The Wolf in Wolf's Clothing

I'm not blogging at the moment - Not much in the mood and I've got stuff going on at work. But I couldn't pass on this one.

A senior Saudi royal has offered Israel a vision of broad cooperation with the Arab world and people-to-people contacts if it signs a peace treaty and withdraws from all occupied Arab territories.

In an interview with Reuters, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former ambassador to the United States and Britain and adviser to King Abdullah, said Israel and the Arabs could cooperate in many areas including water, agriculture, science and education.

Asked what message he wanted to send to the Israeli public, he said:

"The Arab world, by the Arab peace initiative, has crossed the Rubicon from hostility towards Israel to peace with Israel and has extended the hand of peace to Israel, and we await the Israelis picking up our hand and joining us in what inevitably will be beneficial for Israel and for the Arab world."

The 22-nation Arab League revived at a Riyadh summit last year a Saudi peace plan first adopted in 2002 offering Israel full normalisation of relations in return for full withdrawal from occupied Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese land.

Israel shunned the offer then, at the height of a violent Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But it has expressed more interest since the United States launched a new drive for Israeli-Palestinian peace at Annapolis, Maryland, last November, aiming for an agreement this year.

Prince Turki, who was previously head of Saudi intelligence, said that if Israel accepted the Arab League plan and signed a comprehensive peace, "one can imagine the integration of Israel into the Arab geographical entity".

"One can imagine not just economic, political and diplomatic relations between Arabs and Israelis but also issues of education, scientific research, combating mutual threats to the inhabitants of this vast geographic area," he said.

Water, agriculture, science and education? I think I'd take a pass on their water if at all possible. Ditto with the ag.

Science gets more interesting. What in the hell have the Arabs done in science that the Israelis' haven't run circles around? I'm sure the Israelis know how to build a car bomb. I'm sure they could figure out how to strap a suicide vest on an enfant if they put their minds to it. Syria hasn't sent a man to the moon recently. Are they planning to show the Israelis new drilling techniques? I'm not certain what the Arab world has contributed to the advancement of mankind since soap.

Education is another good one. Is there that long a line at the Madrassas? I don't see the Israelis getting real excited about learning how to blow up their own restaurants. These bastions of higher learning boast literacy rates of between 50% to 60% over the past 10 years (although rates increase in surveys permiting self reporting).

And what threats to the inhabitants of this "vast geographic region" are there other than the Arabs?

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iran and Co. no more want peace with Israel than they want the price of oil to plummet. Stupid article.