A new Zogby International Poll reveals Americans are growing more hostile to both Egypt and Saudi Arabia since Sept. 11.
Thirty-eight percent of respondents indicated a favorable view toward Egypt, while 34 percent held a negative view. That’s down from 64 percent who had a favorable view of Egypt in 1993, when the Oslo peace process began.
Saudi Arabia fares far worse. Only 24 percent of Americans have a favorable view, while a resounding 58 percent hold a negative one.
Apparently Americans are finally seeing these Mideast allies as they really are. Both pretend to be friends of the United States as long as foreign aid or weapons are made available to them. In reality, both countries have nurtured, harbored or ignored the growing number of terrorists within their borders.
It was no surprise that most of the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks came from those two countries.
In Egypt and Saudi Arabia, fundamentalist Islamist teachings are growing more popular. Amid hopelessness and poverty, citizens are lured to fundamentalism with a promise of prosperity either now or in the afterlife.
The governments do nothing to counter the fundamentalist threat. Worse yet, they do nothing to help their own populace out of poverty.
Both countries are run by repressive regimes. Women are mistreated, prisons are full of innocent political enemies, elections are meaningless, and both civil rights and human rights are nonexistent.
As Jews we’ve had an even closer look at Egypt. Despite signing a peace treaty with Israel, the country has shown little interest in economic trade with the Jewish state.
Saudi Arabia hasn’t even had the courage to discuss peace with Israel. Instead the Arab country has chosen to use its oil to assert its will upon Western democracies.
With Americans finally recognizing that Egypt and Saudi Arabia are repressive, corrupt regimes, we must take a more critical look at what we are doing to aid these governments.