KUWAIT CITY: The following are excerpts from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s keynote speech at the Arab economic summit in Kuwait.
We, along with the entire Arab nation, aspire to see definite results from this economic summit, results that would bring glad tidings of security and prosperity for all Arabs and Muslims.
The economy, no matter how vital it is, cannot be considered equal to life itself, nor does it replace dignity without which no life is worth living.
In the past few days, we witnessed images that were so repulsive, bloody and painful, and massacres that were committed in full view of the world by criminal hoodlums whose hearts know no mercy and whose minds have not an iota of human compassion...
The murderers and their accomplices have forgotten what the Torah says: “An eye for an eye.” It never says an entire city full of eyes for an eye. Israel must understand that the option between war and peace will not always be open and that the Arab peace initiative that is on the table today will not remain indefinitely.
Today, we honor the martyrs of Gaza, we salute its heroes and its endurance, we value all those who strove to put an end to the bleeding, especially our brothers in Egypt under the leadership of President Hosni Mubarak.
I must say honestly to my Palestinian brethren that their internal dispute is more threatening to their cause than the Israeli invasion. I remind them that God Almighty links victory with unity and defeat with discord...
Dear leaders of the Arab nation, I must be honest and truthful to myself and to you when I say that our political differences have led to our dissension and discord. These differences continue to aid the treacherous Israeli enemy and those who seek to disunite the Arabs for their regional objectives at the expense of our unity, dignity and hopes.
“As leaders of the Arab nation, we are responsible for the weakness that has befallen our united stance, and for the frailty that threatens our solidarity. While saying this I make no exceptions amongst us. What is done is done. “Today, I beseech you in the name of God, in the name of our martyred children, women and elderly in Gaza, in the name of the blood spilled by the sheer force of tyranny on our dear occupied land in Palestine, in the name of dignity and honor, in the name of our peoples who have succumbed to despair, I beseech you, including myself, to be stronger than our wounds, to rise above our differences, to defeat the assumptions of our enemies, and take an honorable stand that will be remembered by history, a stand that our nation will be proud of.
“Therefore, allow me to announce in all our names that we have overcome the period of disunity, opening the door of Arab brotherhood, and that of unity for all Arabs without exception or reservation, and that we will face the future with total unity and without any discord, like one structure, remembering the words of our Lord: “Do not quarrel, for then you will be weak in hearts and your power will depart.”
