by Ruthie Blum
In the first place, by its own admission, the Saudi kingdom feels deeply threatened by a nuclearizing Iran. It is therefore in its interest for the problem to be eliminated. This is the sole impetus for allowing Israel use of its airspace. How dare it attach any kind of condition to a move it desperately wants?
It sounds silly to say
this about a regime that engages in egregious human-rights abuses as a
matter of course (i.e. treating women as chattel, flogging bloggers, and
chopping off the body parts of petty criminals), but Saudi Arabia has
got a nerve.
According to a report
on Israel's Channel 2 on Tuesday, an anonymous European official
revealed that the "Saudi authorities are completely coordinated with
Israel on all matters related to Iran." So much so, in fact, that they
"have declared their readiness for the Israeli Air Force to overfly
Saudi airspace en route to attack Iran if an attack is necessary."
Though Riyadh has yet to confirm or deny this claim, it sounds plausible.
As was spelled out by
Jay Solomon in the Wall Street Journal last week, Sunni-Arab
governments -- among them Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and, of
course, Saudi Arabia -- have been expressing fears to the Obama
administration about the direction in which the P5+1 negotiations with
the Islamic republic are going.
"At this stage, we
prefer a collapse of the diplomatic process to a bad deal," one Arab
official said, pointing out that a nuclear Iran "would likely drive
Saudi Arabia, for one, to try to quickly match Iran's nuclear
capabilities."
He was referring to the
shift in rhetoric from Washington about its aims in the talks. While
the West's initial stated policy was to dismantle all of Tehran's
nuclear capabilities and infrastructure, now American officials are
acknowledging that this is no longer feasible, and whispering that it is
not even necessary. In addition, rumors have been circulating about a
possible 10-year arrangement with Iran, which would guarantee the
ayatollahs a stock of atomic bombs.
Despite White House
spokesman Josh Earnest's assertion this week that this is "inaccurate,"
nobody believes a word that comes out of his mouth, least of all Sunni
Muslims. They have been witnessing President Barack Obama's leaning
toward the Shiites in virtually every Middle East scenario. Even his
original idea about fighting Islamic State was to join forces with Iran.
In addition, neither
Obama nor Secretary of State John Kerry has been willing to tell the
American public or anyone else what the terms of the agreement being
cooked up with the mullah-led regime in Tehran actually are.
This brings us back to
Saudi Arabia. When King Abdullah died on Jan. 23, Obama and Kerry, along
with a slew of past and current American statesmen, went to Riyadh to
extend their condolences to his brother and successor, Salman bin
Abdul-Aziz.
Ahead of his trip,
Obama said he would not be raising the touchy subjects of human-rights
abuses or funding of terrorism during his visit. He was going to focus
on shared interests with the new king.
Clearly, nothing came
of that particular condolence call, because Obama's mantra about
preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons must have rung just as
hollow to King Salman as they do to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
It is for this reason
that Netanyahu is remaining steadfast in his intention to appeal to
Congress on Tuesday not to support a dangerous deal with Iran -- one
that could be reached and signed by the end of March.
It is also why the new
Saudi king is continuing on his brother's path, by securing his own
arsenal of nuclear weapons from Pakistan. Yes, the West can be proud of
itself for creating a nuclear arms race among all state sponsors of
global terrorism, while chastising Netanyahu for making a speech. What
an achievement for freedom and democracy.
Speaking of which, the
Saudis apparently have made their clandestine cooperation with Israel
conditional on -- you guessed it -- progress in peace talks with the
Palestinians.
Are they joking?
In the first place, by
its own admission, the Saudi kingdom feels deeply threatened by a
nuclearizing Iran. It is therefore in its interest for the problem to be
eliminated. This is the sole impetus for allowing Israel use of its
airspace. How dare it attach any kind of condition to a move it
desperately wants?
Perhaps it has to do
with the fact that Iran has stepped up its warnings about wiping Israel
off the map in the event of a strike on its "peaceful" nuclear
facilities. And Saudi Arabia would shed no tears over the annihilation
of the Jewish state.
Secondly, there can be no "progress" with the Palestinians that has not already been attempted again and again by Israel.
Third, Iran is a key
backer of Palestinian terrorism. So sidling up to the Palestinians would
seem to be counterproductive where curbing the Islamic republic's
tentacles in the region is concerned.
Finally, Saudi Arabia, like the rest of the Muslim world, couldn't care less about the Palestinians, as it repeatedly proves.
The only question remaining is: How do you say "chutzpah" in Arabic?
Ruthie Blum
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=11733
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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