A Saudi Opinion

This is not a fact-checking post. :-)

I usually read the columns of Tariq Alhomayad, editor in chief of Asharq al-Awsat. He sticks pretty close to the officially sanctioned Saudi government line, which can sometimes be interesting and sometimes discouraging. Yesterday's column (The Blood of Gaza... a Business Venture) is quite interesting. 

Mr. Almhomayed has a factual error (165 Israelis, 44 of whom were civilians, were killed in the war against Hizballah in 2006, not two as the column claims), and there are occasional dives into prefabricated rhetoric, but my intent here is not to quibble, but rather to consider how this might reflect the evolving Saudi position. 

The paragraphs that I find most interesting are these:

And so as was expected today we are facing demands of holding an emergency Arab summit, the question then is what is the difference between this summit [perhaps to be held in Doha on Friday] and previous emergency summits? What we need is not an emergency summit but a decisive Arab stance, a position that will bring the responsible party to account. If this current escalation was caused by Hamas and Iran to prevent the expected negotiations between Syria and Israel, then let us call a spade a spade. And if [the current escalation] was caused to strengthen the Syrian position, then let that be made clear also.

It is also an Arab duty to inform the public that what Hamas is doing in Gaza –and the thwarting of the peace efforts made by Egypt- is equivalent to casting a vote for Netanyahu in the Israeli elections. For the extremist always look for an extremist [on the other side] to justify his position. Netanyahu's ascension to the head of the Israeli cabinet will justify the actions of Iran or Hamas, or even the existence of Hezbollah weaponry, in Arab public opinion.

... The Arabs must call a spade a spade so long as Hamas and those who stand behind the Hamas movement do not hesitate to make accusations and bring charges of treason against the Arab world. Let them bear the responsibility [of their own actions], if only once.

When the collective Arab leadership recognizes that those who beat the drums of war merely want to use fellow Arabs for their own purposes, it greatly reduces the danger to people all over the region, which is for the best.