Saudi Journalst: Corruption, dictators the enemy, not Israel

An article by a Saudi journalist challenging the conventional wisdom in the Arab world – in particular the view of Israel as the root of the region’s problems – is enjoying skyrocketing popularity online and sparking debate about the Arab Spring.

Under the headline “Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy,” the writer used the occasion of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 to wonder aloud about the resources spent on war, in particular the War of Independence in 1948 and the Six Day War in 1967.

“What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars?” asked Abdulateef al-Mulhim in the Arab News, a Saudi Arabian newspaper in English whose website “gets hundreds of thousands of hits every day” from around the world, according to the paper’s site.

“But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people,” wrote al-Mulhim.

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