PRINCE ALWALEED Bin Talal, a man known more for his capitalistic entrepreneurship than any political aspirations recently took a 13-hour flight to New York. Accompanied by the mayor of New York and dressed up in his traditional attire, he toured the site of World Trade Center towers destroyed in the attacks. After a Thursday morning memorial service at Ground Zero, the prince offered his condolences to the people of New York, and presented a check for $10 million toward the Twin Towers Fund to benefit the victims‚ families.
Later on, on the very same day, the Honorable Rudy Giuliani said that the city would not accept the donation for disaster relief from Alwaleed, and that the check would be returned uncashed. The reason? A statement released by Alwaleed suggesting the United States "must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack" irked Hizzoner.
So there you have it. Rudy 1, Alwaleed 0. And let me hasten to add, families of the victims of WTC, 0.
Now what exactly was said that prompted such a public rejection? The prince’s statement said the United States "should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause."
"While the UN passed clear resolutions numbered 242 and 338 calling for the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip decades ago, our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek," it quoted.
Rudy flatly rejected this rhetoric and came up with some of his own. "To suggest that there’s a justification for (the terrorist attacks) only invites this happening in the future," he said. "It is highly irresponsible and very, very dangerous. And one of the reasons I think this happened is because people were engaged in moral equivalency in not understanding the difference between liberal democracies like the United States, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism."
"Like Israel‚"? Now here is where it went murky. Alwaleed was echoing the frustrations of this region toward the foreign policies of present and past US governments, and Rudy was already thinking ahead of the 2004 US presidential elections. His recent elevation to international stature as the main man in the limelight of the Big Apple’s recovery must have seeded within him some appetite for greater power. Notwithstanding the presence of Hillary Clinton, another presidential hopeful, in his backyard, and the ethnicity of his powerful constituents, Rudy went on the attack.
Congressmen, State Department officials and the US media jumped quickly on the bandwagon heaping praise on Rudy. The few that spoke out with some clarity suggested that the timing of such a statement was wrong. Timing?
Is the insularity of the United States so narrow and so confining to suggest that the world beyond its borders did not exist before Sept. 11? That blind support for a foreign power to continue to terrorize a people out of their homeland does not happen? That it has not been happening for the past five decades?
Is Joe Pudinski in Topeka, Kansas aware of such terrorism? Of a people systematically being robbed of their lives and land by the Israelis, and that this state terrorism began even far before the construction of the Twin Towers was thought of on drawing boards? Or the idiotic concept that this is an Arab dilemma and the Arab world must somehow absorb these homeless and tormented refugees? I wonder if native Indians in South American countries would be so warmly embracing toward American Indians, were the native Americans systematically persecuted and driven of their reservations and US land?
Or is Joe simply content to sprawl on his EZboy lounger on a Saturday afternoon watching college football and drinking beer, unaware of the growing frustrations against America as a result of misguided foreign policy in other parts of the world? And continue to languish in the belief that all in the Arab world have this murderous intent on America as the media would have him believe.
As for the yet to be cashed check, I have a couple of things in mind, Prince Alwaleed.
I could use most of it to buy some rapidly disappearing beachfront property here in Jeddah and turn it into a grassy and shaded public park. One that could be appreciated by those not able or fortunate enough to afford a flight to New Delhi, let alone New York.
And for the rest of the $10 million? Well, I hear that the Caribbean is especially inviting at this time of the year.
— Tariq A. Al-Maeena, [email protected]