A HEART TO HEART TALK – A FRIEND TO FRIEND DISCUSSION
A
WELCOMING ADDRESS HONORING THE DELEGATION OF SAUDI ARAMCO’S AMERICAN RETIREES AND
HIGHLIGHTING CURRENT ARAB/AMERICAN RELATIONS
* (Second Edition)
BY NASSIR M. AL-AJMI:
FORMER EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT SAUDI ARAMCO;
FORMER PRESIDENT SAUDI RAILWAY ORG.
Good evening, as you have noticed I have been introduced without a
current official capacity or title. However, I
do have at least two permanent qualities, first a true and lasting friendship and second I
speak my mind.
This is truly a special evening and on behalf of all your Saudi Arab
friends it gives me a great pleasure to welcome you to Saudi Arabia and to the Eastern Province
(your home for many years). I sincerely hope
that your visit has been pleasant and successful.
You have been here for nearly a week and had the opportunity to visit
with friends, to see familiar places and had the chance to recall pleasant memories and
recollect long forgotten memorable relationships and life experiences. It has been a week of heightened activities as
well, full of reminiscing, thoughtful discussions and candid exchange of views on past and
present Arab/American relations.
You may have noticed that Saudi Arabia, your home for half a
century, has changed in many ways, the landscape has changed, the population has changed
and grown to twenty three million and the complexity of modern life has taken roots in
Saudi Arabia. You maybe feeling that your time
and contributions in the development of Saudi Arabia have all been forgotten and buried
under the shifting sands of Saudi Arabia.
Allow me to assure you and all our American retirees and
friends that despite the passage of time and multiplicity of change I am happy to tell you
that your foot prints are still clearly visible on the sands of Saudi Arabia and in the
hearts of your Saudi friends. The legacies of
your positive participations and valuable contributions will remain high monuments in our
minds and on our home land. I also want to
assure you and all our American friends that in spite of all the changes you have
observed, heard and read about, Saudi Arabia and its people remain true to their Islamic
faith, true to their cherished cultural values and true to their friendship.
Dear friends, it is normally the Arab way to speak to their
guests about pleasant subjects and to limit the discussions to areas of casual
pleasantries. However, because you are a
unique group of friends representing a distinctive historical link of friendship and human
understanding and since I am a friend who speaks his mind, I decided to depart from the
usual Arab mannerism, knowing that your trip goals go beyond the subjects of casual
pleasantries.
One of the most important subjects of mutual interest is the
Arab/American relation which has been in a state of perplexity for the past sixty (60)
years and now at a very low ebb. This state of
bewilderment, which has plagued the Arab/American relation, grew as a direct result of the
Arab/Israeli conflict and the American perpetual support of Israel. I will not bother you with the history of the
Arab/Israeli conflict, but the creation of Israel went beyond the usurpation of Arab land
and the displacement of Arab people. The
creation of Israel has rekindled a far reaching and more dangerous phenomenon. It has brought to life fabled biblical prophecies
and set the Armageddon theology on fire. Armageddon
theologians define the Arab world as an Antichrist (Satan) and “leading the armies of
the world against Lord Jesus”. American
fundamentalists, evangelists and Armageddon theologists who subscribe to these horrifying
fable prophecies numbers around seventy (70) million in the United States. In her book “Forcing God’s Hand”,
Grace Halsell, describes their beliefs, teachings and thinking strategies as follows:
The Arab world is an
Antichrist world.
--Webber and Hutchings, Is
This the Last Century?
If the U.S. ever turns its back on Israel,
we will no longer exist as a nation.
--Writer-lecturer Hal Lindsey
Theologically
any Christian has to support Israel … If we fail to protect Israel, we will cease to
be important to God.
--Jerry Falwell
Dispensational
beliefs reduce “the complex and diverse societies of Africa, Asia and the Middle East
to walk-on roles as allies of Gog in God’s great end-time drama…the consensus
was clear: prophetic imperatives required the elimination of Arabs not only from
(Jerusalem) but from most of the Middle East…They stood in the way of God’s
promises to the Jews.”
--Paul Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More
My suggested response to those who define Arabs and Muslims as
Antichrist Gogs, is to read and study the Holy Koran to see how Arabs and Muslims dignify
and glorify Jesus, Mary and all God’s prophets and messengers.
In addition, to the Bible Belt contempt for Arabs and Muslims,
and their unequivocal support for Israel, American government had used the UN veto 26
times to protect Israel crimes. America, a
nation founded on sound principles, high moral values and a sense of fairness has been
wrong and unjust in its treatment of the Palestinian problem – the source of all the Middle
East instability and terrorism. Furthermore, Israel
to date has drained more than $100 billion from the United States Treasury in the form of
aids, gifts and grants to fund illegal Jewish settlements on confiscated Arab land, Grace
Halsell continue to say:
We
U.S. taxpayers give the small state of Israel more than $6 billion in foreign and military
aid a year. This is in addition to hundreds of
millions of taxpayer dollars going to Israel from other parts of the federal budget.
U.S.
aid to Israel has always been a touchy subject. Members
of congress never mention the total. Perhaps
if they did, constituents would ask why Israel receives so much more federal money than do
U.S. states in the same population range, and whose residents pay taxes to the federal
government.
Over
the past 46 years – from 1949 to 1995 – U.S. taxpayers have given $62.5 billion
in foreign aid to Israel. This means
we’ve given one of the world’s smallest countries – with a population less
than that of Hong Kong – as much aid money as we’ve given all of the countries
of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean combined.
The
total aid to those countries amounted to $40 per person while the aid to Israel amounted
to $10,775 per person.
That
aid is official foreign aid. Then, outside
that budget, there is a large amount of additional U.S. taxpayer assistance that flows to Israel. This additional money does not appear either on the
U.S. AID or U.S. Foreign Assistance charts. Grants
to Israel are tucked into the budgets of many U.S. agencies ranging from the Department of
Commerce to the U.S. Information Agency, with the largest chunks appearing in the Pentagon
budget.
If
you add these additional grants, we taxpayers have given more than $83 billion to Israel,
which comes out to more than $14,000 annually per present day Israel.
--Richard Curtiss, retired career foreign service officer,
editor, Washington Report
on Middle East Affairs
My friends, everything I have said so far took place long before
September 11 tragedy and the list of legitimate Arab complaints which went unheeded is too
long to numerate. The tragedy of September 11,
deplorable as it was and all other acts of Middle East terrorism past and present have
stemmed from Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people and accentuated by
relentless and unjust American support. American
Middle Eastern policy has been effectively dictated by Israel. It took me years to understand why highly prominent
and honorable Americans speak out against Jewish lobbies and American Middle East policy
only after they retired from public life. The
following quotations from the book Stealth Pacs by Richard H. Curtiss will support my
contentions that Jews and Zionists have penetrated and in full control of the theological
reasoning, moral principles/values and the political thinking of the American society:
Criticism
or even-handed comment about Israel’s severe and often brutal treatment of the
Palestinians is muted by Israel’s practice of dismissing all criticism, no matter how
appropriate, as being anti-Semitic. The lobby
[Israel] can just about tell the President what to do when it comes to Israel. Its influence in congress is pervasive and,
profoundly harmful. (This is an important
book, explaining why the U.S. has so little support among the United Nations.)
--The Hon. J. William
Fulbright
former Democratic senator
from Arkansas and Chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations
Committee, and author of The Arrogance of Power and
The
Price of Empire.
This
may be the most important book of the past 10 years. It
succinctly describes the corruption of the American political process by PACs, just in the
15 years since they were first authorized by Congress.
Honest political leaders don’t want to stay in office and honest
citizens are reluctant to run for office. PAC
money is bad enough, but the central control of some 100 PACs by a Washington agency,
AIPAC, single-mindedly dedicated to defeating every candidate who is independent of Israel’s
policies, is an evil so enormous that even the American news media are reluctant to
discuss it.
--The Hon. Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey
former Republican Member of the House of Representatives from California
American
foreign policy in the Middle East has been devoid of true debate for almost a decade. This book fills that gap and focuses on what has
become a monumental embarrassment to the United States.
America’s inability to act in its own national interest and to
formulate a balanced policy that recognizes that U.S. and Israeli interests do not
necessarily coincide. This book is essential
reading for anyone wanting to know the truth – the whole truth.
--The Hon. Charles H. Percy,
former Republican Senator from Illinois and Chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee.
PACs
are bad news for democracy. They
disenfranchise the voters. The Israeli Lobby
is bad news for peace in the Middle East. It
disenfranchises America. The Lobby’s
unprecedented use of secret PAC money succeeds in its manipulation of American politicians
who are more concerned with their own selfish interests than they are with America’s
best interests. The Israeli Lobby is a lobby
for a foreign power whose interests are in most cases the opposite of America’s. This book tells voters who are influenced by
pro-Israeli PAC money, how much they’ve taken, and why.
--The Hon. James G. Abourezh,
former
Democratic Senator from South Dakota, co-author with Hyman
Bookbinder of Through Different Eyes, and author of Advise and Dissent
In
writing this book, Richard H. Curtiss has rendered a great public service. It is a guide of enduring value to every voter in
the nation. It lists by name, district and
price the politicians who cooperate with Israel’s lobby in the corruption of Middle
East policy-making.
The Hon. Paul Findley,
former Republican Member of the House of Representatives from Illinois
and author of They Dare to Speak Out.
Additionally, Charley Reese, an American
writer and critic of American foreign policy in the Middle East, describes the Israeli
strong-hold on current American foreign policy in one of his many articles on the subject
as follows:
What
country in the Middle East occupies the lands of other people? What country in the Middle East is in violation of
more than 60 United Nations resolutions? What
country in the Middle East openly practices a policy of assassinating its political
opponents? What country in the Middle East
routinely violates international law? What
country in the Middle East possesses nuclear weapons, refuses to sign the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and refuses to allow international inspection of its nuclear
facilities? What country in the world poses
the greatest danger to the future of the United States?
The answer to all of the above is Israel.
OK,
I know that sounds shocking. How could a
little country the size of New Jersey pose any threat to the United States? Well, how could a little country drain more than
$100 billion from the U.S. Treasury? How could
a little country attack and try to sink a U.S. Navy ship in international waters and avoid
any kind of congressional investigation? How
can a little country openly brag to third parties that it controls the U.S. Congress? And partner, Israel does.
In
Queen Noor’s recent book, she says that her husband was dismayed when Congress told
Jordanians that they would definitely not be given the things promised to them in exchange
for a peace treaty with Israel. Queen Noor
said her husband called Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and told him of the problem. “Don’t worry about it,” Rabin
replied. “I’ll take care of
it.” And he did.
Now,
let’s be clear about this. Here you have
the prime minister of one foreign country telling the king of another foreign country that
he can get the U.S. Congress to reverse its position.
And he did it. Too bad American
governors don’t have that kind of influence. And,
as a quick aside, why do American taxpayers have to pay for Israel’s peace treaties?
The
problem and danger to the United States is that Israel effectively dictates U.S. foreign
policy in the Middle East. Israel supporters
were the architects of the war against Iraq, and if they can, they will get us into wars
with Syria and Iran, thus eliminating Israel’s enemies.
They would like nothing better than for the United States to be at war with
the entire Muslim world.
As
I write this, the United States has once again vetoed a United Nations Security Council
resolution demanding that Israel not assassinate the elected leader of the Palestinians. Great God, how do you think that plays in the Arab
world when we cannot bring ourselves to condemn what would be a war crime? It’s no wonder the World Trade Center towers
came down. It’s no wonder American
soldiers are ducks in an Iraqi shooting gallery. Israel
is the source of terrorism in the Middle East, both that directed at it and that directed
at us.
The
question for Americans is this: How long do
you want to bleed lives and treasure because your corrupt politicians have sold their
souls to the lobby of a foreign country now led by a fanatic right-wing extremist?
--Charley Reese (c 2002 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.)
Following the aftermath of September 11 tragedy, the entire world
stood up in support of the United States against terrorism.
The vast majority of Arabs and Muslims was horrified and saddened by the
September 11 criminal attack and considered it as a gruesome act foreign to our honored
culture, our peaceful and tolerant faith and our hospitable way of life
Arab and Muslim nations without exception condemned the September 11
criminal attack and stood ready to support the war on terrorism. But in spite of all that, American foreign policy
and news media toward Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations have become offensive and
painfully insulting to the citizens of Saudi Arabia, their national pride and their
educational and charitable institutions. Terrorism
is bad; however, reaction and retaliation in kind have and will propagate terrorism rather
than eliminate it, and will invariably result in loss of innocent lives. Terrorism cannot be eradicated until the underlying
causes are justly addressed. The current
American/Israeli approach to terrorism is only adding fuel to the fire.
President Bush emerged as a powerful and angry giant whose view of
the world has been limited to two dimensions: a
black and white vision, a total lack of cultural sensitivity and heightened diplomatic
arrogance. Under the current American administration, Muslims in general and Arabs in
particular – including their national governments and national institutions –
have been victimized and damaged by American foreign policy, news media and stereotyping.
As the saga of war on terrorism took different twists and dimensions,
the world began to grow wary and critical of U.S. intentions and handling of the war on
terrorism. When the Bush administration decided to fabricate facts, dossiers and expand
the definition of terrorism to include everything they and the Israelis do not like, the
world began to question the American/Israeli motives and resist their schemes.
Consequently, Mr. Bush and his clique have started to vent their frustrations with the
World by classifying and labeling World nations as the axis of evil, the axis of weasels,
old Europe and the axis of unsupportive nations, in addition to the shoddiest of them all,
“you are either with us or with the terrorists”.
This inferior form of foreign policy and diplomatic approach infuriated
international public opinion and demanded World submission to American will rather than
enlist international support and cooperation.
There is no nation on planet earth today that poses a threat to the United
States’ national security. There is no
nation on planet earth that does not seek America’s friendship, and there are no
rational or civilized human beings or nations that wish to harm Americans or destroy their
democratic principles or way of life. But
there are no nations or rational human beings that will accept to be treated like Texas
longhorns driven by a bunch of cowboys to the slaughter house. America has been the World military and economic
superpower, but when it comes to foreign policy and international relations, they are
devoid of fair play, wisdom and intellectual thinking.
American foreign policy over the years has depended heavily on American
foreign aids as handouts and American protection for totalitarian regimes and
dictatorships loyal to Washington. Democracy
was only flashed as a threatening whip against those who refused to tow the American line.
As a result, America’s international image has begun to suffer
under the present administration and at a low ebb in all Muslim countries. According to a recent study done for the period
(2000-2003) by the General accounting office of the U.S.
Congress, America’s popularity dropped from 25% to 1% in Jordan, from
35% to 27% in Lebanon, from 77% to 24% in Morocco, from 75% to 15% in Indonesia, from 23%
to 13% in Pakistan and from 52% to 15% in Turkey.
The United States threatened Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations
with “Ultimatums if they do not stop all funding and support for what the U.S.A.
deem to be fundamentalists schools and
Mosques, dismantle and ban Islamic charities that fund terrorism, prosecute those involved
in the terror chain, including [those] in the Saudi intelligence services.” When at the same time and for many years, the United
Sates has had on its soil over seventy (70) million Zionist Christian fundamentalists with
their schools, institutions, pervert/hateful/militant teachings, money and powerful media
all vigorously ushering and hastening the battle of Armageddon!
I wonder if the U.S. Government would accept similar ultimatum from
us to dismantle and ban the Scofield Reference Bible and ban all curriculums, schools and
institutions that inspire violence, support terrorism and preach Christian fundamentalism,
zealotry, fanaticism and hostility?
It is rationally incomprehensible that the President of the United
States, the U.S. legislative bodies, its democratic institutions and the American people
would allow American foreign policy to fall captive to Israel and its American Jewish
lobby. This fact, my friends, is the real
issue between the Arab world and the United States.
For many years, American foreign policy towards the Arab world has caused
incredible pain and damage economically, politically and socially. Israel’s usurpation of American foreign policy
and international role has alienated and outraged the Arab world and muted American
friends in the Middle East. American
“democratically elected” officials in the White House and the U.S. Congress have
shamefully ceded American foreign policy to Israel against the advice of loyal Americans,
American friends and allies the world over
I want to conclude my remarks by emphasizing the fact that the
long-standing Saudi-American friendship and special relations have been severely tested,
and it is up to people of good will in both societies to defeat the forces of evil on both
sides. The people of good will must express
their determination to maintain and advance Arab-American relations through cultural
tolerance, mutual respect, human understanding, fair play and mutual cooperation. Goodness must prevail over evil and true friendship
must rise above differences.
* P.S.
Second Edition: It
was suggested, by many of those who listened and read the speech, that the speech should
receive wider distribution. Therefore, minor
additions, mainly in the form of quotations were included to support the author’s
contentions regarding American foreign policy in the Middle East.
Courtesy of and © 2003 by Nassir M. Al-Ajmi. The writer is a former
Executive Vice President of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), and Former
President of Saudi Railway Organization. This article may be reprinted without
further permission but with proper citation.
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