Dear Editor,
Turki Al -Faisal (Why Palestinians need the U.N. - 6/12/11) states that Saudi Arabia took President Obama's call for Arab countries to embrace democracy and provide freedom to their people "seriously". To the Saudis apparently, partaking in the Arab Spring means buying off their citizens with cold cash in an attempt to keep them fat and happy. Money is spewing with direct reimbursement checks doubling a fund that helps citizens buy homes, start businesses, and get married. These acts, which are nothing more than bribery, are no indication of heeding Obama's words "seriously" for greater freedom and democracy. It certainly does not give any credence to the Saudi's being authorities on human rights nor the right to judge Israel on Israel's human rights record, as Al-Faisal does in this editorial. One only needs to see that women have not been allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia since 1991 to see how archaic their human rights are - and that is just the beginning. Israel, on the other hand, is a country where Arabs have greater freedom of speech, greater freedom of press, and greater freedom of religion than in any Arab country!
Al-Faisal, who is the Saudi chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research & Islamic Studies in Riyadh, cannot and should not be taken seriously. His threats that "there will be disastrous consequences for the U.S.-Saudi relations if the United States vetoes U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state" are veiled threats and out-of-line for a so-called ally.
Even as Al-Faisal made these claims, reports show that the Palestinian attempt for a unity government is already crumbling before it is ever formed making it impossible for them to declare a state. It would be more appropriate for the Saudis and their researchers to look within their own country and their dismal human rights record rather than the typical distraction that they use of finger-pointing at Israel. It fools no one.
