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JULY 21, 2022
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The Week In News Saudi Arabia Opens Airspace
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said last Saturday that his country’s decision to open its airspace to all civilian flights has “nothing to do with diplomatic ties with Israel” and is “not in any way a precursor to any further steps” toward normalization with the Jewish state. In a press conference, Prince Faisal said, “No, this has nothing to do with diplomatic ties with Israel. The issue of overflights is a decision we took…in the interest [of] providing connectivi-
ty between countries in the world, and we hope that it will make some travelers’ lives easier. It’s not in any way a precursor to any further steps.” In a speech the previous day, U.S. President Joe Biden had called the Saudi decision “a big deal, not only symbolically but substantively.” He added, “This is the first tangible step on the path of what I hope will eventually be a broader normalization of relations” between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told CNN on Saturday, “We have said that Saudi Arabia supports the Arab Peace Initiative. In fact, we offered it. We have made it clear that peace comes at the end of this process, not at the beginning of it.” Israel’s interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid also praised the decision as the “the first official step in normalization with Saudi Arabia.” “I thank the Saudi leadership for the opening of Saudi airspace. This is only the first step,” Lapid said.
Bystander Kills Mass Murderer
A mass murderer was killed by an armed bystander in an Indiana mall over the weekend. Elisjsha Dicken, 22, killed Jonathan Sapirman, 20, after Sapirman killed three people and wounded two
others in the suburb of Greenwood. Police were quick to praise Dicken’s quick actions. “Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen,” police Chief Jim Ison said Monday, repeatedly calling Dicken a “good Samaritan” and his response “heroic.” It isn’t common for mass shootings to be stopped in such fashion. From 2000 to 2021, fewer than 3% of 433 active attacks in the U.S. ended with a civilian firing back, according to the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University. Instead, it was far more common for police or bystanders to subdue the attacker or for police to kill the person, according to the center’s national data. In a quarter of the shootings, the attacker stopped by leaving the area. Since July 1, Indiana has allowed anyone 18 or older to carry a handgun in public, though private property owners can prohibit firearms. The Greenwood mall has a ban on weapons, according to its conduct code.
