Shahbour Zahdi from Iran sent me an email saying that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, during a press conference this week, was asked about the recent proposal of an Israeli cabinet minister to abduct him and prosecute him in retaliation for his statements that, according to the Israeli minister, resemble those made by Hitler. In answer to the question Ahmedinejad referred the journalist to my column published here two weeks ago and quoted by news agencies both in its original form in Arabic and in its English translation which appears in this newspaper. A website named campaigniran.org, which campaigns against sanctions and military intervention in Iran, republished the entire column without any comments; while another US-based website promoting Obama ran the article under the heading "Republican Absurdities , adding: "How long will our foreign policy continue to favor Israel, even when it's wrong and even when Israeli citizens who believe in the necessity of respecting international law and the need to establish peace protest these policies. The website referred to the section in my column where I observe how no one in the West reacted to the Israeli minister's statement, while if an Arab official had dared to make such a statement, he would have been widely condemned. The website attributed this double standard to Republican President George Bush's rash policies. Saeed Abdel Meguid El Fashny from Egypt sent a note reproaching me for saying - alas that sarcasm was lost on him - that we aught to learn from Israel how to respect the rule of law and how to achieve progress. Israel offers nothing to learn from, he said, adding "so are you suggesting we too start abducting heads of state as Israel proposed? Is this progress? No Mr. Salmawy, this is not progress but the utmost regression. Another comment by someone who goes by the name "reader , strongly criticized how I unabashedly parrot Israel's words, calling it an oasis of democracy and the rule of law in the Middle East amid an ocean of backwardness, violence and chaos. He added: "Intellectuals like you must use the minds god has given them before repeating everything Israel says. As for reader Younes Abdel Alim, it seems he didn't understand the column at all. He commented: "I support everything you said. It's time to expose Israel's true face and the real power policies it pursues as it flaunts both the law and international accords. As a result of all that, do feel quite ashamed of myself for committing something my Egyptian readers have taken me to task for. The publishing of my column abroad makes me even more ashamed and so I will seize this opportunity to retract everything I wrote in the said column and hope that all the news agencies that have republished it would also publish my retraction. As for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad who had asked one of the foreign correspondents to read my column, I would also like to ask him to recommend they read this week's column where I publicly retract my call to learn from Israel and to follow its proposal to abduct heads of states whose statements don't appeal to us. Perhaps this way some of my Egyptian readers will bestow their kind forgiveness on me. Mohamed Salmawy is President of the Arab Writers' Union and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo.
