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Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have discovered, to their
chagrin, that America is no longer a reliable ally. Obama has pivoted toward
the mullahs in Iran and has given them gobs of money to underwrite terrorism. He has also put them on a glide path to a nuclear weapon.
Recently, Debka
reported that if Iran chooses to ignore some of the terms of the nuclear
agreement with America, it could have a nuclear weapon by the end of next year.
Good work, Barack.
The regions other powers are now forming a new alliance, one
that involves Israel with the Sunni states. P. David Hornik reported:
… Israel
and Saudi Arabia have common enemies in the region, and with American power
withdrawing, Israel’s power constantly growing, ISIS threatening, and the Obama
administration having paved
a path to nuclear weapons for Iran, the Saudis—like Egypt, Jordan, and
other Sunni states—are casting their troubled gaze toward Jerusalem.
Recently a senior Saudi official travelled to Israel. He
issued the following, rather shocking statement:
The
Israeli society that I encountered embraces a culture of peace, has
accomplishments it wants to (protect), wants coexistence, and wants peace.
Hornik puts these remarks in context:
Those
words weren’t spoken by an enthused congressman after a trip to Israel. They
were spoken to
BBC Arabic by Abd al-Mujid al-Hakim, director of the Middle East Center for
Strategic and Legal Policy in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, and a member of a Saudi
delegation that recently
visited Israel.
The
delegation, which included academics and businessmen, was led by Dr. Anwar
Eshki, a retired Saudi general and former top adviser to the Saudi government.
About a year earlier Eshki had shaken
hands and shared a stage in Washington with Israeli Foreign Ministry
director-general Dore Gold—seen as a major breakthrough at the time. But a
public visit to Israel of this kind, which could only have been carried out
with the approval of the highest level of the Saudi government, is a historical
first and still has a taste of the surreal to it.
There is more to the new alliance. Yossi Melman, an Israeli
commentator, remarks:
[O]n a covert level, according to foreign
reports, the ties being cultivated are even more fascinating. Intelligence
Online reported that Israel is selling intelligence equipment, as well as
control and command centers, to the Saudi security forces. Previously, it had
been reported in the foreign media that the heads of the Mossad, the
organization responsible for Israel’s covert ties, met with their Saudi
counterparts. Media outlets affiliated with Hezbollah even reported that
officers from the two countries’ armies had met.
Hornik adds:
Still,
considering that Israel and Sunni Arab states used to fight wars every few
years, a reality of nonbelligerency and pragmatic ties is a major improvement
for Israel. Whoever is the next U.S. president might want to cooperate with the
Israeli-Sunni alliance against Iran instead of giving the mullahs a
"sunset clause" leading to nuclear night.
I have often said that, for the Middle East, Israel is the
solution, not the problem. Recently, Saudi Arabia has begun working on an
economic development plan that will help the kingdom survive the end of the oil
boom. Saudis know that one day the oil will dry up or the oil market will collapse.
In their effort to develop other sectors of their economy, they are smart to
turn to Israel and not to the Palestinian Authority.
True enough, the Saudis insist that normal relations cannot
occur without there being peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And
yet, doing business together is surely the first step toward normal
relationships. Why dir out foreign policy elites not think of it? Why do they
continue to insist that peace can only be obtained when Israel offers more
concessions to terrorists?
7 comments:
"Recently, Debka reported that if Iran chooses to ignore some of the terms..." There is no "if" for the Iranians.
There can't be peace between the Israelis and the Palis until the Palis want it. And there seems to be too much money in not wanting it.
They should ask Valerie Jarrett.
Oh, that's right... no one can ask Valerie Jarrett any questions. No one ever does.
Our new posture toward Iran makes no sense through the lens of our short- and long-term national interest in the region. None. Zero. Nada. We send them cash. We help them execute our spies. What do we get?
It is a complete capitulation.
Chris, you might want to lay off whatever it is you're taking.
The U.S. apparently hasn't started playing hardball yet with the Saudi's, home of the vast majority of the 9/11 terrorists. We perhaps benefit too much in our arms sales to kill the goose that lays the golden war eggs.
The Saudis clearly prefer "popular" peace of unconditional surrender, rather than an honest peace that seeks to minimize civilian deaths.
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/11/lopsided-peace-talks-collapse-saudis-resume-yemen-bombing-and-u-s-sells-more-weapons/
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The U.S. has already sold more than $20 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia since the war began in March 2015, defying calls from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to cut off support. The Saudi-led coalition is responsible for the majority of the 7,000 deaths in the conflict, which has left more than 21 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Saudi Arabia has been accused of intentionally targeting homes, factories, schools, markets, and hospitals.
The State Department has repeatedly stressed that the United States “strongly encourages” peace talks to continue, but it is unclear whether the U.S. would welcome a compromise solution.
...
The U.N. has since deferred to other Saudi Arabian demands, as well. Earlier this year, after Saudi Arabia was put on the U.N.’s blacklist of child-killers, it threatened to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to the U.N. The U.N. secretary general removed the country from the list, pending a “joint review” with the coalition, and indicated that their name will remain off the list until that happens.
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Clearly we should not be involved, nor selling arms to Saudi Arabia, but who can say no to arms manufacturers wet dreams? And Obama's "recovery" needs jobs, right?
Debka reported that if Iran chooses to ignore some of the terms of the nuclear agreement with America, it could have a nuclear weapon by the end of next year.
Good luck to them. The only guarantee any country has against US aggression is nuclear weapons. It's the US that is the rogue state, not Iran.
Ironically the best hope for peace in the Middle East would be to have more nuclear powers there. If there had been a few Arab nuclear powers in 1967 the Israelis could not have launched their invasion and most of the subsequent troubles in the Middle East could have been averted.
On the whole nuclear weapons have been a good thing. They gave Europe peace for the longest period in its history.
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