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| Kuwaiti writer Abdullah Al-Hadlaq on Alrai TV (YouTube screenshot) In an interview on Kuwait’s Alrai TV channel on Sunday, November 19, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Abdullah Al-Hadlaq, a prominent journalist, said:
Times of Israel, 22 November, 2017
Citing Quran, Kuwaiti pundit says Israel ‘a legitimate state,’ not an occupier
In Kuwaiti TV interview that prompts angry
Arab response, Abdullah Al-Hadlaq praises Israeli culture and values, calls for
alliance with Jewish state against common enemies
In a rare public move, a Kuwaiti writer has
urged Arab recognition of the State of Israel as a legitimate, “independent
sovereign state,” and Israelis as a people with a right to their land.
Al-Hadlaq’s
comments elicited a backlash on Arabic websites and on social media, where
commentators variously labeled him a “fool,” a “traitor,” and a Zionist agent.
Comments to a Facebook post with the Alrai video were laden with
expletives.
In the interview, Al-Hadlaq expressed admiration for the Jewish
state and its values. He called for a rejection of the prominent regional
narrative that Israel was “plundered” from the Arabs, describing this as an
outdated mentality.
“When the State of Israel was established in 1948, there was no
statcalled ‘Palestine,'” he said.
“Like it or not, Israel is an independent sovereign state,”
Al-Hadlaq said. “Most peace-loving and democratic nations recognize it. The
group of states that do not recognize Israel are the countries of tyranny and
oppression.”
Al-Hadlaq cited Quranic verses
as proof that “Israelites have the right to the Holy Land. Allah assigned that
land to them, and they did not plunder it.
“The history of the Israelites
is ancient, predating Islam. Therefore we Muslims must acknowledge that the
Israelites have a right to that land, and that they have not plundered it,” he
said.
Al-Hadlaq also spoke with
glowing praise of Israel’s “scientific centers and universities, the likes of
which even the oldest and most powerful Arab countries lack.”
And he celebrated Israel’s
loyalty to its soldiers, speaking effusively of the lengthy public campaign to
free soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas captivity in 2011. He said he wished Arabs
could be like the people of Israel “who rallied, down to the very last one, to
defend a single Israeli soldier.
“By Allah, if he were a soldier
in any Arab country, would his nation, country or head of state rally the same
way Israel did? The Arab countries have had thousands of casualties, and nobody
cares about them.”
Finally, Al-Hadlaq called for
cooperation with Israel against common enemies such as Iran and its allies.
“Why shouldn’t we live in peaceful coexistence with Israel and cooperate with
it?” he asked.
He suggested a three-way
alliance between Israel, the US and Gulf states to “annihilate Hezbollah beyond
resurrection.”
It was not the first time
Al-Hadlaq has made his pro-Israeli opinions known. He has in the past written
columns in which he has defended Israel’s right to defend itself in the face of
Hamas attacks, and lauded Israel’s democracy in a region of oppressive regimes.
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Monday, March 26, 2018
Arab Journalist on Kuwait TV: "Israel has a right to the Holy Land."
The sages say that the greatest miracle of the Exodus was not in the supernatural plagues, but when the Egyptian first-born turned against Pharaoh to let the Jews go. This civil war showed that the Redemption made a change in the nature of the Egyptians. They believed that G-d would redeem the Jews and they fought for them. Today in the Middle East, we see Arabs defending the Jews to their brothers. When this happens, it is a sign that the final Redemption is permeating the world.
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