Israel Matzav

The Saudi dilemna

David Bedein had an important article published in yesterday's FrontPageMagazine.com. It's all about 'Our friends the Saudis' and how they are talking out of both sides of their mouths - claiming to oppose terrorism while supporting it:

Saudi Arabia has earned the distinction as the first nation since the Third Reich that is officially Judenrein - Jew free. By law, no Jew may visit or live in Saudi Arabia. However, with the sudden encouragement of the Bush administration, Saudi Arabia has been thrust into the position of the key mediator in the Middle East conflict.

Zalman Shuval, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., wrote in a leading Israeli newspaper in early March that the special relationship of the former Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan [that's him at top left CiJ], and the Bush family was one of the key reasons for the new Saudi relationship with the U.S. government.

According to Shuval, Bandar's "close relationship with the Bush family was expressed not only in strategic understandings, but also in large arms deals ... Bandar was involved in 'nearly every step that the U.S. took in the Middle East and that ... when the current President Bush started his election campaign, Ambassador Bandar came to him to brief him on Middle East matters."

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia remains the third-largest supplier of oil to the United States (14 percent). Saudi Arabia and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, which is subordinate to it, has $1 billion in foreign currency reserves, most of which are invested in U.S. bonds.

The Saudi Arabian government has announced that it intends to invest $650 billion in the next few years in developing infrastructure in Saudi Arabia: oil and gas drill sites, power stations, ports, airports, communication networks, underwater pipes, desalination installations, refineries, schools and universities. Each one of those enormous projects can either be open to American companies or closed to them.

And, finally: Saudi Arabia casts itself as the United States' main ally in the Middle East. It buys inordinate quantities of American weapons and is flooded with American advisers.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia received Iranian President Ahmadinejad in early March and welcomed him in an unprecedented state visit to dissuade any American illusion that the Saudis would form an Arab coalition against Iran.

...

Essentially, Israel's battle to prevent world recognition of Hamas, an Islamic terror organization sworn to destroy the Jewish state, ended in defeat with the ratification of the Mecca Agreement.

Saudi Arabia was the patron of the Mecca agreement between Fatah and Hamas, which, for the first time in modern history, aligned all Palestinian terrorist factions against the state of Israel.

The Saudis reportedly sent over $1 billion in gratuities to Fatah and Hamas to secure this new terror accord.

An Israeli intelligence official briefed the Israeli cabinet after the Mecca Agreement and declared that Hamas was the "tactical victor" of the Mecca Agreement, having achieved its goals without having to concede even one of its principles or tenets.

The Mecca Agreement does not mention nor recognize Israel, and will not keep any obligation or agreement that was signed by Arafat and guaranteed by the United States government. Territories were handed over to Arafat and his protégé, Abbas, in exchange for an agreement of Palestinian recognition of Israel and a cessation of Palestinian terror, neither of which has taken place.

Now, with the support of what is known as the "Mecca agreement" and with the official sponsorship of the Saudi government, Hamas can celebrate their victory in Mecca, which has paved the way to having their terrorist organization recognized internationally as the elected democratic representative of the Palestinian people.

That achievement was delivered to Hamas by the Saudi leadership.

The new "Palestinian unity government" will serve as a type of camouflage netting for Hamas, with formal Saudi backing.

Read it all.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:36 AM