Saudi, Egyptian, Jordanian Alliance Against Palestine II
December 16, 2006
It has been a bad year for Israel. First, the Mearsheimer & Walt paper, then its failure to enlist US military might in fighting another war for it against Iran, then Carter’s broadside against its Apartheid regime, and now comes the Baker-Hamilton Commission’s report.
How does Israel meet this challenge?
New York Times reports:
Senior Israeli officials have met in recent months not only with Jordanians and Egyptians but — most notably — with Saudis…
“The Saudis are saying to us, ‘We are afraid of Iran and want to work with you but the Palestinian issue has to be solved,’ ” a senior Israeli official said, insisting on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Their “overriding concern” according to the paper ”is the rise of Iran and its nuclear program”. Having supported Israel against Hizbullah in the invasion of Lebanon earlier this year, the three countries are using sectarian fears to conceal their own concern with the rise of popular movements in Lebanon and Palestine. In Palestine, they are openly collaborating with Israel and the United States in arming Fatah’s thugs against the Hamas government. So NYT tells us:
He added that the growing domination of Palestinian politics by Hamas, the militant Islamist group that calls for Israel’s destruction and has received Iranian aid, is a threat to secular Arab rulers just as it is to Israel. So they want to boost the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who favors negotiations with Israel — and that, too, coincides with Israel’s view.
Notice the use of the word “secular Arab rulers”? Thats quite an achievement for Saudi Arabia, which within a year has gone from becoming a medieval fundamentalist monarchy first to a “moderate” and now a “secular” Arab state. Bear in mind that this is the same Ethan Bronner, New York Times‘ Middle-East “expert”, who had given Alan Dershowitz’s famous hoax, The Case for Israel, a rave review in the pages of the same paper.
For an excellent analysis of the machinations underway to create a civil war in Lebanon with Fatah acting as the new SLA, check out Joseph Massad’s Pinochet in Palestine.
Great article, Mo. I think the Iran government have been shrewd in cultivating counterbalancing ties and energy trading links with China, Europe and Russia, it serves as something of a wet blanket on BushCo’s (and the unholy Saudi/ Israeli ‘alliance’, if you could call it that) raging belligerency towards war with Iran. Here’s hoping, anyway. Please pinch me, this is just too warped to be real. And suffer the Palestinians amid this madness.
On a brighter note, good use of the Latuff cartoon.