Wednesday October 28, 2009

I've Been Thinking:

On Tuesday the parliament of the tiny and very, very rich Gulf country Bahrain passed legislation making it illegal to engage in any interaction with Israel.

Any talking or any travel would be punished.
According to a member of Bahrain's parliament: "Whoever holds any communication or official talks with Israeli officials or travels to Israel will face a fine ... and/or a jail sentence of three to five years."
He further explained that this legislation was instituted in order to stop the normalization of ties with Israel: "The motivation is that steps are being taken by certain countries to allow certain talks to be held with Israeli officials. Israeli delegates have managed to participate in events in Arab countries with no treaties with Israel."

Bahrain passed this law even as the Obama administration is exerting pressure on Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel.
The parliament of Bahrain has no real power, but his move is indicative of the mood of the people - and the people of Bahrain resent that their leadership is leaning to the West.

In July, on the OPED page of the Washington Post, Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa explained how Arabs needed to reach out to Israelis directly.
And in that same month five Bahraini diplomats visited Israel.

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