By Debbie Schlussel
President Bush picked an “interesting” spot to deliver his January 13th “centerpiece speech” of his Mid-East “Peace” trip, this month: Abu Dhabi, one of the seven United Arab Emirates. The White House announced the choice, yesterday.
Reports say Bush picked Abu Dhabi because he believes that the UAE, with its high-tech buildings, fantastic developments, and other real estate, is different than the deserts of Saudi Arabia and the hovels of Karachi. In Dubai, the UAE has the world’s tallest skyscraper and is about to complete the world’s largest shopping mall. Because of these facades, Bush mistakenly believes this is an example of a desirable Islamic state to the rest of the others.
“Uptown” Abu Dhabi: Do Tall Buildings Mean Moderate Muslims Live In them? . . .

Bush’s Mid-East Facade:Skyscrapers Are Not Condoms Against Muslim Extremism
But, in fact, Abu Dhabi, like the rest of the Emirates is a mirage. They may have high tech, but their Seventh Century beliefs are very low tech. The country continues in engaging in apartheid policies and extremist pursuits.
Today, no Israeli or any non-Muslim with an Israeli stamp in his/her passport can enter Abu Dhabi. The country participates in the anti-Israel boycott and won’t do business with companies doing business with Israel. Like the rest of the Emirates, it refuses to shore up banking laws that enabled the 9/11 terrorists to use the UAE as a conduit for both the finance and international documents needed to foment their attacks. The Emirates continue to use slave labor, including young Bangladeshi boys who are used as sex slaves and overworked at hard labor. Others–including fellow Muslims from the Philippines to Indonesia–are also slaves there and not allowed to leave, while they are not allowed to have any rights as citizens there.
Apparently Bush forgot the advice he gave but never took: “You’re either on our side or the terrorists’ side.” Emiratis regularly gave and continue to give donations to Islamic homicide bombers. It isn’t against the law there. It’s applauded. Remember those Palestinian terrorist telethons? They didn’t just air in and get donations from Saudi Arabia. The Emirates would never hear of being excluded from such “moderate,” “exemplary” activities.
Not long ago, the then-President of the Emirates sponsored anti-American and anti-Semitic speakers and published literature with similar messages: that the Holocaust never happened, that Israel and the CIA committed the 9/11 attacks, etc. So glad Bush is setting up this confederation of Arab gulf nations as an “example” to the rest of their Mein Kampf-reading fellow Muslims.
And none of the Emirates is a democracy, though Bush is pushing for his failed “free and democratic elections” there, too. The day that happens, Al-Qaeda will be victorious, as Bin Laden is the most popular figure throughout this “moderate” (so claims Bush) land.
Just because a country has marvels of building doesn’t mean it is an example of moderation. If that were the case, Egypt at the time of the pyramids would have been an example for moderation today. Just ask the Pharoahs. The fact is, the 9/11 hijackers had cellphones. They used computers. Bin Laden’s movement is extremely high-tech, using the internet and video better than we do. High tech does not mean low extremism, whether a Muslim lives in the caves of Afghanistan or the skyscrapers of Abu Dhabi.
That seven years into his administration and almost 6.5 years after the 9/11 attacks, Bush still does not get this and still shills for the failed twin towers of the “moderate” Emirates and “democracy” in the extremist Muslim Mid-East is a huge hint that he has no business pushing Israel into yet another failed . . . and fatal “peace” of paper.
That the President’s sleazy brother, Neil Bush, already received hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay-offs from the Emirates makes it extremely improper for Bush to now “thank” this country as a “moderate” entity, when it is anything but. There’s an unshakeable conflict of interest that doesn’t seem to interest this Commander-in-Chief one bit.
That Bush would deliver this speech on Mid-East “Peace” on the soil of a country that actively practices anti-Semitic apartheid against Jews and Israel is beyond disgusting. That he’d deliver it on the soil of a state that refused to cooperate in the initial months after the 9/11 attacks that murdered 3,000 Americans is even more sickening.
Bush simply hasn’t a clue. Technological or real estate sophistication does not equal peace or moderation of any kind. If a extremist’s toilet flushes better, it doesn’t make his outlook on the West any different. It simply helps dispose of their malodorous waste more quickly.
The UAE’s material sophistication and Bush’s lack of intellectual sophistication to know the difference continue to put them in a position of advantage and America and her only Mid-East ally at a dangerous disadvantage.
January 20, 2009 cannot come soon enough. Sadly, his replacement won’t be as “unsophisticated” as Bush is. She will use Bush’s softness toward terror enablers as a low starting point for her pandering toward the enemy.
Bush set the bar.