Saudis dismissed US and warned Israel

For years, being a client state of the USA, and under American protection, Saudi Arabia under the rule of the Saudi monarchy has kept its mouth pretty shut about a host of American-Israeli injustice in the Middle-East.

That didn’t mean that Saudis weren’t pissed off as was evident by the 9/11 attackers being mainly Saudis.

And talking about 9/11, remember Anwar Ibrahim’s dear American buddy, Paul?

That’s Paul Wolfowitz, the mastermind of the Project for the New American Century Project, who then became the mastermind for the Defence Department’s plan to invade Iraq when he joined the Bush administration.

For his Iraqi nonsense, Wolfowitz was quietly removed from the Bush Administration and shoved upstairs to become the president of the World Bank, where he has been described as an utter failure in the Bank's role in meeting the needs of poor countries.

Well, the US Senate 9/11 Report clearly spelt out Paul Wolfowitz’s urgings that Iraq be attacked for the 9/11 incident when no such evidence of Iraqi involvement existed. Furthermore it stated that there was “no credible evidence” supporting Paul Wolfowitz’s argument that Iraq was involved in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre.

We know what hell hole Iraq is in today, thanks to people like dear Paul, the wonderful friend (on first name basis) of Anwar Ibrahim.

Anyway, back to the Saudi. King Abdullah has not publicly criticised the US-led military intervention in Iraq before with severity, but in a remarkable about turn, he has told Arab leaders that the US occupation of Iraq is illegal and warned that unless Arab governments settle their differences, foreign powers such as the US will continue to dictate the region's politics.

That’s heavy, coming from the usually obedient Saudis.

Observers said his latest remarks suggest that his alliance with Washington may be on a downward slide.

Then Abdullah opposed the US and Israel embargo of the Hamas led government by calling for an end to the international boycott of the Palestinian Authority. The Saudi King also got the two main Palestinian factions together. This was something that Israel and the US didn’t want because they found that the Saudi-forged coalition of the Palestinians added to the power of Hamas rather than the more compliant Abbas-led Fatah group.

The Saudi King has just cancelled his appearance next month at a White House dinner in his honour. According to political observers, the Saudi official reason of heavy scheduling was bullsh*t. They said the Saudis were saying to Washington that it bloody well listen to its Arab allies rather than merely imposed decisions on them and always taking Israel's side.

A combination of the horrors in Iraq, the Israeli unmitigated war crimes in Lebanon and Palestine, aided by a biased US, has finally sunk into the Arab heads that the US cannot ever be relied upon to be a fair broker of peace in the Middle East. Even most of the Europeans are resuming their traditional pro-Palestinian stand.

The Saudis have also told Israel in no uncertain terms that unless the Jewish state withdraw to the 1967 borders, there won’t be another chance for peace. It was an ultimatum - take it or leave it, at your peril.

The Israelis are caught in a dilemma of its own making – to refuse to withdraw means it would, despite its regional superpower status, suffer a war of attrition for the next 20, 30 or 50 years, making its survival (economic, financial, social and political) virtually untenable, especially if a future US president like Hilary Clinton may be less supportive than Bush – to withdraw means acknowledging the existence of the Palestine State and Palestinians, thus bringing its own legitimacy as a nation (on Palestinian land allocated by a colonial power) into question.

They say "give a man enough rope ..."

Well. we'll certainly be living in more interesting times vis-a-vis the Israel-Palestine question.