by Bassam Tawil, GATESTONE • May 7, 2024
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on April 29, 2024. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
- If the Saudis were really interested in normalizing their relations with Israel, they could have done so long ago. Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is delaying the move, in part, reportedly, out of fear of facing a backlash from his own people. He may, however, also have serious reservations that he would prefer not to talk about in public.
- Like most Arabs, the Saudis could not care less about a Palestinian state and might secretly prefer not to have one at all. They are no doubt aware that the Palestinians themselves are the biggest obstacle to the establishment of a state of their own. During the past eight decades, they have acted as a serial wrecking ball to every peaceful place they set foot.
- The last thing most Arab states want is a Hamas-controlled Palestinian state. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain justifiably regard Hamas and other Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to their national security, most likely the main reason they all have refused to take in Gazan refugees.
- Blinken’s claim that a Palestinian state would “isolate” Iran and its proxies is pure nonsense. The opposite is the case. Iran, its proxies and Qatar would doubtless be extremely happy if the Biden administration would allow them to establish a terrorist state on Israel’s doorstep. This state would be used by Iran and its terrorists as a launching pad for more October 7-style massacres of Israelis to further their goal of destroying first Israel, then the Arab states.
- It is Israel — not Iran — that will find itself “isolated” and surrounded by Iran-backed Islamist terrorist groups…
- A Middle East that includes a Palestinian state controlled by Iran and Islamist terrorists will be a less secure region, especially after Iran acquires nuclear weapons.
- Biden, by reconfirming that terrorism “works,” would embolden all the other terrorists. Just keep on terrorizing everyone, and, when your demands are met, keep on increasing and hardening them.
- More significantly, by appeasing Iran, Qatar and potential voters in Michigan by creating a Palestinian state, the Biden administration will in fact be inviting Iran to initiate still more attacks – not only on Israel but also on US forces in the Middle East…. If Iran finally coerces the US to withdraw from the region as it is reportedly thinking of doing, the regime will finally be able to take over its neighbors’ oil fields and holy sites without worrying about the US interfering.
- Meanwhile, as the Biden administration, busy trying to win re-election in November, seems to have no idea how to end all the conflicts it ignited, directly or indirectly, in Gaza, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific. The US has been backing both sides of all of them. Iran, presumably taking advantage of these distractions, and perhaps as a consolation prize for losing so much of Hamas -– has been moving to take over Sudan. It is a country rich in oil, gold, rare earth minerals and terrorism — and felicitously positioned to help Iran launch unlimited combat drones – the planet’s new “cheap, instant air force” — at both Israel and US forces, and enable Iran to use Sudan’s port on the Red Sea to continue obstructing maritime traffic.
- After all, if terrorism “works,” why stop?
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has repeatedly spoken of the need for a “pathway” for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. According to Blinken, a Palestinian state would have two positive effects: First, it would pave the way for a normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and second, it would “isolate” Iran and its terrorist proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
This is the same Blinken who has put pressure on Israel to refrain from a military operation to destroy the remaining four Hamas battalions in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. If the battalions are not destroyed, it means that Hamas will remain in power and that Israel will, by default, lose the war. Hamas would be able to rebuild its military and, as it has vowed, will repeat the October 7 attack, time and again, until Israel is annihilated.
Blinken went from campaign advisor to Sec of State after suppressing the Hunter Biden Laptop story in 2020. I think he should be referred to, henceforth, as Consigliere Blinken.
“In 2020, current U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was then a Senior Advisor to the Biden campaign when he sparked the disinformation creation by Michael Morell, former CIA Acting Director who was reportedly being considered for CIA Director if Biden won the election.[1] Recently released documents from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee shows that Blinken coordinated with former intelligence officials of multiple federal agencies, including the FBI and the CIA, to develop a disinformation strategy to discredit the allegations against the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop.[2] Blinken, and those promoting the letter, suggested that the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop was a Russian disinformation campaign.[3]
The Report provides, “[o]n November 3, 2020, the American people went to the polls to elect the president of the United States with the false impression that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation. The American people cannot get back the 2020 election, but they have every right to demand reforms from Congress so that the 2024 election will not be similarly compromised. The United States is witnessing in real time the growth of a censorship industrial complex, in which partisan ‘experts’ — like the former intelligence officials who signed the statement — reserve for themselves the right to determine what is and is not true and what Americans can and cannot hear.”[4]…