The Arab News is Saudi Arabia’s first english language daily newspaper and enjoys wide distribution in Saudi Arabia itself and throughout the Middle East. Three days ago the newspaper published a very courageous column under the byline of one Abdulateef Al-Mulhim entitled “Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy” which spoke about the utility and futility of Arab-Israeli wars over the years and asked whether or not Israel is the real enemy of Arabs, particularly Palestinians, and the Arab world. The conclusion was that the real enemies of Arabs and the Arab world are “corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for human lives” and “dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people.”
