From: jake@bony1.bony.com (Jake Livni)
Subject: Re: Israel and Kuwait in the Spotlight
Organization: The Department of Redundancy Department
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 00:33:54 GMT


I should like to point out that Anisa's questions were posed to the
above newsgroups but the answers were re-directed to t.p.me, where
several responses have already appeared.


In article <3720@copper.Denver.Colorado.EDU> aaldoubo@copper.denver.colorado.edu (Anisa Alnoor Aldoubosh) writes:
>Jake writes:
>>
>>Israel is in a similar position to Kuwait, in this respect.  Israel
>>offers Arabs more freedoms than they can have virtually anywhere else
>>in the Middle East.
>
>Liberating them from what, Jake?  Their homes?  The land of their
>birth?

Arabs in Israel have freedoms of speech, press and religion that are
simply unheard of anywhere else in the Muslim/Arab world.  This may
surprise those who accept the sound-bites of persecution in Israel
but, in comparison to virtually any of the Arab regimes, Israel is
far, far ahead in terms of human rights, womens rights and religious
freedom. 

Arabs who are citizens of the State of Israel actually may and do vote
for political leaders who actively represent their interests, as
opposed to all the other Arab states where elections are non-existent,
total shams or merely electing figureheads who have no authority
anyways.  The Arab voting-block was not insignificant in the recent
Israeli elections.

Arabs in Israel have opportunities to earn money, in some cases enough
to qualify as wealthy by American standards.  In most Arab states,
such opportunities are apportioned based on class, birthplace, family
membership or religious persuasion and other such categorizations that
would be considered corrupt or racist anywhere in the West or in
Israel.

>>I had been hopeful that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia would have recognized
>>that they don't actually have major quarrels with Israel and would
>>have done the right thing by moving forward with recognition and
>>relations.  I am still hopeful of this, though the weak progress
>>between these parties in the past 2 years has been disappointing.
>
>This, after suggesting in the past, that there is lack of human
>rights and equality for women and other Arabs, in such countries as
>Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

I still feel that, compared to other Arab states, Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait should feel some closeness to Israel.  In fact, very few Arab
states have any real quarrel with Israel; their public posturing is
mainly related to Pan-Arabic rhetoric and the need to deflect the
attention of the populace from local problems by re-focusing on some
outside bogeyman.

If Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are deficient in human rights and womens
rights, then they might advance their position with democratic
movements, which have worked (better and worse) in a variety of other
countries (including Israel).

>BTW, Kuwait and Israel are two vary different examples in view of
>the Palestinian situation.  The only common denominator is that
>the Palestinians were once again scapegoated.

When Palestinean Arabs have spent much of this century feuding with
Palestinean Jews, killing off hundreds of Jewish women and children
along the way, then spent the last 30 years running the wealthiest and
best-known terrorist group in the world, and most recently fighting a
full-scale civil war inside Israel, with the declared of ridding
themselves of the government, it is very odd for you to describe these
same people as now being "scapegoated".

In Kuwait, the same people helped lead the Iraqi troops to a very
quick takeover of an entire country, and helped direct it's subsequent
pillage and rape.  This was accompanied by popular and official
cheering.  Is this another example of Palestineans being victimized?  

I won't deny that Israel has dealt harshly with Palestinean Arabs, nor
would I deny that Kuwaitis responded vengefully at first to the same
people, but don't you think that such awful behavior is inviting a
punishing reaction?  How can you still be crying about being
"scapegoated", as if none of it was your fault? 


-- 
Jake Livni  jake@bony1.bony.com               Pat Paulsen for President
American-Occupied New York                    This year he has a real chance!
My opinions only - employer has no opinions.
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast,talk.politics.misc,misc.headlines,soc.rights.human