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March 01, 2002
HORRORS! I know I'm beating
HORRORS! I know I'm beating this Saudi "peace plan" into the ground, but here's another angle. From a review of the reactions to the plan from Middle East papers, Jefferson Morley unearths this gem from "Al-Quds al-Arabi, the Saudi-owned, London-based Arab nationalist paper that is critical of the Saudi royal family and the United States." (Unfortunately, I cannot find an English version of the site.) The editor:
worried that the peace overture might lead, among other things, to Jewish tourists in Saudi Arabia. Did it cross Abdullah's mind, Atwan asks,
"that normalization of tourist ties could mean that swarms of Israeli tourists would want to visit Medina to look for traces of their forefathers, and to hold religious festivals on their holidays to commemorate anniversaries of the Bani Quraydhah and Bani Qinqa (Pre-Islam Jewish tribes that dwelt in southwest the Arabian Peninsula), exactly as they visit Jarbah in Tunisia and the Abu-Hasirah grave in Egypt."
I can reassure the editor that not many Israelis will be holding the specific "religious festivals" he refers to. But imagine the horrors of Israelis visiting Medina!
Posted by Dr. Manhattan at 1:53 PM | Permalink