Motor racing’s Formula One Grand Prix circus rigged down in Bahrain last Sunday night. Meanwhile, Bahrain’s human race version of “Formula One” in Semitic human relations keeps on going; Jews and Judaism are acceptable, but Israelis and Israel are anathema.
Week end comment
by Mike Adams.
Bahrain is somewhat of an oddity not only in the Persian Gulf Region, but in any Arab country that entertains a Jewish population; it doesn’t treat its Jews as typical dhimmies.
Here we have a tolerant, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia, to whom it has strong commercial and political ties, morphing into a constitutional monarchy. The cabinet is still appointed by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, with about half the members coming from the royal family who are all Sunni Muslims.
Bahrain’s foreign policy is pro-Western and generally favourable to the United States. The Americans have designated Bahrain a major non-NATO ally. The country hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
In February Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Khalid ibn Ahmad al-Khalifa made no secret of a meeting with U.S. Jewish leaders at American Friends of Lubavitch in Washington. He reassured nervous Arabs afterwards that there were no Israelis present. The meeting took place at Rabbi Levi Shemtov’s private residence.
In November 2008 this same rabbi had led a traditional Hebrew blessing on the Bahraini king who was in New York. King Hamad was attending an interfaith conference co-sponsored by Saudi Arabia and the United Nations. The king met with expatriate Bahraini Jews and invited them to return to their home country.
“It’s open, it’s your country,” said the monarch.
After the address, Shemtov spoke with the king, who has spearheaded electoral and legal reforms in his Gulf kingdom since ascending the throne in 1999, and had recently suggested through his foreign minister that Israel participate in a regional conference of Middle Eastern nations, including Iran.
Shemtov noted: “Bahrain has a rich Jewish history, and I feel that Bahrain, and particularly His Majesty, can play a unique role in bringing about positive movement within their arena in regard to the Jewish people and the world at large”.
The royal Sunni elite in Bahrain had indeed begun paving the way, acknowledging Jews as good representatives for the Bahraini people. Just two months earlier the king had appointed a Jewess as ambassador to Washington – the first Jewish person in the Arab world to become an ambassador.
Legislator Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo said in an interview that she was proud to serve her country “first of all as a Bahraini,” adding she was not chosen for the post of ambassador because of her religion. Her appointment is all the more remarkable when taking into consideration that the native Jewish population comprises of no more than three dozen, but is well represented in the business community and has served at senior levels of government. Out of a total population of 1.05 million there are only 380,000 indigenous Bahrainis. The rest are foreign nationals.
Around two thirds of Bahrainis subscribe to the Shiite branch of Islam. The Bahraini parliament, which since 2006 has included 40 percent Shiite Muslims, is vociferous in its outlawing Israel. Boycotting Israeli goods and services has been the unofficial norm. In October 2009 the lower house of the national assembly exacerbated the issue by approving legislation penalising contacts with Israel.
Jalal Fairooz from the Shiite al-Wefaq bloc declared: “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”.
At the beginning of July 2009 Bahraini officials had visited Israel in an official capacity for the first time to collect five of their nationals Israel was deporting after seizing them on a ship bound for Gaza. Later the same month Bahrain’s Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa wrote in the Washington Post that Arabs had not done enough to communicate directly with Israelis.
At present the Israel-slandering Obama administration is doing more harm than good in preventing Bahrain on drawing closer to Israel. Bahrain stands aloof in its non-recognition of the “Zionist entity”. At the Jewish Muslim Dialogue held in Washington in October 2009, held prior to her government’s prejudicial anti-Israel resolution, Ambassador Nonoo commented that her country’s role in resolving the conflict is limited.
“We are inviting Israeli journalists to Bahrain, but being a small country we can’t take that first step of making peace,” she said. “It’s going to take a long time”.
But why not take the first step?
Bahrain should really be cheered on as the Gulf pioneer. It was, after all, the first Arab state to discover oil, diversify the economy, provide education for both sexes, and became the first democracy with universal suffrage in the region. In 2004 the Bahrain Grand Prix made history as the first Formula One Grand Prix to be held in the Middle East.
I envision that Bahrain, the smallest Arab country in size, could be the first to race ahead and win the greatest “Grand Prix”: A bona fide Hebrew blessing from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Recognising the state of Israel is only the first leg for a state to be at peace with God.
The second is sincerely encouraging its Jewish citizens to make Israel their true home.
ivarfjeld.com 
Leave a comment