Abdullah, Arafat, and the Mystery of the Arab Language
Arab Leaders Assume That If They Don't Listen to Us, We Won't Listen to Them
by Jack Wakeland - The Intellectual Activist
This evening, NBC News finally managed to find the time to air a report on the
ongoing story of Saudi Arabia's duplicity in its phony war against al-Qaeda
(this exact story was printed in the Jerusalem Post a week ago).
Making up for its tardiness, NBC did a good job. (see tinyurl.com
.)
When speaking English, Saudia Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah and his
representatives have repeatedly told Western leaders that al-Qaeda is
responsible for a wave of small scale attacks that have begun to regularly
harvest the lives of local and foreign oil industry workers this year. The
kingdom has been sharing information, on a limited basis, with the CIA and other
Western intelligence agencies, in an effort to contain these domestic Wahhabi
terrorists.
But, NBC reporter Lisa Myers observed, when speaking Arabic on local television
Prince Abdullah claimed that Zionists were responsible for the kingdom's most
recent terrorist attack. "Zionism is behind it. It has become clear now. It has
become clear to us. I don't say, I mean.... It is not 100 percent, but 95
percent that the Zionist hands are behind what happened," the Prince said.
How could Muslims both be and not be responsible for the same terrorist attack
at the same time?
When asked by NBC, Interior Minister Prince Nayef had no trouble explaining the
contradiction. "Al-Qaida is backed by Israel and Zionism," he said.
That would be news to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has for the past
three years been fighting an outbreak of Islamic terrorism supported by Iran,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq (until recently), and several other countries, that
has claimed the lives of nearly one thousand innocent Jews and Arabs.
Having one world view for one language and a different, contradictory world view
for another is very reminiscent of the statements Yassir Arafat used to make, on
a regular basis, during the zenith of his power.
In English, former Palestinian Authority Chairman Arafat would tell Israeli,
European, and American diplomats that he wanted to institute a cease fire and
enter final status talks about the future peaceful coexistence of a Palestinian
state with the state of Israel. In English, he would tell members of the Western
news media that he did not understand why Israel kept refusing his offers for
peace and its soldiers kept firing on his people. Within hours of his peaceful
protestations in English, Arafat would often address Palestinian nationalist
rallies, in Arabic. Having switched languages, Arafat would suddenly find the
words to communicate the worldview he actually holds. He would declare to his
followers that they would soon have their homeland back and, if the Jews
continued to oppose them, "millions of martyrs" would march on
Jerusalem--including himself.
Is it possible, in this modern era, that Prince Abdullah and former Chairman
Arafat actually think that no one in the West understands Arabic?
The answer is yes.
Only 300 books per year are translated into Arabic. Far more books are
translated into Greek, even though the population of Arab World is more than ten
times that of Greece.
The Arab world is an extraordinarily insular culture--and it projects that same
insularity onto the West.
When former President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he did it because he
thought it was a way to keep his generals busy so they would stop scheming
against him (according to the account Hussein recently gave his American
captors). It never occurred to him that anyone in the outside world would
notice.
Likewise, when speaking Arabic, Prince Abdullah and former Chairman Arafat think
Western ears cannot hear them.
It is a very irritating habit, but perhaps we shouldn't complain. There is
something to be said for having enemies who keep their heads buried in the sand. |
