America: Who loves you? Palestinian offers Iraq shoe-thrower a bride

The "poverty stricken" Palestinians have raised $30,000 for defense of the journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George Bush in Iraq. And one man is offering his daughter as a bride for the shoe-thrower. American support of Palestinian statehood is being amply repaid, in the usual way.

 

Palestinian - American friendship goes back a long way. It began with the attack on American diplomats that was orchestrated by Yasser Arafat, continued with Palestinian support for Saddam Hussein in 1991 and again in 2003, and of course, huge Palestinian crowds carried posters of Osama Bin Laden and cheered the 9-11 attacks. No wonder American taxpayers are eager to pour money into their staunch Palestinian ally.

 

Last update - 09:21 20/12/2008       
Head of Palestinian clan offers Iraqi shoe-throwing journalist a bride
By The Associated Press

The head of a large West Bank family wants to reward the Iraqi journalist who lobbed his shoes at President George W. Bush by sending him a bride.

 

75-year-old Ahmad Salim Judeh says if journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi is interested the family is willing to take one of its eligible daughters to Iraq along with her dowry.

 

Judeh says doing so 'would be our honor'. He also said Friday that the 500-member clan had raised $30,000 for al-Zeidi's legal defense.
 
Al-Zeidi has become something of a folk hero since throwing his shoes at President Bush at a Sunday press conference.

 

Thousands took to the streets in Iraq to protest his arrest, and his actions were heralded across the Arab world as news stations repeatedly showed footage of the incident.

 

Al-Zeidi is unmarried.