JPLO – This is indicative of the alliance of Islamic and Arab States. The world has turned.
� � � The Times of Israel MBS’s ‘genocide’ critique of Israel is worrying, but a Saudi deal is not a lost cause Crown prince sharpened his criticism of Israel at Riyadh summit and continues to warm ties with Iran, but a defense pact with US is still his priority and Tehran still the chief foe Lazar Berman By Lazar Berman Follow 19 November 2024, 1:28 pm ... Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman told the gathered leaders that the kingdom renewed “its condemnation and categorical rejection of the genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people, which has claimed the lives of 150,000 martyrs, wounded and missing, most of whom are women and children.” Escalation of discourse The Saudis have criticized Israel throughout the war, but usually through junior officials or Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. The fact that it was MBS himself accusing Israel of genocide in a highly public forum was the most noteworthy escalation in Riyadh’s critique of Israel, which has become increasingly strident since the Hamas attacks on October 7. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan speaks to journalists before the start of the ‘International Alliance to Implement the Two-State Solution’ meeting in Riyadh on October 30, 2024 (Fayez Nureldine / AFP) But there are reasons to brush aside the statements. Summits like the one MBS hosted in Riyadh are often forums for posturing and empty proclamations. “The path of least resistance for these regimes is to virtue signal their publics in an effort to appease them,” said John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, “by putting out very tough statements with the hope of making sure their anger is channeled toward Israel rather than being directed at the regimes themselves.” The Saudis have to be mindful of public sentiment on the war in Gaza. The population has been watching images of dead Gazans on TV for over a year, and is furious. Pilgrims leave after offering prayers outside at the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, June 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) “He has to listen to what his people are saying, and you don’t want to get too far out of line,” said Simon Henderson, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It would seem that he was getting out of line, and this is a corrective statement.” Still, there are signs that substantive shifts away from Israel are taking place. There has been an “escalation of diplomatic discourse” from Gulf states, with more strident and more frequent public criticism of Israel, said Moran Zaga, an expert on the Gulf region at Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies. Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Albares (C) addresses a press conference with (From L) Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, Jordanian Foreign Minster Ayman Safadi, Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon and Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty following a meeting on a Palestinian state on September 13, 2024 (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP) There has also been a flurry of diplomatic activity around the Palestinian issue that is taking place over Israel’s head. In September, European, Arab and Islamic nations launched an initiative — co-chaired by Saudi Arabia — to strengthen support for a Palestinian state. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states also voted for the Palestinians to be granted full membership at the UN. “Gulf states discovered that they can move the Palestinian issue forward not through Israel,” Zaga continued. “The trend of turning to the international community is gaining momentum.” The day beyond tomorrow The other worrying trend for Israel, also reflected in MBS’s remarks, is the ongoing thawing of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Advertisement Last week, Saudi military chief of staff Fayyad al-Ruwaili traveled to Iran with a senior military delegation to meet his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Bagheri. Saudi chief of staff Maj. Gen. Fayyad bin Hamad bin Ragad al-Ruwaili (C) attends a meeting of the 15th session for the chiefs of staff of the Gulf Cooperation Council states in Kuwait City, September 10, 2018.(Yasser Al-Zayyat / AFP) In October, the two countries participated in joint naval exercises. Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran severed ties in 2016 after Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran were attacked during protests over Riyadh’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. They are also on opposite sides of the decade-long civil war in Yemen. But last March, a China-brokered deal saw the longtime rivals agree to restore diplomatic relations and reopen their respective embassies. Iranian protesters gather outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran during a demonstration against the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities, January 2, 2016. (AFP/ISNA/ MOHAMMADREZA NADIMI) The shift in the Saudi approach to Iran comes from realpolitik concerns over the kingdom’s security, and not any new appreciation for the Islamic Republic. A leading Saudi journalist found the seeds of Saudi-Iranian détente going back to the Barack Obama administration, writing that “Washington and the West have not been serious about the region’s security since concluding the Iranian nuclear agreement in 2015.” Advertisement US President-elect Donald Trump, though well-received in the Gulf, further eroded Saudi trust in his first term. He chose not to strike Iran in response to the September 2019 drone and missile attack on a key Saudi oil processing facility. Once Riyadh understood there would be no American retaliation, it reached out to Iran, understanding it had to avoid a conflict in which it could be forced to fight on its own. In this photo from May 20, 2017, US President Donald Trump holds a sword and dances with traditional dancers during a welcome ceremony at Murabba Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) Since October 7, 2023, Riyadh has been working to avoid a full-blown Iran-Israel war that could see Tehran lash out at Gulf states and Western interests in response to Israeli attacks. “Whatever happens, they’re always looking at the day beyond tomorrow,” said Henderson. “Tomorrow, next week, next year, they will still be there, Iran will still be there.” Nonetheless, for the Saudis, the Islamic Republic is still the primary threat. “The only relevant question for the Saudis is not whether or not Iran is a mortal enemy, but what is the best way to keep the Islamic Republic at bay and deterred from attacking Saudi interests, given the geostrategic circumstances of the present moment,” argued Hannah. MBS’s genocide allegation against Israel at the Riyadh summit “suggests that right now, the Saudis see [appeasing Iran] as the safest way to go. But that can change relatively quickly once the situation changes,” he argued. The change they want is a defense deal with the US that would include formal guarantees for Saudi security. The Joe Biden administration worked to include normalization with Israel as part of a three-way agreement, and Trump is likely to pursue a deal with similar parameters. During a trip organized by the Saudi information ministry, workers fix the damage in Aramco’s oil separator at a processing facility after the September 14 attack in Abqaiq, near Dammam in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province, September 20, 2019. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Since October 7, the price of that deal has gone up for Israel, with the Saudis openly demanding movement toward a Palestinian state. � � https://www.timesofisrael.com/mbss-genocide-critique-of-israel-is-worrying-but-a-saudi-deal-is-not-a-lost-cause/?utm_source=The+Weekend+Edition <https://www.timesofisrael.com/mbss-genocide-critique-of-israel-is-worrying-but-a-saudi-deal-is-not-a-lost-cause/?utm_source=The+Weekend+Edition&utm_campaign=weekend-edition-2024-11-24&utm_medium=email> &utm_campaign=weekend-edition-2024-11-24&utm_medium=email � � � ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ � R E C O N C I L I A T I O N C O N F ER E N C E L I S T قائمة مؤتمر المصالحة since 1994 by the JPLO Jewish People’s Liberation Organization Organisation pour la Liberation du Peuple Juif End Zionism & Judaeophobia abraham Weizfeld Phd moderator-founder <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] political declaration JPLO ( a Bundist chapter ) <https://jewish-socialist-bund.net/JPLO> https://Jewish-Socialist-Bund.net/JPLO the books Sabra and Shatila (1984) 2009 <https://www.academia.edu/44543523/SABRA_AND_SHATILA_Edition_2009> https://www.academia.edu/44543523/SABRA_AND_SHATILA_Edition_2009 <http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000255066/Sabra-and-Shatila.aspx> http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000255066/Sabra-and-Shatila.aspx The End of Zionism : and the liberation of the Jewish People 1989 <http://www.academia.edu/11243333/THE_END_OF_ZIONISM_and_the_liberation_of_the_Jewish_People> http://www.academia.edu/11243333/THE_END_OF_ZIONISM_and_the_liberation_of_the_Jewish_People Nation, Society and the State : the reconciliation of Palestinian and Jewish Nationhood <https://www.academia.edu/40349204/VOLUME_I_SECOND_EDITION_THESIS_NATION_SOCIETY_AND_THE_STATE> https://www.academia.edu/40349204/VOLUME_I_SECOND_EDITION_THESIS_NATION_SOCIETY_AND_THE_STATE <https://www.academia.edu/40349264/VOLUME_TWO_SECOND_EDITION_THESIS_METHODOLOGY_OF_NATIONAL_IDENTITY> https://www.academia.edu/40349264/VOLUME_TWO_SECOND_EDITION_THESIS_METHODOLOGY_OF_NATIONAL_IDENTITY The Federation of Palestinian and Hebrew Nations <https://www.academia.edu/38380122/The_Federation_of_Palestinian_and_Hebrew_Nations> https://www.academia.edu/38380122/The_Federation_of_Palestinian_and_Hebrew_Nations <https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-1313-6> https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-1313-6 (Hbk) The Federation of Palestinian and Hebrew Nations Second Edition <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Federation-Palestinian-Hebrew-Nations-SECOND-ebook/dp/B0BR4HGHFC/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1674350005&refinements=p_27%3AAbraham+Weizfeld&s=digital-text&sr=1-2> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Federation-Palestinian-Hebrew-Nations-SECOND-ebook/dp/B0BR4HGHFC/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1674350005&refinements=p_27%3AAbraham+Weizfeld&s=digital-text&sr=1-2 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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