Check out these pictures of the Israeli President touring in an Arab country to give you hints…Those were taken in a local market where the special guest mingled with the locals here are ten clues about this Arabic country that the Israeli President was visiting:
1-This country is tiny, but is well-endowed.
2-Natives of this country are very hospitable to Israelis as clear from the pictures.
3-This country keeps fiddling around with Palestinian and Lebanese politics. They are rooting for Hamas and they also put their money where their mouth is! There was a time this tiny country hosted top Hamas lieutenants. But not to worry President Abbas is also a citizen of that country.
4-This country has a prominent news channel that won’t shut up about “resistance” and calls out those who rush to peace.
5-Their prominent news stations has yet to utter a word about this high profile visit and other similar ones.
6-This country also happens to have the largest American military base in the Middle East.
7-Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia hate the leader of this country.
8-This country has become a one stop shop to purchase American made movies, Hamas literature, and Israeli music!
9-This country throws the most extravagant Christmas Reception here in the DC area.
10-From the looks for things when the Israelis get fed up with Shimon PERES, he might just seek asylum in that little country. They folks look genuinely excited to meet him! More excitement than a concert with Nancy Ajram.
Have you guessed what country am I talking about?
Related posts:
- I guess you can’t control everything…
- One Country: One Person, One Vote
- The Gaza Memos: Unity Agreement?
- I Hate Huckabee
- Robert Fisk: So far, Obama’s missed the point on Gaza…
You suck big time!
How dare you
Posted by Sami | November 20, 2009, 11:37 pmEveryone knows that we're actually doing stuff as opposed to the Saudis and ever other rich country that is blowing their money literally with prostitutes and casinos. We're actually investing in our future and making things to create a stable life after the oil runs out!
You can take your post and shove it . . . in the end, we'll still be around when the Saudis, the Jordanian Palestinian-Self Haters and the Egyptians are wallowing in the mire
Khara 3leyhom
Posted by Sami | November 20, 2009, 11:39 pmYES, I agree with all what you said about investing in your future…Qatar is the first Gulf country to invest in the human factor…not just in tall buildings….I love the fact that they got the best American colleges to open up in Doha….BUT that has nothing to do with the Israeli President mingling with the locals few miles from Aljazeera is preaching resistance and hosting hardliners who fiddle around in other countries politics. if you can make sense of that that, I cannot. But please let's be civil, and thank you
Posted by Hanitizer | November 21, 2009, 12:24 amYou are right . . . sorry, I get too many of these Qatari bashers and being from there, I feel sometimes that I have to defend the government, my country, and my Sheikh. We've come a long way and we're always trying to improve.
Listen, my heart is with the Palestinians (I am a quarter Palestinian from '48), but in the end, maybe this whole thing can be solved. Maybe the Sheikh can help this happen.
In the end though, we're at least trying to reach out to the Israelis. We don't defeat our enemies until we kill them with love and hospitality. We should learn that . . . and so should they. I agree, that the Israeli government isn't the best, but we have to try to do the best with what we have.
My heart goes out to all the suffering and the broken hearted, the weak, the poor, the sufferers of injustice: in short, my heart goes out to the people of Palestine!
Posted by Sami | November 21, 2009, 12:45 amQatar has traditionally done a lot for the Palestinian cause. It has also done a lot to mediate the tension caused by the so called Middle East Cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Qatar's policies have also been far more pragmatic and logical rather than being based on the empty rhetoric of countries like Saudi Arabia.
Posted by Arayus | November 22, 2009, 3:43 amI must confess that during the time I got stuck in Gaza, I came to know that Qatar through the Qatar foundation does a lot of work in Gaza…..they are putting their money where the mouth is. I am not denying that nor can anyone do that….while the other rich Arab countries opening up franchises for burgers….Qatar was busy opening franchises for colleges and universities in Doha. talking to Israel and Israelis, that's their call…but inciting the Palestinians to kill Israelis while hugging them over there is a problem.
Posted by Hanitizer | November 22, 2009, 5:39 amQatar, apparently. Odd that they would allow a minister of a hostile state to go on a meet and greet with the locals, rather than confine the visit to government officials and then whisk him out the door as quick as possible before anyone notices. This isn't exactly what you'd call "low-profile" and it's almost laughable Al Jazeera isn't covering it. The chumminess is off-putting to be sure, but I suppose it's necessary in diplomatic circles. If Obama invited Ahmadinejad to Washington and took him on a tour, I have no doubt the reaction of the media would be radically different than that seen here.
Posted by Sean2009 | November 20, 2009, 11:51 pmThe chumminess is off-putting to be sure, it's almost laughable
Posted by lmao! | November 21, 2009, 2:18 amIf Obama invited Ahmadinejad to Washington and took him on a tour, I have no doubt the reaction of the media would be radically different than that seen here.
I wonder what the reaction of the media would be if Obama did that and then had AN whisked off to Guantanamo instead of the meet and greet thing? Not that I'm endorsing that or anything…
Posted by programmer craig | November 21, 2009, 5:21 amNow that would be hilarious…..
Posted by OooKhalid | November 21, 2009, 5:49 amUntil you see American campus movements to boycott Israel, you'll keep seeing these smoochy events with Israeli politicians. After a million Gazans are dead, will you finally start demanding boycott against Israel, on your campus?
No, you'll keep "killing them with kindness and hospitality", as one poster has suggested above.
Pucker up, and don't stop puckering up until victory!
Posted by Lick Your Wounds | November 21, 2009, 1:33 pmLook, no one wants to talk. What have we become robots or something?
I'm not blaming the Palestinians, because in the end, the Israelis don't want to talk either and they're probably the most adamant about not talking. I mean, you don't need words to talk . . . Israelis prefer actions most of which are are usually death and paranoia and guns and killing.
Actions speak louder than words. But the President of Israel coming to visit us isn't that big of a deal. As any other president, he deserves a welcome.
Abbas getting funding and weapons from Israel and the US to coup Hamas is a bigger deal.
Posted by Sami | November 21, 2009, 4:35 pmAs much as I want to boycott Israel, they're here to stay and that's a realistic point of view, don't you think?
What, are we going to all of a sudden just erase Israel from off the face of the earth?
Do I agree that Israel is just foreign jewry coming to Arab Palestine? Yes, but where are we going to put them if we do take over? They are PEOPLE . . . they are human beings . . . we can't just kill them, becausde then we'd be just as bad.
But we'll just have to see how end of days prophecies and predicitions play out, now won't we?
Posted by Sami | November 21, 2009, 4:37 pmHow does boycotting Israel in the same way that South Africa was boycotted equate to killing them?
South African apartheid was abolished due to a world wide boycott of the South African economy, the same tactic and other non-violent tactics can be used to end the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Posted by Arayus | November 22, 2009, 3:37 amBoycott Israel, and take your end-of-days rhetoric somewhere else.
It worked with South Africa.
Posted by Lick Your Wounds | November 21, 2009, 8:37 pmThe Palestine situation is completely different from the South African situation.
The Palestinians did not get to where they are today because of racial discrimination. They intended to destroy Israel in 1948 and 1967, and they have engaged in perpetual war against Israel.
Israel has been under attack from the Fedayeen, to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Abu Nidal Organization.
Posted by eagle007blogger | November 21, 2009, 10:08 pmAgain wtf are you talking about?
Posted by Arayus | November 22, 2009, 3:51 amThe Palestinian situation is completely different than the South African apartheid situation.
Racial discrimination is not what got the Palestinians to where they are today. This is….
They intended to destroy Israel in 1948 and 1967, and they have engaged in perpetual war against Israel.
Israel has been under attack from the Fedayeen, to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Abu Nidal Organization.
Posted by eagle007blogger | November 22, 2009, 10:17 amIsrael is a racist entity found for the so-called "Jewish race". The state of Israel is the product of illegal Jewish immigrants brought to Palestine by the British Mandate that started after WW1. The Jewish immigrants where soon recruited in military organizations aimed at systematically terrorizing the native Palestinians from their towns and villages.
There was no Israel before 1948. Weeks after the British mandate was over, the Jewish Agency in Palestine overthrew the newly formed Palestinian government and declared the state of Israel. The Israelis forcefully evacuated major Palestinian cities from non-Jewish inhabitants and killed thousands of unarmed men, women and children in the process.
In 1967 the Zionist entity invaded the West Bank -which was governed by Jordan at that time-, The Syrian heights of Golan and the Egyptian peninsula of Sinai. That's triple the size of 1948 Israel.
In 1983 – or so – Israel invaded the south of Lebanon.
Posted by BCell | November 22, 2009, 1:31 pmThere was no Israel before 1948.
The Israelites had their kingdom there in the 12th and 13th centuries B.C. up until about 586 B.C.
The last Jewish kingdom was there from about 140 B.C. to 63 B.C.
Weeks after the British mandate was over, the Jewish Agency in Palestine overthrew the newly formed Palestinian government and declared the state of Israel.
The Jewish Agency for Israel served as the pre-state Jewish government before the establishment of Israel and later became the organization in charge of immigration and absorption of Jews from the Diaspora.
The Jewish Agency was charged with facilitating Jewish immigration to Palestine, land purchase and planning the general policies of the Zionist leadership. It ran schools and hospitals, and formed the Haganah, which became the Israel Defense Force after Israeli independence. The British authorities offered to create a similar Arab Agency but this offer was rejected by Arab leaders.
The Jerusalem headquarters of the Jewish Agency was bombed by agents of the Grand Mufti Haj Mohammed Amin al-Husseini in early 1948, with great loss of life. During the subsequent siege, the Agency moved its headquarters to Tel Aviv.
The British had notified the U.N. of their intent to terminate the mandate not later than 1 August 1948. On May 14, 1948, the Jewish Agency for Palestine, under its leader David Ben Gurion, became the Provisional government of Israel.
They did not overthrow a" newly formed Palestinian government".
1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine
1948 Arab–Israeli War
Posted by eagle007blogger | November 23, 2009, 6:01 amOf the ancient millennia Israel was but a brief chapter, other indigenous states existed in the territory of Palestine as well as the Levant, such as the Canines, the Phoenicians and the Aramaic. Not to mention the latter Persian and Roman Invasion. Which roughly makes room for 2 century of Israelites kingdoms at best.
Only Jews who are indigenous to Palestine and "Bilad al Cham" have land rights in Palestine. Who were already residing the region before the Ottoman and British invasion. Jews lived in peace and harmony with Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs until foreign Zionist immigrants marched on Palestine with determination to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.
Posted by BCell | November 23, 2009, 12:00 pmOnly Jews who are indigenous to Palestine and "Bilad al Cham" have land rights in Palestine
If you have a land right, do you have the right to sell it to someone else? Could you sell it to anyone you want? Or could you only sell it to someone "approved" by your criteria?
If you have a nation, do you have the right to set immigration policy? Didn't Syria or Lebanon have the right to set their immigration policy, after the French gave them sovereignty? Couldn't Iraq set its immigration policy and grant land ownership to who it wanted after independence from Britain? Why, then, should Israel be considered exempt from these rights?
Anyhow, "land rights" are made possible by the governing authority. Sometimes authority changes, such as in Germany after WWII. After WWII the Nazi govt no longer controlled land rights or anything else… part of Germany was administered by America and Britain and part was administered by the Soviets. They set up the new authorities, and we ended up with East Germany and West Germany. And then, with international help, Germany was unified.
The Palestinians will have a state, with international help.
Posted by eagle007blogger | November 25, 2009, 8:57 amYou need to review your history and not make comparisons, despite names.
Israelite does NOT mean Israeli and Ancient Israel is NOT modern Israel. Yeah, that the Zionists gave the land the name of Israel, is just cute, but really doesn't mean anything, because the modern Jews are not the Ancient Israelites. These were composed of 12 tribes and one which didn't get land (namely, the Levites who administered the affairs of the Temple and were maintained by the burnt offerings and sacrifices of the people).
The Kingdom of Israel, the Northern Kingdom composed of the 10 tribes, were taken by the Assyrians and were "lost" in the 8th century B.C.E. which is what everyone is waiting for when the Messiah comes back. Ever heard of the "Lost Ten Tribes"? Probably not, because you know nothing about Ancient Israelite History. The Kingdom of Judah then continued in the South, which were composed of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C.E. and these were the people that came back when Cyrus decreed their return.
Read the Torah and learn your history, you tool
Posted by Shamuel Gottlieb | November 25, 2009, 4:47 amAround 1020 the Jewish monarchy was established, and Saul was the first king. Around 1000Jerusalem was made capital of David's kingdom. Around 960 King Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem, it was the national and spiritual center of the Jewish people. Around 930 the kingdom divided into Judah and Israel. Wow, the kingdom of Israel.
That you deny the Jews are descended from the Israelites is just laughable. Why would you do that, and what difference does it make to you?
Jews had never stopped coming to "the Holy land" or Palestine in small numbers throughout their exile. Palestine also remained the center of Jewish worship and a part of Jewish culture.
Posted by eagle007blogger | November 25, 2009, 7:29 am//That you deny the Jews are descended from the Israelites is just laughable. Why would you do that, and what difference does it make to you?//
Haha…Most of the Jews today are not descendants of the 12 tribes (which occupied ancient Israel) but come-form a pseudo thirteenth tribe – the Khazars. Today known as the Ashkenazi Jews.
During the 11th century the Ashkenazi Jews formed 3% of world's Jewish population but ballooned to 80% of present world Jewish population due to gradual mass conversion of the ethnically Turkic Caucasus nation of Khazars.
So if you are a Jew, there is a 0.8 probability you are not a descendant of those who once called ancient Israel home, thereby rubbishing any claim to an ancient homeland. Even tough that claim is rubbish in itself.
It would be more worthy to look for real estate on the Caucasus mountains; then evict the goats which call it their home and create Israel there!!
Posted by OooKhalid | November 25, 2009, 3:33 pm…declared the state of Israel. The Israelis forcefully evacuated major Palestinian cities from non-Jewish inhabitants and killed thousands of unarmed men, women and children in the process.
As you can see, that is not the way it happened….
1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine
1948 Arab–Israeli War
Posted by eagle007blogger | November 23, 2009, 6:09 amIsrael is the historical extension of Western Colonialism. Arabs, Palestinians and every free person in the face of earth has the right to resist foreign occupation by any means possible.
I do not call for vengeance but the Palestinian and Arab rights are to be restored one way or another. Israel should stop stealing Arab land and stop building settlements. Otherwise peace talk is merely a bitter joke.
Posted by BCell | November 22, 2009, 1:32 pmIsrael is the historical extension of Western Colonialism
What is that supposed to mean? Israel is not a colony of the west, it is it's own country.
What about Jordan, is that a "historical extension of Western Colonialism"? Jordan was under British supervision until after World War II. In 1946, the British requested that the United Nations approve an end to British Mandate rule in Transjordan. Following this approval, the Transjordanian Parliament proclaimed King Abdullah as the first ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan.
What about Syria or Lebanon? Are they a "historical extension of Western Colonialism"? When the Ottoman Empire was partitioned they were under French control. So was Iraq.
The Treaty of Lausanne led to the advent of modern Western Asia and Republic of Turkey. Are they a "historical extension of Western Colonialism"?
Palestinian and Arab rights are to be restored one way or another
The need a government and a state. All the fighting should be put in the past.
Posted by eagle007blogger | November 23, 2009, 10:34 amIsrael is a product of western colonialism. It's also a colonial entity. It continues to occupy Arab lands since 1948 and 1967. It continues to build settlements in the West Bank and Syrian heights of Golan. It calls it self "the Jewish state" which excludes indigenous Palestinians. Israel has colonial ambitions in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. Make of that what you want!
Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan all parts of Bilad Al Cham, Which had always been united up until Western imperialism split up the Ottoman cake. So YES: the division between Arab countries is a product of Western colonialism. But it's absurd how you equate Jordan or Syria with Israel!
Posted by BCell | November 23, 2009, 1:13 pmIt's also a colonial entity.
What is a "colonial entity"? Why is Israel different than the other countries carved out of the Ottoman Empire? Simply because they are not Arab?
occupy Arab lands since 1948 and 1967
They did occupy lands… when those people tried to destroy them. Now the challenge is to form a state there.
Israel has colonial ambitions in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt
What do you mean?
It calls it self "the Jewish state"
Yes Israel is a Jewish state. As you know, the British tried to form one country in Palestine but the Arabs and Jews would not stop fighting. So then there was the Partition Plan of 1947… to form both an Arab state and a Jewish state… but the Arabs could not accept a Jewish state, so they refused and tried to destroy the Jewish state… which led to the occupations.
Which had always been united up until Western imperialism split up the Ottoman cake
The Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and then they sided with the enemy in WWI and ceased to exist – so naturally it was under the Mandate of the victors.
Posted by eagle007blogger | November 24, 2009, 4:56 amBCell, we are all entitled to our own interpretation of historical facts. What we are not entitled to is a different set of historical facts than everyone else uses.
Posted by programmer craig | November 22, 2009, 6:13 pmAnd by "everyone" you mean Zionists and their blind flock of sheep.
Posted by BCell | November 23, 2009, 1:16 pmYou call it hospitable… I call it fear. You can kinda see it in their eyes
Oh and Qatar
Posted by Roz | November 26, 2009, 5:16 pmwhat's the matter with you … you posted 3 photos asking readers to guess what country they are in….
it clearly states it in each photo what country each photo shot in….. < Qatar >
next time try and think multiculture……not all your readers are english only …… you know
Posted by RAMUW10CHS | December 7, 2009, 5:14 amYes, I know that most of our readers are Arabs and speakers of Arabic…I wasn't trying to make it a secret…if the Arabic did not give it away, the dresses would, obviously you missed the point! Thanks
Posted by Hanitizer | December 7, 2009, 1:44 pm