations with Israel while at the same time Arafat was under house arrest and neither allowed nor able to attend the summit. The proposal of now King Abdalah was another blow to Arab political bargaining as was Camp David at the time.

These developments had left the terrain to Israel to set the rules for bargaining with the Palestinians instead of with all of the Arab world. Arafat became a persona non grata which made it easier for Israel to seek another more cooperative representative among Palestinians. In comes the master of weak political stands: Mr Abu Mazen (aka Mahmoud Abbas).

Saudi Arabia has never played a major role in Arab politics except for being a major oil exporter. To say that Saudi Arabia is not an enemy of Israel is too simple as a conclusion. It has never been anyway and it will never be, bearing in mind that both Saudi Arabia and Israel are US clients that serve American interest in the region (as many Arab states in the region do).

Mohamed Elgjini