Saudis, Syrians and Palestinians have launched a blistering series of verbal attacks against New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, President Bush and other Americans in the Arab-language press.
At particular issue was Giuliani’s rejection of Saudi Prince Al-Walid bin Talal’s $10 million donation to New York City.
Mahmoud bin Abd Al-Ghani Sabbagh, columnist for the Saudi paper Al-Riyadh, wrote the headline, “Al-Walid’s check, the homosexual governor [sic], and the propaganda war.”
“The words of [Prince Al-Walid] did not, of course, please the Jewish lobby in the home of the largest Jewish community in the world,” wrote the columnist. “Because the governor [sic] of the Big Apple is a Jew, he refused [to accept the donation] and caused a storm.”
“Giuliani said: ‘The Prince’s declarations are grievous and irresponsible; these Arabs have lost the right to dictate [to us what to do]. What we (America) must do is kill 6,000 innocent people.’ … By Allah, I am amazed at your act, you Jew; everything Prince Al-Walid said was true. … What happened proves beyond any doubt the public insolence, the open hatred and the collapse of American democratic theory. If democracy means a governor [sic] who is a homosexual in a city in which dance clubs, prostitution, homosexuality and stripping proliferate – the U.S. can keep its democracy.”
The reports were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Dr. Abd Al-Wahed Al-Hamid, also a columnist for Al-Riyadh, wrote: “Giuliani’s act exemplifies the stupidity of a number of top American officials who repeat the same mistakes that aroused great animosity towards them, not only in Arab and Islamic regions, but throughout the world. … The problem is with Giuliani, not with the declarations of Prince Al-Walid bin Talal. With his idiotic behavior, Giuliani denied the victims of the building that collapsed the aid they need. He sacrificed the public interest for a private interest, manifested in his desire to draw closer to the Jewish electorate. …”
Joining the attacks on Giuliani were columnists in the Palestinian Authority mouthpiece Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.
Editor Hafez Al-Barghouthi wrote: “New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was obsessed by his hatred of Arabs even before the terrorist attacks on New York. He hides his first name, chosen for him by his Italian father, so as not to remind the Jewish voters of the infamous Rudolph Hitler [sic]. This is why he prefers to shorten it to Rudy. There is an intense offensive against Saudi Arabia [in the U.S.] because it is not automatically signing up for the American war; on the contrary, it has many legitimate reservations regarding Western policy towards the Arabs. …”
Al-Barghouthi’s colleague, columnist (and Palestinian Authority high-ranking official) ‘Adli Sadeq, attacked New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who declared his support for Giuliani and criticized the Saudi regime: “Friedman … says that the U.S. is not responsible for what he calls the widespread ‘frustration’ among young Saudis that makes them support bin Laden. He contends that it is not Washington that maintains an autocratic regime and denies young people their political rights. He chides the Arab countries for their failure to [deal with] the challenges of development and says that North Korea’s average per capita income in 1950 was similar to that of Arab countries, but that today Korea has left the Arab states far behind. According to him, the U.S. is not responsible for this.”
He continued: “Thomas Friedman is a liar and a fraud. The U.S. is the enemy of the democratic aspirations of the Arab peoples; it is the friend and protector of dictatorships and autocracies; it is the No. 1 schemer against development in the Arab world.”
Talal Salman, editor of the pro-Syrian Lebanese daily Al-Safir, wrote that “the American president has missteps, some of which are laughingly bizarre, and some of which are stupid and not seemly for the most dangerous man in the world. … President George W. Bush, who is not known for his intelligence or his knowledge of what is happening in the world, tried to correct the misstep of his top diplomat [U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who referred to the possibility of an American attack on Syria] and promised Syria that until further notice (!!) it would remain outside the circle of his rage and his bloody vengeance. …”
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