How do we explain the Western behaviour vis-a-vis the Arab oil producing, i.e. rich, Arab countries? I will not delve into any details, facts, problems, or description that might best apply. Instead, I will answer the question with another that implicitly holds the answer: is it because of envy or because of spite? Probably both. I will only choose news from what I read in recent days: - The New York Sun (and all New York tabloid papers that are Likudnik), said in a headline: Saudi princess spends $10,000 at leather goods store. The news story said that she bought what I think are gifts; in fact, the ten thousand dollar amount in question is the price of a bottle of red wine that the thieving brokers at the New York Stock Exchange pay for. as they rob their customers. I personally know the princess, and she is involved in many charities in her country and abroad; she has paid millions of dollars to build schools and colleges and helped numerous associations that care for the disabled. However, New York's papers mentioned nothing of that, and decided that the ten thousand dollar is what's newsworthy. - The Jerusalem Post ran a story on nuclear programs entitled ‘Fighting proliferation with proliferation', which mentioned the King Abdullah City for nuclear research and development, and said that Saudi Arabia is concerned by the Iranian nuclear program, which prompted the kingdom to start a Saudi program. This is half true, because Saudi Arabia is more concerned by the Israeli program, and in all related international and regional meetings, the kingdom has always called for rendering the Middle East a WMD-free area. Personally, I hope that Saudi Arabia will work to produce nuclear weapons, not because I want them, but because this is the only way to pressure the United States into pressuring Israel to abandon its weapons. As for Qatar, the latter's foreign investments prompted the western media to forget Dubai and emphasize the new ‘threat', especially as Qatar purchased Harrods, one of the major landmarks in London. Qatar had bought a plot of land in Chelsea to build a number of modern residential buildings for extremely rich Londoners. So Prince Charles appealed Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa to preserve the local heritage of the area, and the Emir of Qatar obliged. However, the company that was contracted to build the original project filed a lawsuit for compensation. The issue, even here, involves a business project and a financial dispute that happens every day. However, the Sunday Telegraph headline was ‘Prince Charles, the Emir's wife and an £81m Chelsea battle (the compensation sum in question)'. The Telegraph ran a picture along with the headline, showing Prince Charles and Sheikha Mozah Al Missned, the wife of the Emir of Qatar. The picture was republished on Monday with a news story in the Guardian and a similar title that read: ‘The prince, the Qatari emir and the £81m lawsuit'. Then the Sunday Times ran the same story with the following title: ‘How Charles crushed £3bn development'. The rest of the newspapers then continued to follow this issue afterwards. Sheikha Mozah is very intelligent, and limits her activities to education and charity in her country, and has nothing to do what so ever with foreign investments. All I read about her regarding the issue mentioned above is that she and Sheikh Hamad accepted an invitation from Prince Charles on the 11th of this month, and that the Emir of Qatar subsequently agreed to modify the project. Qatar is not just a set of foreign investments. In truth, Qatar invests, because it is capable of doing so, and its Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber was originally a businessman that I find a worthy challenger to all the tycoons in New York and Washington. What is more important than investments is that Qatar has sponsored many known reconciliations among Arab parties, and engaged in mediation efforts all around the world without having any direct stakes. Qatar also assists many countries, organizations and associations, and is witnessing a domestic revolution in education that is bringing together some of the most prestigious universities and academics from around the world. And yet, the prestigious New York Times ran a report entitled ‘Affluent Qataris Seek What Money Cannot Buy', because while they own big homes, luxury cars and expensive watches, they are complaining that they have become a minority in their country. All the Qataris' problem is that they are a minority in their country? The report quotes an unhappy Qatari citizen and a resident who wants to leave. But do these two represent all the people of Qatar or the residents there? I believe it is all about spite and envy. Of course, this week's harvest also included news mentioning Abu Dhabi, where a film was banned for indecent scenes, and news about prostitutes in Dubai. In my opinion, the reason behind this is that Abu Dhabi survived the financial crisis, and Dubai did not go bankrupt like they wished, and managed to curb its decline and is now on the road to recovery. I do not have any commercial links with any country in the Arab peninsula. In fact, I welcome the success of rich Arab countries and believe that being envied is evidence of success. [email protected]
