In his address last week at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, Texas, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal, discussed Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza in response to the Hamas-led resistance operation, Al-Aqsa Flood, which began on 7 October.
Although widely lauded for his seemingly balanced and refreshing take, he expressed a “both sides are bad” perspective, asserting that there are “no heroes in this conflict, only victims.” This is in spite of the clear disparity in firepower and military, political and financial support from the West for the occupation state, compared to the Palestinian people who lack a State and a regular army to defend themselves.
In fairness, the Saudi Royal did acknowledge that “Israel has overwhelming military superiority and we see in front of our eyes. The devastation and oblivion, it is bringing to the people of Gaza.” He also called out the apartheid state over its “indiscriminate bombing of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza” and the “indiscriminate arrest of Palestinian children, women and men in the West Bank”.
“What more provocation is required to make it provoked than what Israel has done to the Palestinian people for three-quarters of a century?” Prince Turki asked, before citing a MEMO article from 2014, entitled ‘Israeli army veterans admit role in massacres of Palestinians in 1948,’ “Read it and weep, as I did,” he said.
Yet the former Ambassador to the US, also condemned “Hamas’ targeting of civilian targets of any age or gender, as it is accused of,” stressing that such acts go against Islamic injunctions about harming civilians.
Source : MEMO