A series of high-profile Saudi intellectuals and journalists have blamed the Islamic Republic of Iran for the recent Gaza escalation and expressed solidarity with Israel in the fight against Iranian-sponsored terrorist groups.
Prominent Saudi intellectual and former director of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies in Jeddah, Abd Al-Hamid Al-Hakim – who frequently writes in support of Israel – expressed his solidarity with the Jewish State, saying, “We will not let the treacherous hand of Iran and its agents in Gaza reach the Israeli people.”
Al-Hakim said, “It’s time to say this out loud: confronting the terror of Hamas is the responsibility of all the countries in the region and of the international community [as a whole], not only of Israel.” Hamas has been designated by most Western countries and some Arab nations as a terrorist organization.
In a direct message to the Israeli people, the Saudi intellectual said: “Our hearts are with you. May Allah protect Israel and its people.”
Saudi journalist Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh, who writes for the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, also blamed the violence on Iran, which he accused of sacrificing the Palestinian people for its own cynical political purposes. “The Persian ayatollahs have instructed their servants, Hamas, to escalate [the conflict] with Israel, and they obeyed.” As a result, Al-Sheikh said, innocent Palestinians and Israelis had died.
Another Saudi public figure, Mut’ab Al-Jabrin, responded with a direct attack on Hamas – the Islamist terrorist group which exercises complete political and military control over Gaza – saying, “Since the Hamas coup and its takeover of Gaza, the Strip has been suffering mismanagement which has caused [its residents] to lose even the most basic services, power and water.”
Al-Jabrin added: “[All this is] due to the foolish policy of Hamas.”
Liberal Saudi intellectual Dr. Turki Al-Hamad blamed the latest flare-up in Gaza squarely on Iran and Turkey. He tweeted: “It’s a repeating loop: rockets [are fired] from Gaza into Israel, Israel bombs [Gaza], someone or other mediates, the fighting stops—and the common Palestinian folks pay the price.”
Al-Hamad concluded: “Iran and Turkey are in trouble, and the Palestinians are paying the price.”
[Photo: TurkiHAlhamad1 / Twitter]