Hi Miriam,
My short term memory may be getting a bit uneven, but my long term
memory is working just fine. I remember. And often times what I
remember has little bearing on what we teach our children.
I remember not being told that those poor Jews that we were busy
freeing from Hitler, were not allowed sanction on our shores. I was
not taught that the "Promised Land" was already home to other people.
What I was taught was that it was our American Christian duty to "give
the Jewish People back their Home Land". And I watched, although it
was never on the news back in those days, as we armed Israel as our
"Outpost" in the Middle East.
But mostly I weep for the lost millions of innocent people who have
died or suffered while the American Empire played its political games.
Carl Jarvis
On 10/18/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You probably don't remember, but there was a time when Israel considered
Saudi Arabia to be a mortal enemy and American Jews talked about Saudi
Arabia as if it were the devil incarnate because they perceived it as a
danger to Israel. That is why this story is so ironic.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2018 11:01 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The US mainstream media is ignoring the
Israel-Saudi Arabia de facto alliance
I'd add the word, "deliberately": "The US mainstream media is ignoring the
Israel-Saudi Arabia de facto alliance." Our American Empire Oligarchs have
a love affair with Dictators and Despots, but they try to pretend that they
are looking out for our nation. It's a "high wire" act that is about to
trip them up.
Carl Jarvis
On 10/17/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The US mainstream media is ignoring the Israel-Saudi Arabia de facto
alliance James North on October 16, 2018 Decrease Text Size
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the de facto ruler.
(Photo: AFP)
Over the past week or so, Saudi Arabia has gotten more U.S. mainstream
media coverage than at any time in decades. But conspicuously missing
has been any reporting on the kingdom’s growing friendship with Israel
— a de facto alliance that may help explain why Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman thought he could get away with ordering the murder of the
dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
Madawi Al-Rasheed is a Saudi Arabian woman professor, presently at
King’s College London, who has written or edited more than 13 books on
her home nation. Particularly valuable is her recently edited (2018)
collection about the kingdom’s new leadership, entitled Salman’s
Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia.
In that book, she is clear about the growing Saudi rapprochement with
Israel. She writes that the Crown Prince “has continued to
clandestinely cooperate with Israel on security and economic matters,”
adding
In July 2016 a delegation of Saudi academics and businessmen visited
Israel with a view to establishing discreet relations, aimed at
strengthening Saudi Arabia’s military capabilities and enlisting
Israel in any armed confrontation with Iran.
Further evidence of this Saudi-Israel connection is the absence of any
official criticism from Tel Aviv about the assassination of Jamal
Khashoggi.
Once upon a time, the Israeli government promptly denounced any crimes
anywhere in the Arab or Muslim world. But the recent Twitter feeds of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former ambassador to the U.S.
Michael Oren include not a word about the murder of Khashoggi.
The mainstream U.S. press is also ignoring this Saudi-Israel connection.
Here’s just one example: in the Atlantic, Aaron David Miller analyzed
the U.S.-Saudi relationship at some length but he only mentioned
Israel in passing — an odd omission for a Professional Peace Processor
like himself who knows Israel inside out.
By contrast, the British media had started to report on the budding
Israel-Saudi Arabia relationship. In November 2017, the BBC said that
“to all intents and purposes, Saudi Arabia and Israel are de facto
allies against Iran’s rising influence in the region.” The BBC report
cited an interview with the UK-based Saudi newspaper Elaph, in which
Israel’s Chief of Staff, General Gadi Eisenkot, revealed that “Israel
was ready to exchange intelligence with the Saudis in order to
confront Iran.”
Nearly a year ago, this site had suggested that “an alliance of Saudi
Arabia and Benjamin Netanyahu, urged on privately by the Trump
administration, is deliberately moving toward starting a much wider
‘New War in the Mideast.’”
Our source was the distinguished veteran journalist Béchir Ben Yahmed,
the founder and still editor of the respected French-language Jeune
Afrique (Young Africa), who warned that the Saudi-Netanyahu
partnership might aim at Iran’s ally, the Hezbollah political/military
movement in Lebanon.
The de facto Israel-Saudi Arabia alliance is another nail in the
coffin of the ludicrous Clash of Civilizations theory. Samuel
Huntington, one of the theory’s two main advocates, famously wrote
that “Islam has bloody borders.”
As Islamic Saudi Arabia and Jewish/Western Israel collaborate against
Islamic Hezbollah, where is this “fault line”?
Of course, even if Israel had never existed, the United States (and
Europe) would support Saudi Arabia. Fracking in the U.S. may have
reduced dependence on Saudi oil exports, but the kingdom could still
trigger a world recession if it wanted to. And the shameful spectacle
of all the U.S. businesses that had planned to participate in the
upcoming “Future Investment Initiative”
in
the Saudi capital, Riyadh, (the New York Times was a co-sponsor)
proves that not just weapons manufacturers planned to keep making
money in the repressive medieval desert kingdom.
Still, the Israel-Saudi connection surely strengthens the U.S. zeal to
protect and excuse Saudi crimes. When will the U.S. mainstream media
start reporting on it?
