To: Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud
From: Andrew A. Buerger, publisher, Baltimore Jewish Times
Dear Crown Prince:
Thank you for stepping forward and offering a peace plan to stop the horrendous cycle of violence in the Middle East. We certainly need more leaders stepping up with solutions.
I have been meaning to write you ever since I read the excerpts from your recent New York Times interview. I wanted to applaud your efforts to aid your “oppressed” Palestinian brethren. It’s very sad to see those poor children being subjected to violence and poverty. And I encourage you to continue to challenge President George W. Bush, as I often do on in my column in the Baltimore Jewish Times.
In the interview, you expressed concern that Bush wasn’t doing enough to help the Palestinians, your fellow Muslim Arabs. I wanted to drop you a line to suggest ways to help them. After all, my people have some experience in this area.
You probably read that Jews, too, were in refugee camps after World War II, and we got very little help from governments around the world. Diaspora Jews lined up to donate millions of dollars to help resettle them in safe countries. In addition to money, thousands of volunteers worked tirelessly for years to get the Jews out of danger. This was before our people had a homeland. If you have time with your work schedule, I suggest you read the novel “Exodus” by Baltimore-native Leon Uris.
Recently, Jews lived in threatening places like Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union, let alone Syria and Yemen. We raised millions of dollars, not from the U.S. government, but from our own people, and used incredible organizational skill to get them to Israel and the United States.
Blame won’t work
In the last 50 years, we’ve been fortunate to have a homeland, but before that we placed Jews in Argentina, Canada and the United States, anywhere so we wouldn’t be “oppressed.” Our people didn’t rest until every Jew was out of harm’s way.
Former American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee president Jonathan Kolker recently told me that for the first time in 2,000 years all Jews can leave their country if they choose. It took tremendous work and billions of dollars to reach that goal.
I don’t know much about your finances, but you might be able to tap money from your oil revenue. I’ve seen some of your palaces on TV, which look pretty nice.
I thought maybe you could use one of them to house 1,000 Palestinian children just as countless Jewish families took in refugees during the Holocaust. I know that Saudi Arabia isn’t a Palestinian state, but it’s home to some pretty important places such as Mecca and Medina.
Perhaps I could recommend the help of Jewish federations to review your budget and find funds. They have some of the best ratios around when it comes to percentage of donated money going to charitable causes.
To put the emigration from the former Soviet Union in perspective, it would be as if the U.S. were to absorb every French citizen. And the Jewish people are a fraction of the Muslim population.
Also check out the website: http://www.jafi.org.il/arts/2001/june/3.htm to see the amazing story of how world Jewry brought endangered Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
With all due respect, Crown Prince, why haven’t you done more to help your people? Blaming the U.S. and Israel just won’t work.
At an Arab nation summit, you and your colleagues pledged $1 billion for Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority. You never delivered it because of fears of corruption. That was probably wise.
But if you’re concerned about their well-being, you should take the Palestinians out of harm’s way. When things calm down, I’m sure the U.S. and Israel would sit down with their leaders — as they keep trying to do — to create a Palestinian homeland. It would be great, too, if you could talk to your colleagues in Jordan, which is mostly Palestinian, to help out here.
You are offering a peace plan now. Where have you been for the last 18 months as Israel offered so much land and got so little support? Is it because you are suddenly in hot water after 9/11 that you finally step forward?
To help your people, I suggest your remind them that Islamic law prohibits murder. I respectfully suggest that you seriously become part of the solution, not another fake olive branch. After all, action, not words is how the Jews got to where they are today.
This article first appeared in the Baltimore Jewish Times.
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