Murdering the Saudi Ambassador Would Be an Unforgivable Crime

The turmoil that arose out of the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington reminded me of what the Syrian poet Adib Ishaq said about the experience of the Egyptian people under the British. England occupied Egypt after Khedive Ismail sold Egypt’s share of the Suez Canal to Britain, which then seized the last opportunity to send their army in order to “protect the canal.” This protection turned into occupation, murder, imprisonment, denial, isolation and the insult of exchanging one British soldier for dozens. As the Syrian poet said, “It is indisputable that killing people is an unforgivable crime and the question of killing people is the whole point of this issue.” Thus the occupation, like this assassination plot, occurred under pretexts.

I do not think that a person of sound mind could find appropriate justification for killing an ambassador who represents the authority of his country, whatever his or her politics. It would not change anything in the end, even if 10 ambassadors were assassinated. Our analysis of the situation shows us the following pretexts:

1. Responding to Western countries that failed to win over Arab public opinion during the Arab Spring and persuading Arabs to follow foreign blueprints in organizing new governments after their rulers fell like houses of cards. Also, trying and failing to prolong the unrest, in order to promote the monopoly of companies that sell weapons.

2. Seizing the spotlight from events in eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and distracting the U.S. administration from what it considers necessary to reduce the situation in Yemen to mere noise.

3. The continued killing in Libya and the failure of the transitional council to form a cabinet until after the Libyan people took Tripoli, as well as the continuing humanitarian tragedy resulting from a cease in services, disruption of electricity and hungry people — all this makes for an ominous warning.

4. If there was an assassination attempt, it is not unlikely that it is a part of some intelligence operation. God only knows where it would come from.

5. If it is true that Iran was involved, the country should reconsider its strategy and not just dish out excuses. However, the many ways in which thousands of Arabs have been murdered make the accusation of attempted murder against the Saudi ambassador seems like a drop in the ocean; it takes a larger place than it deserves in world opinion, because the media hype was filled with contrived and fabricated details, as if the media had a crush on the story.