Last week, Saudi Arabias Prince Khaled bin Talal, the brother of billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal, announced that he was adding an additional $900,000 to a previous $100,000 reward to kidnap any Israeli soldier. Think of the risks young Israelis traveling to Turkey, Jordan or anywhere else in the world now face. Imagine the incentive of becoming an instant millionaire by capturing one Israeli reserve soldier on vacation. How should Israel respond to a $1,000,000 bounty on the head of every one of its 18-year-old conscripts? A leading Saudi academic offered me the following advice: Prince Khaled is a crazy idiot and jealous of his brother. Hes always trying to present himself as a pious prince. But you cant control every idiot in the country. There are 3,000 princes. Dont make him a hero in the media -- ignore it. But the U.S. State Department should be pressured. Dont repeat the Salman Rushdie mistake. The response to Ayatollah Khomeinis fatwa was so strong that it became a media gimmick. There has to be a response, but dont make him a hero. Call me skeptical. Prince Khaled, all members of the royal family and anyone contemplating kidnapping Israelis must know, in no uncertain terms, that the punishment they will face for engaging in such an act will be so prohibitively high that it will become unthinkable to all but a tiny number of suicidal fanatics. They must know, moreover, that their king, government and religious leaders will look upon them with shame. Abraham Lincoln once asked, "Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert? To silence the agitator, and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but, withal, a great mercy." Prince Khaled is a menacing agitator and his message must be silenced. One man who could do this with ease is Saudi Arabias King Abdullah. Why has he not spoken out vociferously against this outrageous offer by a member of the royal family? Why has he not reminded all Saudis that kidnapping Israelis is immoral, illegal, cruel and counterproductive to peace? If King Abdullah were truly a moderate -- as Western media repeats ad nauseam -- not only would he condemn such statements unequivocally, he might issue a counter-offer of $10 million to any Saudi who engages with an Israeli to build peace. Goodness knows he has the money. Khaled can offer $1 million to kidnap Israelis; Abdullah can offer $10 million to engage Israelis, and Khaleds billionaire brother, Alwaleed, can offer $100 million to televise the co-existence conferences on a small TV station he partly owns called Fox News. For good measure, perhaps another $1 million should be awarded to the forward-thinking writer who proposed this bold initiative in the first place. David Keyes is the executive director of Advancing Human Rights and co-founder of CyberDissidents.org. He can be reached at david.keyes@advancinghumanrights.org.
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A bold Saudi peace proposal
מערכת ישראל היום
מערכת "ישראל היום“ מפיקה ומעדכנת תכנים חדשותיים, מבזקים ופרשנויות לאורך כל שעות היממה. התוכן נערך בקפדנות, נבדק עובדתית ומוגש לציבור מתוך האמונה שהקוראים ראויים לעיתונות טובה יותר - אמינה, אובייקטיבית ועניינית.
