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Najdi Bedouins’ alliance with the Zionists out in the open

Yusuf Dhia-Allah

They have no diplomatic relations but that has not proved a hindrance to the Najdi Bedouins and the Zionists publicly embracing each other against Islamic self-determination.

Two groups of alien occupiers have illegally taken over the holy lands of the Arabian Peninsula and Palestine. Both have changed the original names of these lands: Arabian Peninsula, the name given by the noble Messenger (pbuh) to that blessed land has been renamed “Saudi” Arabia, and Palestine is called “Israel” by the Zionist occupiers. Bedouins from the backwaters of Najd in Central Arabia occupied the Arabian Peninsula in the early part of the last century while colonialists from Europe and Russia took over Palestine in 1948. In both cases, oppressive systems have been imposed on the peoples and lands. Both are the products of British colonial intrigue and as a consequence, have caused havoc in the Muslim East (aka the Middle East) and beyond.

For decades the two entities maintained secret contacts while publicly eschewing direct relations. The Zionists have always been keen to have open contacts because they have sought recognition and, therefore, legitimacy. The Najdi Bedouins have been hiding their real intentions and policy fearing the negative reaction of the global Muslim Ummah that views the Zionist occupation of Palestine with utter horror.

Developments in the region, however, have forced the two entities to come out of purdah and embrace each other publicly. The two have much in common: both are alien to the lands they occupy; they use religion to hide their true agenda and have alienated millions of their co-religionists. Except for a small coterie of their hangers-on that receive petrodollar bakhsheesh, the Najdi Bedouins have alienated the nearly two billion Muslims worldwide. The Zionists, on the other hand, blackmail their co-religionists as well as others forcing them into silence about their crimes.

Such policies are becoming increasingly untenable. The façade of no contact between the two entities is falling apart. This was most clearly evident at a meeting organized by the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on June 4.

Senior officials from the two regimes not only shared the platform but also spoke back to back. And then, the two officials shook hands in what must be the first direct public contact between officials of the two regimes. The Zionist regime was represented by Dore Gold, Director General-designate at the Foreign Ministry, and the Najdi Bedouins by retired Saudi General Anwar Majed Eshki. The latter has served as advisor to one time Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan and currently serves as director of the Strategic Research Center in Jeddah. He is a proponent of the 2002 Saudi Arab Peace Initiative that was announced with much fanfare by then Crown Prince Abdullah while King Fahd lay incapacitated. The proposal seeks normalization of ties between Israel and Arab League members in return for the Zionists giving a few crumbs to the Palestinians. Aware of the Arabian rulers’ impotence, the Zionists have refused to grant any concessions. Instead, they have waited and created circumstances in which the Arabians would be forced to come on their knees begging for help.

Two issues in particular have forced the Arabian rulers’ hands. The ongoing war on Syria that has not turned out the way they had hoped, and Islamic Iran’s potential deal with the P5+1 group of countries that would enhance Tehran’s influence considerably. Even without the deal, Iran has made major strides in the region because of its principled stand on numerous issues. True, it has had to pay a steep price for upholding such principles but ultimately, this has enhanced Iran’s standing and position.

Zionist Israel and Wahhabi “Saudi” Arabia have openly embraced each other in an attempt to thwart Iran’s influence in the Muslim East. This was also the theme at the Council on Foreign Relations meeting in Washington, DC early last month. Not only Bloomberg news (June 4) but also the Jerusalem Post reported it in a long article the following day (June 5). It was accompanied by Gold and Eshki shaking hands warmly and grinning. Do representatives of governments that have no diplomatic relations meet and greet each other in this manner?

The Jerusalem Post article by Daniel Roth quoted Dore Gold as saying, “Our standing today on this stage does not mean we have resolved all the differences that our countries have shared over the years.” The Zionist official, however, went on, “But our hope is we will be able to address them fully in the years ahead.” Judging from reaction of the Najdi Bedouins, the Zionists will not be disappointed.

In fact their secret contacts have gone on for quite some time but intensified over the last 18 months. Officials from the two countries have met at least five times in such places as India, Italy and the Czech Republic. One of the participants at these meetings, retired Israeli general Shimon Shapira was quoted as saying, “We discovered we have the same problems and same challenges and some of the same answers.” And what were these problems and challenges? Shapira was candid: Iran’s activities in the region, which both the Zionists and the Najdi Bedouins find objectionable, and which both sides had looked for political and economic ways to blunt them.

Shapira was not being completely honest. Contacts between the two entities have gone on much longer. For instance, in 2009, Bandar bin Sultan, one of the nastiest members of the Saudi breed — he is the illegitimate son of Sultan bin ‘Abd al-‘Aziz! — visited Tel Aviv secretly and urged then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to attack and finish off Hizbullah in Lebanon. The Saudis would pay all costs. Bandar had brought the message on behalf of King Abdullah whom he served as security advisor at the time. Despite the enticing offer, Olmert was not going to risk another war with Hizbullah after the beating the Israeli army had to endure in the summer of 2006.

Despite the Zionists’ rejection of that offer in 2009, the Najdi Bedouins did not give up. As Robert Parry wrote in his analysis in Consortium News, the Najid Bedouins have reportedly paid $16 billion to the Zionists over the last 30 months (“Did Money Seal Israeli-Saudi Alliance?” April 17, 2015). The money was funneled “through a third-country Arab state [Qatar?] and into an Israeli ‘development’ account in Europe to help finance infrastructure inside Israel” Parry reported. The information came from a source briefed by US intelligence and the account was first called “‘a Netanyahu slush fund,’ but later refined that characterization, saying the money was used for public projects such as building settlements in the West Bank,” according to Parry.

Not surprisingly, on January 23, 2015, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin sent a personal message of condolence on the death of King Abdullah describing him as a “moderate” and “man of peace.” The people of Bahrain and Yemen, not to mention residents of the Eastern province of Arabia would have a very different opinion of Abdullah and his successors. But Rivlin was merely reciprocating Abdullah’s gesture. In January 2014, when Ariel Sharon who rightly earned the epithet, the “Butcher of Beirut,” died after remaining in a vegetative state for eight years, the “Saudi” king sent a condolence message to the mass murderer’s family and the Israeli people. Such camaraderie and expressions of goodwill between officials of two states with no diplomatic relations were unusual, or were they?

The Zionists have been hinting at improved relations with the Arabian potentates periodically although these were not immediately picked up by the West’s corporate media. For instance, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations General Assembly on October 1, 2013, he dropped broad hints about the new Israeli-Saudi relationship. Amid his nonsensical rant about Islamic Iran’s non-existent nuclear bomb (the Zionists have more than 200 bombs!), Netanyahu threatened to launch unilateral military strikes against Tehran’s nuclear facilities. Perish the thought if anyone were to call him a warmonger or a danger to world peace.

The Zionist warmonger could hardly contain him joy when he said, “The dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran and the emergence of other threats in our region have led many of our Arab neighbors to recognize, finally recognize, that Israel is not their enemy. And this affords us the opportunity to overcome the historic animosities and build new relationships, new friendships, new hopes.” Such warm praise for Israel’s Arabian neighbors stood in sharp contrast with his earlier drum beating about the imaginary threats the Zionist State faced from them.

As if not to be left behind, Israel’s Channel 2 TV news reported the very next day about a meeting in Jerusalem between senior Israeli security officials and a high-level Arabian state counterpart. It was widely believed to be Bandar bin Sultan who had cultivated close links with the Zionist neocons while serving as ambassador in Washington, DC (1983–2005). He was so close to the Bush family that he earned the nickname Bandar Bush! While such contacts have gone on for some time, the fact that they were now being reported by the Israeli media as well was a new development.

Several months later, Time magazine also picked up the thread. In an article on January 19, 2015, its correspondent Joe Klein reported on another encounter between former intelligence officials that had occurred several months earlier. What took Klein so long to report this remains unexplained, as does the fact that he chose to disclose it at this time although it was not a secret.

Klein wrote, “On May 26, 2014, an unprecedented public conversation took place in Brussels. Two former high-ranking spymasters of Israel and Saudi Arabia — Amos Yadlin and Prince Turki al-Faisal — sat together for more than an hour, talking regional politics in a conversation moderated by the Washington Post’s David Ignatius. The latter had also moderated the discussion at Davos in January 2009 when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Edrogan stormed out of a heated exchange with then Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Erdogan told the Zionist that they know how to kill children. This was a reference to the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza during the Zionist war of December 2008–January 2009. When Ignatius tried to intervene, the Turkish premier told him not to interrupt and after speaking, he stormed out of the meeting saying he will never attend Davos meetings under such circumstances.

At the Brussels meeting, Ignatius did not have to interrupt either the Saudi or his Israeli counterpart. What Turki al-Faisal said was music to the ears of the former Israeli spy chief. In addition to many other things, Turki’s statement that the Arabians “had ‘crossed the Rubicon’ and ‘don’t want to fight Israel anymore’” was widely applauded.

The Arabian rulers have never fought Israel. Turki’s statement was simply confirmation of a reality that had existed all along. The bellicose noises against Israel were always meant for Arab public consumption. Finally the Arabian potentates had found a real enemy, Islamic Iran, and they were forced to come out of purdah to join hands with the killers of Palestinians to fight the only legitimate expression of Islamic self-determination in the region.

The Arabian potentates were now providing proof, if proof indeed were needed, that they are, in the words of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, Israel’s “first line of defence.” Does one need any further proof of their treachery and betrayal of Islam?


Article from

Crescent International Vol. 44, No. 5

Ramadan 14, 14362015-07-01


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