Note to readers of this on this site. Significant parts of
this essay include material from a previously published comment, however the
essay also contains new material.
WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON IN SAUDI ARABIA?
John Chuckman
“Trump Says Saudi
Elites Caught In Anti-Corruption Probe Were ‘Milking’ Kingdom For Years”
This is just nonsense from Trump.
Corruption is and has been everywhere in Saudi Arabia. How
else could it be with all the countless billions changing hands in a fairly
closed society?
So, it is easy for a guy like the new Crown Prince to glance
around and conveniently find some corruption among people he wants to discredit
anyway.
It may go beyond merely discrediting them to having hundreds
of billions seized by the Crown Prince. Not a bad day’s work.
What is going on is a kind of coup against the old order by
the new usurper Crown Prince. His recent appointment was by a King well known
for his senility, and it suddenly and surprisingly upset the established order
of succession and all kinds of extended family compacts.
We likely will never know what truly happened in this
secretive kingdom. But we do know the abrupt changes created lots of enemies
who needed attending to, and that seems to be what is happening.
And the enemies have no friends in Washington to whom they
can appeal. The old order in Saudi Arabia suffered terribly in the wake of
9/11, and despite great efforts to pacify the US with new levels of
cooperation, it is now being swept out.
Now, whatever is considered good for a hyper-aggressive
United States is coincidentally good for its de facto colony in the Middle
East.
Trump himself has already proved to be one of Israel’s best-ever
American friends. Israel has long had great influence, but it possibly never
had it so good as it does now, as with a UN Ambassador who speaks as though she
were a joint appointment of Trump and Netanyahu. Trump’s only competitor in
this regard would be Lyndon Johnson.
The US and Israel closely embrace the usurper because he has
proven his dependability with bloody projects like making illegal war on Yemen.
That war is exactly like the proxy war waged by mercenaries – ISIS and Al-Nusra
et al - in Syria except that in this case it is the open work of a nation-state.
And now he joins Israel in making threats on Lebanon.
In all the Neocon Wars in the Mideast, great effort has been
made, one way or another, not to have Israel at center stage, to avoid having Israel
appear as aggressor. But, in fact, without the influence of Israel, none of
these terrible wars would have happened.
Yes, the Crown Prince will be a dependable component in the years-long
American-Israeli project of creating a new Middle East. The Crown Prince is
essentially Israel's man in Saudi Arabia, just as President el-Sisi is in
Egypt. Israel is comfortable being surrounded by absolute governments, so long
as they are absolute governments beholden to its patron, the United States.
Right now, the new Crown Prince is doing another bloody
service for Israeli interests. The Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri, was
called to come to Riyadh in the King’s name for some business, as it turned out
on false pretenses. Hariri had his plane surrounded and he was effectively
arrested upon landing. Just pure modern piracy. Later, and who knows after what
threats, he announced his sudden and unexpected resignation as prime minister,
and he remains in Saudi Arabia.
It just so happens, in very recent time, Netanyahu and some
of his officials have made some very ugly noises against Lebanon and even
staged a large-scale set of war games, including calling up reservists, clearly
threatening the country.
Israel just cannot stand the idea of Hezbollah being part of
the Lebanese government whereas a reasonable observer would say Lebanon had
achieved a peaceful balance in governing a land of many diverse political and
religious groups.
After all, it hasn’t been that long ago since Israel helped
catapult Lebanon into a terrible, bloody civil war, and it did so with its own
bloody and unwarranted invasion of the country. Hezbollah, an organization
which has never been a true terrorist group no matter what Israel goes on
about, came into its own by opposing Israel’s long-term, illegal occupation of
Southern Lebanon.
They were only defending what is theirs, but they made
Israel look very bad, and that is an unforgivable offence. So, here we have the
new Saudi Crown Prince doing more dirty work on Israel’s behalf, much as with
his war in Yemen where he bombs civilians regularly, saving Israel from having
to act on its own to get what it wants in someone else’s country.