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September 16, 2009
Had the United States not turned back Saddam Hussein in Kuwait, it’s likely he would have marched into Saudi Arabia. The Saudis essentially sat back and watched the American-led forces protect and defend their enormous wealth, basking in the protection before and since of the American nuclear umbrella.
The billions they’ve spent on the latest weapons have made them no less dependent on our protection. They were unable to stand up to Saddam in 1990. Nor are they able to defend themselves against their rivals in Iran.
After so many years of American presidents of both parties kowtowing to the oil-rich Riyadh royals, it is no wonder they have such high regard for themselves and such low esteem for the United States.
That was in full display on the op-ed page of Sunday’s New York Times in an article by Turki al-Faisal, the former ambassador to Washington. His message was clear: Don’t take Saudi talk of peace literally. The 2002 Saudi peace proposal was essentially an ultimatum, he confirmed, noting that will be no talking to Israel until all demands are met.
As “the world’s energy superpower and the de facto leader of the Arab and Muslim worlds,” Saudi Arabia “holds itself to higher standards of justice and law,” he wrote. Thus the Saudis refuse to engage Israel until it “ends its illegal occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights” and — and here he takes up the agenda of Hezbollah — “Shabaa farms in Lebanon.” Until these and other Saudi demands are met, he insists, any steps toward normalization “would undermine international law and turn a blind eye to immorality.”
This piety comes from a man who for 25 years headed one of the most brutal security forces in the world. His country’s corrupt and autocratic monarchy tolerates slavery, has been condemned for human trafficking, enforces and teaches and preaches religious bigotry, suppresses the rights of women. It is a country where homosexuality is subject to the death penalty and thieves have their hands cut off.
Saudi respect for human rights is like a bracha for kosher pork on Yom Kippur.
No one will know how much money and other support Turki helped deliver to the PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terror groups. He has admitted meeting repeatedly with Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, but says that stopped after Sept. 11, 2001. And don’t forget that 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were, like bin Laden, Saudis.
Israel’s human rights record is by no means perfect, it just tends to look that way next to Saudi Arabia’s. In fact, Israeli Arabs have dramatically greater freedom in Israel than Saudis do in their own country.
Turki rejected calls by President Obama, the crown prince of Bahrain, and others for “greater communication with Israel” by Arab states and moves to revive the peace process. In Turki’s view there could be no talks with Israel until it meets all Saudi demands. Step one would be “immediate removal of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank.” Simultaneously, “the international community must pressure Israel to relinquish its grip on all Arab territory.” It is not clear whether he refers only to land captured in ‘67 or more.
He dismisses criticism of the Hamas charter calling for destruction of Israel as “outdated,” although Hamas, which the Saudis help finance, insists their position is unchanged.
Turki said Obama’s Cairo speech “heightened expectations” in the Arab and Muslim worlds, and his call for an Israeli settlement freeze was “a welcome development.”
But he also seems to be telling the president to keep the pressure on Israel and don’t call for Saudi help until he can deliver 100 percent of the kingdom’s demands. Until then any normalization with Israel amounts to a reward for the “theft” of Arab land, he wrote.
Also this weekend, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, rebuffed a bipartisan plea from more than 220 members of Congress for the Saudi king to “assert a strong leadership role” by making “a dramatic gesture toward Israel.” He rejected all “incremental” moves in favor of a “final settlement” approach as proposed by his government.
A number of years ago a pro-Western Arab ambassador told me that every Arab country may make peace with Israel some day but never the Saudis. If Turki’s latest outpourings are any indication, that is truer than ever.
Douglas M. Bloomfield (bloomfieldcolumn@gmail.com) is the president of Bloomfield Associates Inc., a Washington lobbying and consulting firm. He spent nine years as the legislative director and chief lobbyist for AIPAC.
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