Posted on 07/23/2002 8:18:33 AM PDT by vance
Israel Says Saudi Arabia Should Clean Up Its Own Act First
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
July 23, 2002
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Saudi Arabia should "clean up its own act" before it tries to intervene in Israeli-Palestinian peace-making, a senior Israeli official told CNSNews.com .
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was one of three Arab ministers who met with President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington last week to discuss ways of carrying out the administration's Middle East policy.
Saudi Arabia was lumped into the camp of moderate Arab states seeking Middle East peace in February when Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud suggested in a newspaper interview that the Arab world grant a "full normalization of relations" to the Jewish state in exchange for a "full [Israeli] withdrawal from all the occupied territories in accord with U.N. resolutions, including Jerusalem."
The crown prince later made the proposal official at a meeting of Arab League states, which voted to accept the idea.
"We have been building on that peace process, not only us as countries in the Middle East, but the Palestinians," al-Faisal said last week.
"They have been working hard to build their state, to reach the level that is required as partners for peace in the negotiations to come. They have been serious, working hard, and we think with great success," he said.
Washington welcomed the original proposal and since then has included Saudi officials along with Egyptian and Jordanian leaders in its discussions about how to proceed in the Middle East.
Egypt and Jordan both have full diplomatic relations with Israel, although they have been strained during the last two years. Saudi Arabia, however, has no relations with Israel and refuses to meet with its leaders.
Initially, Israel downplayed the seriousness of the proposal, noting that similar recommendations had been around for years.
Analysts suggested that the Saudis made the proposal to gain favor with the U.S. following the September 11 terror attacks. Fifteen of the hijackers were Saudi nationals.
Analysts also said that real test would be whether or not Saudi officials agreed to meet with Israeli leaders. Saudi Arabia rejected the idea outright, saying such meetings could only take place after agreements were signed.
Although they are not talking about it publicly, Israeli officials are not happy about the growing involvement of Saudi Arabia in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a senior Israeli official with extensive knowledge of Saudi affairs told CNSNews.com .
"Saudi Arabia has its own act to clean up," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"Its mosques are still spewing out hate against the West," he said. "Its growing university population is highly radicalized and it continues to provide funding to the families of suicide bombers."
Quoting a U.S. government report, Independent Media Research and Analysis noted official Saudi Arabian television carried a live sermon on July 19 in which Shaykh Abd-al-Rahman al-Sudays prayed for the support of mujahidin (holy warriors) and the demise of Jews and infidels.
"O God, grant them victory in Palestine, Kashmir, and Chechnya. O God, deal with the aggressor Jews and all aggressive infidels," he prayed. Anti-Western sentiments can be found throughout the desert kingdom.
During Israel's counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank in April and May, Israel said it confiscated documents at Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah that showed Saudi payments going to the families of suicide bombers.
"[Saudi Arabia] should really work on itself before it works on others," the official said.
Saudi Arabia's human rights record is also abysmal, particularly on religious issues. According to the State Department's report two years ago on International Religious Freedom, "Saudi Arabia is an Islamic monarch without constitutional protection for freedom of religion, and such protection does not exist in practice."
Washington has consistently downplayed and ignored Saudi human rights abuses. Analysts say that is particularly true now because the U.S wants Saudi support for an expected attack against Iraq.
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