With the Arab Initiative on the table for Israel – acceptance by the region if the Jewish state accepts a two-state solution, a highly unlikely proposition considering its obsession with expansionism – the recent war against Gaza has shown once again the impotence of the Arab world:
There is more solidarity with the people of Gaza in South America than there is in neighbouring Arab states, according to American-Jewish political scientist Dr Norman Finkelstein.
He described the Arab world’s response to Israel’s assault on Gaza as “a total disgrace” and even “funny”, shortly after arriving in Bahrain to deliver a series of lectures.
“The reaction from the Arab world was a total disgrace, a disgrace to the whole region and its people,” Dr Finkelstein told a Press conference at the Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel, Residence and Spa yesterday.
“This region has no shame. It’s very funny really because when they teach you about the Arab world in the West, they say it’s a shame culture, and that people are obsessed with issues of shame.
“I actually think it’s the opposite. What you showed in the last massacre in Gaza is that you have no shame at all.
“The most powerful reactions in the world came from Bolivia, Venezuela, Mauritania, Turkey and Qatar – and that’s just funny.
“There was more solidarity in South America than here.”