FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

It’s time for some clarity regarding the relationship of the Bush administration to Saudi Arabia — in terms of the national interest of the US as well as the consequences for Israel.

A complete discussion of Saudi influence in the US is beyond the scope of a blog post, but it’s well known that it is enormous — both in the private and government spheres.

Jimmy Carter’s Saudi funding — both for the Carter Center and for, shall we say, more personal needs, is well known. It’s also common knowledge that Saudi money has built and supported mosques throughout the nation, mosques where political as well as religious doctrine is propagated.

The House of Saud has developed a technique of gaining influence over the US government that Daniel Pipes calls “preemptive bribing“:

A hint of the problem comes from none other than Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The Washington Post reports that he boasted of his success at cultivating powerful Americans: “If the reputation . . . builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you’d be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office.”

The extent of this practice is remarkable:

[Former CIA case officer Robert] Baer notes that every Washington think tank has taken Saudi money, as have numerous lobbyists, PR firms, lawyers, and every presidential library of the last thirty years. Nor is this all.

Despite CIA censorship, [Baer’s book] Sleeping With The Devil reveals that there is hardly a living former CIA director, assistant secretary of state for the Near East, White House staffer, or member of Congress who hasn’t ended up on the Saudi payroll in one way of another. “At the corporate level, almost every Washington figure worth mentioning has served on the board of at least one company that did a deal with Saudi Arabia.” — Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Nor are the media free of Saudi influence. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns large stakes in Time Warner and even Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

The Bush family and administration is especially close to the Saudis. Adviser James Baker’s law firm represents the Saudi government and he was senior counsel to the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm with large investments in Saudi Arabia. Former President George H. W. Bush was a Carlyle Group Adviser and is a large shareholder. Indeed, representatives of the Bin Laden family were in Washington for Carlyle’s annual meeting on 9/11 (and were allowed to leave the country shortly thereafter, as Michael Moore gleefully pointed out in “Fahrenheit 911”).

The Saudi kingdom’s support for radical Sunni Islamism should be worrisome to the US, which is one of its prime targets. And Saudi Arabia’s influence on US policy, such as the decision to invade Iraq (for which some blame Israel!), is a highly dangerous aspect of the relationship.

The President’s new Israel/Palestine policy, as enunciated in his speech yesterday, also shows traces of the Saudi hand, probably by way of James Baker. There’s no doubt that the President’s adoption of the highly unbalanced Arab (Saudi) Initiative represents that Saudi point of view, as does the build-up of a powerful Fatah army as a counterforce to the Iranian/Syrian supported Hamas.

As I wrote Monday, the development of a massive Fatah army in the West Bank is terribly dangerous for Israel, and will not result in the elimination of Hamas or its conversion into a moderate force, as the plan’s proponents seem to suggest.

If the US wants a two-state solution which includes a peaceful Palestinian state alongside Israel, a huge military buildup of forces opposed to the existence of Israel is not the way to achieve it.

But one can see the Saudi vision of ‘peace’ in this proposal: the Israeli state forced back to 1967 borders, forced to take in Palestinian ‘refugees’, and forced to accept a powerful enemy, armed and financed by the US and perhaps the Saudis, sitting in the West Bank a few miles from her population centers.

Technorati Tags: Saudi Arabia, George Bush, James Baker, Iraq, Israel

More and more prisoners and fugitives connected to Fatah are to be released or pardoned. Israel has given the Palestinians a list of 256 prisoners that will be freed shortly as a goodwill gesture to the Abbas/Fayyed government in the West bank.

In addition, Israel agreed to pardon 178 fugitives, including the al-Aqsa brigades commander in Jenin, Zakaria Zubeidi, if they agreed to “lay down their arms” and not engage in terrorism against Israel again. These former terrorists are now being absorbed into the Palestinian Authority’s ‘security’ services, where of course they will be issued new weapons.

But even that is apparently not enough. Today, YNet reports that

Israeli and Palestinian security officials met Monday to discuss expanding the list of 178 wanted Fatah members set to receive amnesty from Israel.

The officials discussed the possibility of adding 206 members of the organization’s armed wing – the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – to the list. However, the list presented by the Palestinians to Israel includes the names of 28 operatives to whom Israel refuses to grant amnesty.

Ynet has learned that Israel may agree to allow these members to move to other cities in the West Bank, or move abroad for several years, an option the Palestinians have so far rejected.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades is a murderous terrorist organization that targets Israelis, civilians and soldiers, both inside and outside the Green Line. It has probably killed more Israelis than any other terrorist group, including Hamas.

What can possibly explain the mad rush to make dangerous concessions of this type? What is Israel getting in return from the Palestinians?

My opinion is that pressure is coming from the US. This is the implementation of the policy enunciated by President Bush in his speech yesterday, in which he mentioned the Palestinian security services no less than three times.

The plan seems to be that a Fatah army will be built to confront Hamas, in the West Bank and possibly in Gaza. Made up of former terrorists (after all, they are the ones capable of fighting), possibly including Palestinian Badr Brigade members from Jordan, and armed and trained by the US, they will be the tool by which Hamas is to be opposed.

I can’t think of a stupider plan, from Israel’s point of view. Take a bunch of violently anti-Israel terrorists located a few miles from Israel’s population centers, arm them, train them, even invite more of the same from other countries, and pay them to fight another terrorist group!

Suppose they succeed in destroying Hamas? Then what? Do they suddenly become peace-loving vegetarians who devote their energies to gardening?

Or suppose they decide that their common interest with Hamas — killing Jews — permits a temporary alliance to further their goal?

Or suppose that, after the arming and training and “bolstering”, Saudi Arabia comes along and manages to negotiate a unity agreement between Fatah and Hamas? Then Israel is facing hostile non-state armies on three sides.

I know that President Bush strongly supports Israel, but I think he has been sold a bill of goods by the Saudi-influenced Baker faction. This plan simply creates a monster that will sooner or later turn on Israel.

Israel must, somehow, get free of US domination and make her own security decisions. One lesson of the Holocaust is that the Jewish people can’t leave its security in the hands of others, no matter how well-meaning they may seem.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Bush, Fatah, Hamas