Speaking to the US-based Arabic network Al Hurra, Abdul Hamid Hakim, Director of the Middle East Research Institute in Jeddah, said:
We as Arabs must understand the other party as it is, and we know what is needed to succeed in peace negotiations.
We have to recognize and realize that Jerusalem is a religious symbol of the Jews, as holy to them as the holiness of Mecca and Medina is for Muslims.
The Arab mind must be liberated from the Nasserite heritage and the legacy of political Islam, both Sunni and Shiite, which instilled a culture of hatred of Jews and denial of their historical right to the region.
Immediately, Hakim was pilloried on social media, with prominent Saudis calling him ignorant and denouncing him for “normalization.”
Hakim had previously said such controversial things as “The time has come for a new Middle East based on love, peace, coexistence and rejection of hatred, violence and extremism.”
It is encouraging that a few Saudis can actually say things that are relatively normal and honest. But the backlash to Hakim’s statement, especially in Palestinian media, illuminate something about the reaction to Donald Trump’s Jerusalem speech.
In both cases, someone says something that is obviously true. In both cases, the backlash is not against the truth of the statement – but against the implications. To the Palestinians, the truth must be avoided at all costs.
And the world looks at one side that says the truth, the other side that fights with all its might against the truth, and concludes that the real truth must be closer to the side that makes a bigger noise.
That is the genius of the Palestinian Big Lie.
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