(MEMRI) Abdallah Hamid Al-Din - In a July 12, 2014, article in Al-Hayat, Saudi writer Abdallah Hamid Al-Din wrote: "How should we act today, 66 years after the establishment of the Jewish state, a state that enjoys international support and has a vast arsenal at its disposal?...If one wants to act in the world, one must accept reality even if one does not like it. Israel is part of this reality, and has been since 1948. I do not like [this] world order, but it is a fact. We must believe that every state is entitled to the same rights as any other. Every state has the right to afford its citizens a livable life." "Do the [Palestinian] refugees and their descendants have the right to return? Yes! Do the Native Americans in the U.S. have the right to return to the regions that were theirs? Yes! Is that going to happen? No! Had I said to the Native Americans, 'I will uphold your right to return and I will expel the people of America - so remain in your wretched condition' - that would be patently immoral. The refugees will never return. That's a fact." "Ever since the 1947 [UN] partition resolution, the Palestinians' situation has steadily deteriorated, while Israel's situation is steadily improving. One does not need a vast amount of historical knowledge to understand that [the Arabs and Palestinians] missed one opportunity after another. Had the Arabs accepted the partition resolution, Israel's territory would have been considerably smaller than it is today, and had they agreed [to make] peace after the defeat of 1967, their situation would have [also] been better." "We must acknowledge that Israel cannot be defeated by force today, and for the foreseeable future....True resistance is resistance to illusions and false hopes, and no longer leaning on the past in building the future. Real resistance is to silently endure the handshake of your enemy so as to enable your people to learn and to live."
2014-07-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive