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December 13, 2002/Tevet 8 5763, Vol. 55, No. 16
Oil and snake oilEditorialFor more than a year Saudi Arabia's rulers have been insisting that their country is not to be blamed for Osama bin Laden and Sept. 11 or, indeed, for any of the manifestations of militant, terror-approving Islam. Just last week, their U.S. spokesman presented a report on all the supposedly significant steps that the monarchy is taking to crack down on terrorists and their finances.It would be nice to be able to take the Saudi protestations of innocence at face value, but that would be like accepting Saddam Hussein's word that he doesn't have and isn't developing any weapons of mass destruction. The fact is that Saudi Arabia is in a denial of reality that gets deeper and deeper - and ultimately more difficult to defend. After World War II, Saudi Arabia could have used the vast wealth from its oil sales to the United States and Europe to give its citizens a secular education and build a diverse, forward looking commercial base. Instead, the money went to support a lavish lifestyle for kings and princes to dole out charity to pacify the underclass and to build mosques and madrasses (religious schools) that teach an exclusionist variety of Islam. It was almost bound to breed a bin Laden and the 15 Saudi hijackers of Sept. 11. Instead of facing up to its responsibility for promulgating terror, Saudi Arabia insists on its innocence. Earlier this month, for example, its interior minister said Jews were the instigators of Sept. 11, arranging the tragedy so that Islam would be blamed. Western-educated Saudis, like Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi spokesman, say the nation is modernizing as fast as it can and caution that a rush to democracy could lead to a takeover by an even more strict Islamic regime. They could be right, but they don't have to be. While the oil money is still flowing, Saudi Arabia could implement changes that over the next decade or two would develop democracy for citizens and teach them more than just memorizing Koran. The nation could start by ending the repression of women and by getting the mutawwa, the religious police, off the streets. Or it could just announce that it recognizes Israel's right to exist - unconditionally. America is on the right track in its current refusal to accept the snake oil that Saudi Arabia is trying to sell us about its doing the best it can. It's a tragedy that Sept. 11 made us confront the kingdom's mistaken path. But now that we have clarity, we need to maintain the pressure for meaningful change, for the sake of the Arabs as well as for the rest of the world. Adapted from the Jewish Renaissance Media. |
