Saudi Arabia’s decision to attend the Annapolis conference is being hailed, as a great breakthrough for the Bush administration while at the same time the Israeli regime of Ehud Olmert is barely able to suppress its ecstasy.
News about Saudi participation –” whilst being met with shock and disbelief in the streets of Arab capitals –” comes as no surprise to those aware about the monarchy’s duplicitous role vis-Ã -vis Palestine.
The Saud family is beholden to America. Both its vast fortunes accrued from oil and its political control over the Arabian Peninsula is tied to America’s security interests. It has never been serious in ever demanding that Israel lifts its crippling siege of Palestine –” instead the Saudi monarchy found it less of a problem to fund different factions within the PLO. Rather easier and a great deal more expedient to issue a cheque than to issue a statement!
Indeed, even such fiscal support has of late been severely restricted and many of the Kingdom’s prominent charitable institutions have been embargoed from delivering relief aid to Palestine.
It is a fact that Saudi Arabia’s ability to operate as a sovereign state in charge of its own national interest has been a farce. Since it is known that Israeli security itself is tied to the security of the House of Saud, the American government remains committed to ensuring the uninterrupted reign of unelected kings and princes.
In order to bluff Arab and Muslim public opinion, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister gives the impression that his country’s participation is due to a decision taken by the Arab League in Cairo. This, he implies falsely, forces Saudi Arabia to heed the call made by “Arabs” in the interest of Palestine. In other words, traveling to Annapolis and kissing the cheeks of Bush, Rice and Olmert is a token of solidarity with Palestine!
However, the cheek of it all is not lost on the Arab streets.
People justifiably would be angry at discovering that their so-called leaders have opted to offer Palestine on a tray to the apartheid state of Israel. More importantly, the illegitimate colonial settler state gains recognition beyond the borders of Egypt and Jordan now that the Saudi regime agrees join the clowns at Annapolis.
To those who ask whether the Arab client-states of the US possess any self-respect and dignity, it goes without saying that their lackey status does not confer on them the right to any dignity. And in any case, since they are in alliance with America’s discredited “War on Terror”, they are able to brutally suppress dissension within their respective populations.
Saudi Arabia’s “bravery” to formally accord acceptance of Israel’s existence is a foolish risk that may blow up in King Abdullah’s face.
As the days leading up to Annapolis are being counted, and as each successive day reveals how minute the Jewish state’s “sacrifice” is likely to be; the House of Saud would be better advised to ponder on the morning after Annapolis.
Perhaps like Mahmoud Abbas and his clan of sell-outs, King Abdullah may hold the misguided view that President Bush will wave a magic wand to get Israel behind the ’67 borders. The truth is that the vast majority of Palestinians will not accept crumbs from Zionism’s table in the shape of a few disjointed Bantustans, as the author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, Alan Hart points out in his open letter to Condoleezza Rice.
