No One Is Perfect

This was brought to my attention:-

Ghazi Algosaibi, Saudi Arabia's consummate statesman and liberal writer, died Sunday at the age of 70 from stomach cancer, relatives said. A former ambassador to Britain, Algosaibi often represented his country at international forums and was known for his poetry and liberal religious views in an overwhelmingly conservative country that banned his writings.

Did he do anything really worthwhile that we should commiserate?

Well,

...He also served in the high-profile post of ambassador to Britain from 1992-2002...Algosaibi was close to the kingdom's ruling family...Algosaibi spoke out against terrorism and extremism and called for democratic reform in the kingdom, while recognizing that it needed to be a very gradual process...

Not bad.

Wait!

There's also this:-

Algosaibi also came under fire in 2002 when, as an ambassador to Britain, he wrote a poem praising Palestinian suicide bombers at the height of the second Palestinian uprising. In the poem titled "The Martyrs," Algosaibi said the bombers "died to honor God's word." Under criticism from Jewish groups, Algosaibi defended his poem and accused Israel of committing war crimes.

More on his support for suicide-bombing:

In his verse, Algosaibi singled out Ayat Akhras, a Palestinian girl who blew herself up in occupied Jerusalem last month and killed and wounded many Israelis. He addressed her as saying: "The gates of heaven were open for you."

He also attacked the U.S. as saying: "We complained to the to the idols of a White House whose heart is filled with darkness."

A well-known poet and diplomat who served in London for 10 years, he said in his poem: "May God be the witness that you are martyrs...You died to hnour [sic] God's word... (You) committed suicide? We committed suicide by living like the dead."

Oh well, no one is perfect.

Seems that his justification for terror is this:

Ghazi Algosaibi, Saudi Ambassador to London said that he "would be very glad to modify" his view of Palestinian freedom fighters, if the Board of Deputies of British Jews "has the moral courage to refer former Israeli prime ministers, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir and the present one, Ariel Sharon, as terrorists and the Israeli actions in Jenin as war crimes.

"If and when the Board of Deputies has the moral courage to refer to these notorious terrorists as terrorists, and the actions in Jenin of the Israeli government as war crimes, I would be very glad to modify my view of Palestinian freedom fighters," said Algosaibi in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Gulf News, in response to a letter he had received from the Board of Deputies about his poem Martyrs published in the London-based Al Hayat Arabic daily recently.

"Menachem Begin was responsible for the cold-blooded murder of about 200 innocent Palestinians, mostly women and children in Deir Yassin. [actually maybe 115 were killed, in a fight in which 5 Jews were killed and 40 injured, after Jewish neighborhoods had been fired upon from the village] Yitzhak Shamir was a notorious murderer of innocents, and would have been hanged if the British Mandate Government caught him," the statement read. [depends if the innocents were British Mandatory officials or others, of course]

"Ariel Sharon is guilty of genocide. He was found to have 'personal responsibility' [actually, indirect responsibility but what does he care] by the Kahan Commission for murder of 2,000 [The exact number killed by the Lebanese Forces militia is disputed, with estimations running from 800 according to international sources to 3,500 according to Palestinian sources (the red cross body count was around 400, but is likely not to include all or even most of the dead bodies).[citation needed]

It is regarded as a reprisal for the Damour massacre by Palestinians a few years earlier [2], which personally impacted Elie Hobeika [3]. The view of the Sabra and Shatila killing as a revenge for the Damour massacre was asserted by the prominent writer Samir Khalaf[4], by New York Times writer Thomas Friedman [5][6], and by author B. Gabriel who wrote that "Palestinian militiamen started the killings in 1976, long before the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres. Beit Mellat, Deir Achache, Damour."] innocent Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila," the statement added, referring to the Israeli massacre in the two Palestinian refugee camps during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

The statement held Sharon "responsible for the murder" of a similar number of Palestinian civilians in occupied Palestinian lands. "His destruction of Jenin would make Attila the Hun proud," said the statement. [are we still arguing the number of inflated dead?]

Commenting on accusing Palestinians of being terrorists, Algosaibi said: "And while we are on the subject of terrorism, I am most curious to know your view of Samson of the Old Testament. Was he a suicide terrorist?" [silly, he was captured by the Philistines who had been raiding the Jews]

(Kippa tip: BT)


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