A letter to Trump from Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud re Gaza

This is someone else’s opinion, but also my own, a result of sitting in on a CBC TV interview with the Palestinian Liberation Organization representatives at the United Nations conference on Habitat, in Vancouver in 1976. They spoke of this then, and life for Palestinians just became progressively worse these past 50 years, as their lands and homes were taken by Israeli settlers, and while they were called 'terrorists,' the Israelis were being provided with jets, weaponry and support from the United States. What do you think?

A letter to Donald J. Trump from Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, a Saudi prince and former government official who served as the head of Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Presidency from 1979 to 2001. He is a grandson of Saudi's founder King Abdulaziz and son of King Faisal. He is the chairman of the King Faisal Foundation's Center for Research and Islamic Studies.

The letter, written on February 4, 2025:

Dear President Trump,

The Palestinian people are not illegal immigrants to be deported to other lands. The lands are their lands and the houses that Israel destroyed are their homes, and they will rebuild them as they have done after previous Israeli onslaughts on them.

Most of the people of Gaza are refugees, driven out of their homes in what is now Israel and the West Bank by the previous Israeli genocidal assault on them in the 1948 and 1967 wars. If they are to be moved from Gaza, they should be allowed to return to their homes and to their orange and olive groves in Haifa, Jaffa and other towns and villages from which they fled or were forcibly driven out by the Israelis.

Mr President, many of the tens of thousands of immigrants who came to Palestine from Europe and other places after the Second World War stole Palestinian homes and land, terrorised the inhabitants and engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Alas, America and the UK, the victors of the war, stood by and even facilitated the murderous evictions of the Palestinians from their homes and lands.

America and the UK did not want to receive the victims of Adolf Hitler’s Holocaust, so they were content with sending them to Palestine. In the book Eight Days at Yalta, the author Diana Preston refers to a conversation between then US president Franklin Roosevelt and his Russian counterpart Joseph Stalin. Preston writes: “Conversation turned to the subject of Jewish homelands. Roosevelt said he was a Zionist… When Stalin asked Roosevelt what present he planned to make [Saudi king] Ibn Saud, he replied his only concession might be to give him six million Jews…”

Fortunately, when Mr Roosevelt did meet Ibn Saud, the king disabused him of that offer and suggested that the Jews should be offered the best lands in Germany as compensation for the Holocaust. Alas, Harry Truman, Roosevelt’s successor, wholeheartedly supported Jewish immigration to Palestine and eventually became instrumental in the creation of Israel.

The violence and bloodshed we witness today are the result of that action and the previous British complicity with Zionist ambitions from 1917 until then.

Mr President, your declared intent to bring peace to Palestine is much lauded in our part of the world. I respectfully suggest that the way to do that is to give the Palestinians their inalienable right to self-determination and a state with its capital in East Jerusalem, as envisaged in UN General Assembly Resolutions 181 and 194 and Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, and the Arab Peace Initiative.

All the Arab and Islamic countries, as well as the Palestinian Authority, accept the terms of the Arab Peace Initiative to end hostilities and establish relations with Israel. One hundred and forty-nine countries recognise the Palestinian state. Please make your country the 150th. No peace in the Middle East will be realised without addressing this noble issue justly and fairly.

Be remembered as the peacemaker.

Prince Turki Al Faisal

 

 

Smoke-screen

There seems to be something really NOT making sense. A Canadian Customs Officer is there on the Canadian border to prevent illegal stuff and people from coming IN to the country. They, and Canadian border security, have absolutely nothing to do with illegal stuff and people entering the US. That’s the responsibility of the United States.

The whole issue that Trump is putting forward about Canada letting in Fentanyl and illegal immigrants and criminals INTO the US is total fallacy. It is a smoke screen for the real issues – Trump wants Canada, and to become dictator in the US and North America. He is into Real-Estate - meaning Canada. Just like Netanyahu is into Gaza, but as of this weekend, the motion put forward by Trump is that the US will take over Gaza, rebuild, and all the Palestinians will have to relocate. Yes, Trump is wanting to conquer nations.

We are in for a VERY challenging time, unless ALL nations on the planet unite to stop Trump and his cohorts, and whoever or whatever organization is pulling his strings. He doesn’t realize it – he’s a puppet - however his mouth and arrogance bely that.

This is a dangerous time for all on Earth. The rest of the world must unite. World leaders must call his bluff. However there seems to be fear, just like there has been fear to really stand up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or Israel’s genocide of Gaza. If it’s fear of atomic warfare, get over it. If it’s fear of having to do without, get over it. We’ve gone through two world wars, and we are entering a third. We CAN change, we CAN do without.

Canada must stand up and stop this bully. It will require a change of life for us all – maybe to boycott everything American. The only problem is, the American peoples are suffering, particularly those who are not white, extreme, right-wing Christian and followers of the man, and those who are of different race, genders, countries of origin etc. Need I say more. All I can do is pray for peace and resolution.

25% tariffs by the US, signed by President Trump on February 1, 2025, are simply putting a Band-aid on a much deeper internal problem, like medicine dealing with symptoms rather than the true origins of the condition. A question that can be asked – Why is there a drug problem in the US? Pain? Relief from Life?

What is the problem with Life in the US?

Blaming Fentanyl and neighbouring countries (Canada and Mexico) for the drug problem in the US is not facing the true problem. (And didn't the drug problem start in the US in the 1960's?) It’s always easier to blame others rather than face the truth – that it’s within self. In this case, WITHIN the USA. 

Ref: Trump places 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

The Wonder of Colour - with 'u' in it

Finally, after a couple of years of relocating, healing from a broken back, and more, I finally got out the chalks to create some art. It felt good to sit outside under my awning in this beautiful area of British Columbia, Canada, to rub the chalks and watch the colours blend, layer upon layer. I just love the pun - "Colour You Healthy - with 'U' in it." We all see and experience colour differently, and here I sit at this moment, enjoying the various greens of the trees around my new home, the blue sky, and the whispy threads of cloud floating by. I look forward to creating more drawings.