Saudi View

Perhaps R.Richard, the thread starter, wanted this thread to deal with the Saudi's only, then again, perhaps not.

You're good at making up what people might have said (if it suited your point). I'll have to go with what was actually posted.
 
Let's examine things instead of slinging political rhetoric.

First of all, there is no such thing as a 'Muslim Middle-East.' The Iranians are Muslims and live in a theocratic state, but they're not Arabs and not Sunnis, in general. The Arabs in the Gulf fear the Iranians.

The Saudis are an Arab kingdom, more or less based on a Sunni Muslim theocracy.

The Iraqis are currently a secular state, with a majority Arab Shia Muslim population, but also significant numbers of Sunnis and certain strong tribal minorities [e.g. Kurds.] The latest election results from Iraq indicate that the power of the religious fundamentalists is waning.

The Turks are a secular state, with a very large Muslim segment of population. Both the Turks and the Iranians have a substantial Kurdish minority [the Turks deny this.]

Syria is a dictatorship, with Sunni Arab Muslim majority. However, Syria is almost bankrupt and they dance to the Iranian Shia money tune.

Lebanon was destroyed by the PLO. Before its destruction, there was a delicate balance between Muslim, Christian and Druze communities. [The Druze consider themselves as an offshoot of the Muslim faith. However,other Muslims have a somewhat different view.]

Egypt is theoretically a secular state,but its population is something like 90% Sunni Muslim. Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel. Egyopt hates and fears Hamas, due the presence in Egypt of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is an off shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. [The Muslim Brotherhood wants a power sharing arrangement in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood will have the power and the elected government can do the sharing.]

Jordan is a Sunni Arab kingdom.

The area that most of you call Palestine has been ruled by many, many conquerors. The Egyptians ruled the area on more than one occasion. The Crusaders ruled the area. Salah ad Din ruled the area. Umar ibn al Khattab ruled the area. The Ottomans ruled the area and the British ruled the area. The British then split the area into several parts. Jordan [TransJordan] was created by the British, as was Israel. The West Bank was ruled by Jordan and the Gaza Strip was ruled by Egypt.

Shortly after the establishment of Israel several Arab armies attacked the new state of Israel and got their asses kicked. Things then settled down and, aside from a few Arab attempts to conquer Israel, things remained at a simmer, rather than a boil.

Then the Egyptian Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini [you probably know him as Yasser Arafat] destroyed Lebanon and the world governments then dumped him in the West Bank. Arafat then destroyed the Palestiain economy in a futile attempt to destroy Israel. Arafat was not a Palestinian, nor was he really a Muslim. Arafat was of the religioius type known as ass hole.

Arafat destroyed the economy of what are called the Palestinian Arabs. The legacy he leaves is that of hate and criminal conduct. [There are Palestinaian Arabs who live within Israel and they have a much better standard of living and civil rights than the unlucky inhabitants of either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.]

The point that I was trying to make is the perception of Gaza, not by the West or by Israel, but by another Sunni Muslim state. The Saudis view Gaza as a dangerous, lawless place where they're reluctant to send workers to rebuild the infrastructure. The specific thing that I noticed was that the concern that the Saudis cited did not specifically address the Israelis, but rather the Hamas rulers of Gaza.
 
Hmmm. I wonder what school of international affairs you went to. Even the secular states in the Middles East have preponderantly Muslim populations other than Israel and Lebanon. I've never heard anyone with any credentials say there is no such thing as a Muslim Middle East, which is a laughable statement (no one with any credibility hyphenates it, either :rolleyes:).

And again, I don't know we get here from some the hint of something nefarious about--or some hidden state policy meaning in--a Saudi government that won't seen construction workers to a place like the Gaza. :rolleyes:
 
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