Israel HaYom carried an "op ed" by Elliott Abrams, "a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations" that takes Secretary of State John Kerry to task for failing to interfere in Saudi domestic policies.
"On the move for Saudi women to be allowed to drive, Kerry was careful not to appear to take sides. Noting that while the United States embraces gender equality, 'it is up to Saudi Arabia to make its own decisions about its own social structure and choices and the timing of whatever events.'
Whether women may or may not legally drive in Saudia is a matter for the Saudis, not the United States.
U.S. citizens may look askance at a country so "backward" that it severely restricts women's "rights" (if driving by anyone can be considered a "right"), but that does not give them the right to tell the Saudis what they should - or should not - do within their borders. Had Kerry publicly sided with the Women of the Wheel he would be representing the United States of Chutzpah.
If anyone wants to condemn the Saudis, there are lots of serious issues to raise.
Corporal punishment - unlike Judaism's maximum of 39 lashes, Islam has no limits.
Lack of Religious freedom - try and bring a non-Islamic holy book into Saudi and end up in jail; non-Muslims are banned from Mecca and Medina.
Slave trafficking - pre-teen and teen age girls are bought in - correct, bought in, not simply brought from - India and Pakistan to satisfy Saudi men.
A woman's right to drive pales in comparison to the real issues, yet few Americans seem as upset over these issues as they are about women behind the wheel of cars. Saudi women can't travel outside the country without permission from their husband or guardian.
Meanwhile, another Israel haYom columnist, Zalman Shoval complains that Obungler allegedly said America no longer wants to be the "world's policeman," and his national security adviser, Susan Rice -- to justify the lethargic stance against Syria and Iran -- says "there is an entire world where the U.S. also has interests and opportunities."
For once I whole-heartedly agree with POTUS; too bad he failed to live up to the words he uttered. America has enough problems of its own; we don't need to be either policeman or nursemaid to the world. We cannot afford it financially or politically.
Is it America's problem that there is a civil war in Syria? By the way, look up the definition of "civil war" and you'll see it doesn't concern the U.S.
If it's NOT "America's problem" and if it MUST be someone's problem, let it be the Arab League of which Syria is a member.
Sudan a U.S. problem? No. The human suffering in the wars of Africa is tragic, but the U.S. has no role to play or right to inject either its politics or its military into - here's that word again - "civil" strife.
Ditto Egypt.
What Obungler HAS done, with his interfering in other nation's domestic political issues, it to make the U.S. what China called us long ago, a paper tiger. The U.S.' reputation would be far better around the globe if Obungler HAD been an isolationist.
Long ago a wiser man occupied the White House.
In President James Monroe's seventh annual message to Congress on December 2, 1823, Monroe basically told the European powers du jour that the U.S. would not interfere in Europe's affairs and that, in return, European monarchs need to keep their politics and political systems out of our hemisphere.
In a pointed statement, he noted that "It is impossible that the allied powers (i.e., Europe) should extend their political system to any portion of either continent (i.e., North and South America) without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition in any form with indifference."
Madison clearly recognized that installing a political system foreign to the indigenous population was clearly contra-indicated.
That reasoning remains valid today; the only difference is that the U.S., in the person of John Kerry and his staff, are attempting to impose a U.S. political mentality on people who cannot accommodate that mentality.
That is NOT to say different cultures and mentalities are inherently wrong, only "different."
Bottom line: America needs to fix its own problems before even considering other's problems. If that makes the U.S. isolationist, so be it.
We know, from decades of experience, that rarely does our interference win friends for America.
Whether or not women drive in Saudia is not a U.S. concern. If Americans want to pressure Saudis to let women drive, that's fine, providing this is not clothed as official U.S. policy.
