During President Biden’s visit to Middle East this month
by Latheef Farook
Autocratic and oppressive Saudi regime, not the people, is likely to formalize its age old secret ties with Israel during United States President Joe Biden’s forthcoming visit to Middle East between July 13 and 16.
This is not something unexpected of Saudi Arabia which has been having close ties with Israel for long and had been participating in all US-European and Israeli wars against Muslim countries. Implementing US-European and Israeli agenda Saudi itself waged wars on Muslim countries killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people and destroying their infrastructure.
However formalizing ties with Israel is bound to have unpredictable consequences. Because Saudi Arabia, as the land of Islam, is loved by Muslims worldwide. However the House of Saud, installed in power by former British Imperial Power and Zionists in the aftermath of World War 1, remains the most oppressive regime does not represent Islam.
Recognizing Israel which occupies Jerusalem, Islam’s third most important holy city, and it’s never ending atrocities on Palestinians, bound to have serious repercussions. Formalizing ties with Israel is the price that the House of Saud will be paying for removing its isolation in the global scene ever since Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed.
Khashoggi was murdered and his body dismembered by a group of Saudi agents inside the country’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.In 2019, a UN investigation concluded that Khashoggi’s murder was a “premeditated extrajudicial execution”
In march this year the Prince Salman killed 81 people in a single mass execution .The deaths provide a glimpse at what Saudi justice looks like, in complete violation of Islam, now that Prince Salman has been emboldened by Western governments that have failed to hold him accountable for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, as well as numerous other crimes and abuses.
Saudi officials completed the mass execution privately, and its refusal to allow aggrieved families to bury their loved ones speaks volumes about the absolute power and fear with which MBS intends to rule the country when he becomes king.
According to a BBC report by Raffi Berg, when Joe Biden was campaigning for the presidency in 2019, he vowed to make Saudi Arabia "the pariah that they are" for killing Jamal Khashoggi.
US intelligence agencies concluded that Prince Salman had approved an operation to kill Khashoggi. Soon after Mr Biden took office, the White House said the new president intended to "recalibrate" the relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Since then Saudi regime has been isolated . Saudi regime has agreed to formalize its relations with Israel in return to come out of its isolation. Getting Saudi regime to formalize ties with Israel will be a great achievement for Biden- a strong supporter of Zionism and Israel.
As a prelude to coming out of his isolation Prince Salman recently visited Egypt at the beginning of a regional tour which also took him to Jordan and Turkey. A Turkish court closed the case into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi on 17 June, 2022 five days before Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Ankara.
However Khashoggi’s fiancée Hatice Cengiz said Prince Salman is still a murderer.
According to London based Middle East Eye “.The crown prince would offer full normalization with Israel, and in return, he would expect Washington to commit its military resources to defend Saudi Arabia.
One important variable is lost in this difficult equation: namely, long-lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, who continue to exert grassroots pressure on Israel while paying a high price in human lives lost under occupation.
Meanwhile Madawi al-Rasheed, a British citizen of Saudi origin and a Visiting Professor at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science had this to state;
Saudi Arabia is using normalization with Israel as a bargaining chip to regain its privileged position in Washington. With the war in Ukraine and rising global energy prices, Crown Prince Salman is engaged in negotiations from a position of economic strength, but political and military weakness.
Recent news about serious, secretive high-level talks with Israeli officials suggests it is only a matter of time before Saudi Arabia officially announces the success of these discussions, possibly during the expected visit of US President Joe Biden to Riyadh .
Saudi Arabia has a great deal of economic leverage in this situation. Amid fuel shortages and rising oil prices, the crown prince is capitalizing on Saudi Arabia’s much-needed oil resources. Bin Salman knows that oil can be used as a weapon to put pressure on the Biden administration to rehabilitate his own image and reverse the policy of selective engagement, without giving him full recognition in Washington.
Stream of propaganda
Saudi Arabia’s normalization with Israel can be the prize to appease critical US voices that have pressured Biden to boycott the crown prince as punishment for his many reckless policies and abuse of human rights, including the war on Yemen and the authorization of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Israel is no doubt helping to rehabilitate the crown prince’s image, as its far-right think tanks and lobbies in Washington have increased their propaganda with a view to improving bin Salman’s image. It is ironic that Israel is now Saudi Arabia’s greatest propagandist in Washington.
Bin Salman never misses an opportunity to remind his domestic and international audiences that he does not object to normalization with Israel.
In reality, it is impossible to independently assess Saudi public opinion on the matter, given the level of repression faced by those who transgress or criticize bin Salman’s policies. In this regard, Biden’s visit to Riyadh may be a crucial symbolic gesture; in return for more oil, the crown prince wants Biden to end speculation over his own future among a divided royal family.
Militarily, the crown prince also remains very weak without the US, which has historically responded to Saudi Arabia’s military vulnerabilities with ad hoc support, rather than a long-term security pact.
'We feel betrayed': Activists say Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia is a breach of values.US president can still leverage his visit and call for reforms in the kingdom, activists and rights groups say
Meanwhile in a June 3 article New York based columnist Umar A Farooq had this to state; Saudi activists and rights groups have condemned the upcoming visit of President Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia, saying the president is betraying his values by meeting with Crown Prince Salman, who has been accused of rights abuses including murder, torture and the killing of civilians in the Yemen war.
Abdullah Alaoudh, a Saudi academic who is also the son of jailed Islamic scholar Salman al-Awda, said he and other Saudi activists felt "betrayed by Biden”. “President Biden came into office promising accountability for the crown prince's reign of terror. But with one fell swoop, Biden is gambling all hope of justice for MBS's countless victims like my father," Alaoudh told Middle East Eye.
"It was salt in the wound when Trump bragged about 'saving [MBS’s] @$$.’ But how is Biden any better if he kisses the ring of this murderer, this torturer, this war criminal and autocrat?
"If Biden gives him the US meeting MBS so desperately wants, the bloody handshake will send a clear message to tyrants everywhere: you can always count on America to betray its values and reward bad behavior."
The Project on Middle East Democracy said on Twitter that the planned visit "is a slap in the face to activists, dissidents, women human rights defenders, journalists, & everyday citizens - in Saudi and abroad - who have been imprisoned, disappeared, and murdered".
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