Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s extended tour of
the United States reminds me of a trip that China’s Deng Xiaoping made to
America in 1979. In Deng’s case the trip signaled a turn away from Communism
and toward free enterprise. In the case of MBS, the trip signals a major geopolitical realignment. It also shows MBS's seriousness about economic reform and social liberalization.
One notes that a leader who can spend weeks away from his
country feels confident of his hold on power. He is not worrying that someone might
try to replace him in his absence.
We have watched with great interest the Saudi turn away from
terrorism and fundamentalist Islam toward liberalization and a better alliance
with America. We lauded the Saudi-American détente and the declaration of a joint
war against Islamist terrorism in Riyadh last May. The media downplayed it because it was a Trump diplomatic success.
We are no longer sufficiently naïve to believe
that one summit meeting will change the course of history. Yet, the work being
done by MBS has been moving his nation in the right direction.
I was intrigued by his mention of the fact that some of the
princes who were arrested during his recent crackdown were supporting
terrorism. We had all suspected as much and are interested to hear his
confirmation:
Yes,
there are people from Saudi Arabia who financed terrorist groups. This is
against Saudi law. We have a lot of people in jail now, not only for financing
terrorist groups, but even for supporting them. One of the reasons we have a
problem with Qatar is that we are not allowing them to use the financial system
between us to collect money from Saudis and give it to extremist organizations.
Happily, we can read the transcript of Jeffrey Goldberg’s interview with MBS in the Atlantic.
Via Zero Hedge and Maggie’s Farm.
The Crown Prince made news by the way he presented himself,
knowledgeable, well informed, in control. He made news by declaring that the Jewish people have a right to their own state.
Goldberg writes:
Another
key—though sub rosa—member
of Prince Mohammed’s alliance is Israel, a country about which Prince Mohammed
did not have a bad word to say. In fact, when I asked him whether he believed
the Jewish people have a right to a nation-state in at least part of their
ancestral homeland, he said: “I believe that each people, anywhere, has a right
to live in their peaceful nation. I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis
have the right to have their own land.” According to the former U.S. peace
negotiator Dennis Ross, moderate Arab leaders have spoken of the reality of
Israel’s existence, but acknowledgement of any sort of “right” to Jewish
ancestral land has been a red line no leader has crossed until now.
He continued to renounce any anti-Semitism that has emanated
from Saudi Arabia:
Our
country doesn’t have a problem with Jews. Our Prophet Muhammad married a Jewish
woman. Not just a friend—he married her. Our prophet, his neighbors were
Jewish. You will find a lot of Jews in Saudi Arabia coming from America, coming
from Europe. There are no problems between Christian and Muslims and Jews. We
have problems like you would find anywhere in the world, among some people. But
the normal sort of problems.
Israel
is a big economy compared to their size and it’s a growing economy, and of
course there are a lot of interests we share with Israel and if there is peace,
there would be a lot of interest between Israel and the Gulf Cooperation
Council countries and countries like Egypt and Jordan.
Evidently, he is reaching out to Israel and to Jews around the world. He sees clearly the advantages of having Israel
as a strategic ally.
George Bush had an axis of evil. MBS has a triangle of evil:
First
in the triangle we have the Iranian regime that wants to spread their extremist
ideology, their extremist Shiite ideology. They believe that if they spread it,
the hidden Imam will come back again and he will rule the whole world from Iran
and spread Islam even to America. They’ve said this every day since the Iranian
revolution in 1979. It’s in their law and they’re proving it by their own
actions.
The
second part of the triangle is the Muslim Brotherhood, which is another
extremist organization. They want to use the democratic system to rule
countries and build shadow caliphates everywhere. Then they would transform
into a real Muslim empire. And the other part is the terrorists—al-Qaeda,
ISIS—that want to do everything with force. Al-Qaeda leaders, ISIS leaders,
they were all Muslim Brotherhood first. Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the
leader of ISIS. This is very clear.
As it happened, President Obama offered his moral support to
the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and entered a deal that relieved sanctions on
Iran, provided it with planeloads full of cash to promote terrorism, and
offered it a glide path to the possession of nuclear weapons.
MBS offered his analysis of Obama’s naiveté. Need I mention
that this aspect of his conversation has largely been ignored:
President
Obama believed that if he gave Iran opportunities to open up, it would change.
But with a regime based on this ideology, it will not open up soon. Sixty
percent of the Iranian economy is controlled by the Revolutionary Guard. The
economic benefits of the Iran nuclear deal are not going to the people. They
took $150 billion after the deal—can you please name one housing project they
built with this money? One park? One industrial zone? Can you name for me the
highway that they built? I advise them—please show us something that you’re
building a highway with $150 billion. For Saudi Arabia, there is a 0.1 percent
chance that this deal would work to change the country. For President Obama it
was 50 percent. But even if there’s a 50 percent chance that it would work, we
can’t risk it. The other 50 percent is war. We have to go to a scenario where
there is no war.
Evidently, the Iran nuclear deal was produced by ignorance and extreme misjudgment.
4 comments:
Obama always seemed to me to be some kind of disconnected from reality.
Sam,
He wasn't even familiar with reality.
James
This change in Saudi Arabia is simply astonishing to watch. I’m excited for them quite frankly.
I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall listening in on world leader conversations when Obama did that demonic Iran deal.
MbS: "Our Prophet Muhammad married a Jewish woman. Not just a friend—he married her."
That would be the daughter of the chief of Khaybar. After the battle, when the loot was distributed, she was given to a Muslim soldier. She then told Muhammad that, being a chief's daughter, she was to good to be the slave of a common soldier. Muhammad then offered to marry her if she would convert to Islam. True romance.
(And what happened to the poor soldier who'd lost a slave girl? Did he get some compensation?)
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