Saudi Arabia endeavors to become a regional power with teeth, both domestic and foreign. But many still see the Saudis as U.S. collaborators: a shallow way of looking at things, since the Saudis have global interests they are willing to fight for. When you have no money, you feel that the homeland belongs to you. When you have a million dollars, you try to strike a balance between what’s good for the money and what’s good for the homeland. But when you have a billion dollars your homeland is your bank account, whether it’s in a bank in Switzerland or a tax haven in the Virgin Islands.
That’s why the pride that senior Israeli figures take in our relations with this benighted kingdom is so nauseating. At a time when the Palestinians are being criticized, sometimes justifiably, for undemocratic actions, the Israelis are embracing the mother of all injustice. Oil money is still the most significant instrument in the attempt to acquire everything in the Arab world that thinks, from intellectuals and leaders to newspapers, television stations and websites. [...]
But in the meantime, there are problems with translation in the field. Netanyahu hastened to call Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation a “wake-up call” to take action against Iranian aggression. Now it turns out the belligerent ones are actually his Saudi allies, who are imprisoning the prime minister of a foreign country, in violation of international diplomatic protocol.
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