{"id":322,"date":"2007-08-01T10:51:27","date_gmt":"2007-08-01T14:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=322"},"modified":"2007-08-01T10:56:34","modified_gmt":"2007-08-01T14:56:34","slug":"indyk-of-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=322","title":{"rendered":"Indyk of Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"
Martin Indyk wants to save the A<\/title>Martin Indyk wants to save the Arabs.<\/p>\n<p>Inkyk–the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nysun.com\/pf.php?id=16086&v=2050795811\"> Australian-born prot\u00c3\u00a9g\u00c3\u00a9<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/stories\/2005\/08\/04\/national\/main759248.shtml\"> indicted AIPAC official Steven Rosen<\/a>, former US Ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administration, and current director of the Brookings Institution’s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/fp\/saban\/overview.htm\">Saban Center for Middle East Policy<\/a>–has welcomed signs that the Bush administration is looking to forge a US-Israeli-Arab front to challenge Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Hence the <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=321\">recent cheerleading for Bush’s anti-Shiite tilt<\/a> in Iraq from Michael O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, Indyk’s Brookings brothers.<\/p>\n<p>Indyk is even more blunt in a recent Op-Ed published in <em>The Age<\/em> (Australia), entitled “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/news\/opinion\/securing-the-arab-world\/2007\/07\/24\/1185043112303.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1\">Securing the Arab World<\/a>.”<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>By insisting on elections and reinforcing the power of a Shiite \tGovernment in Iraq, the US has exacerbated Sunni-Shiite conflict…<\/p>\n<p>For some time Sunni Arab leaders in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan had been \twarning that a Shiite arc was spreading its influence across the region….<\/p>\n<p>They found it unacceptable that a Shiite-dominated, historically Persian \tIran should blatantly interfere with Arab Iraq, Arab Lebanon and Arab \tPalestine and attempt to become the arbiter of Arab interests….<\/p>\n<p>Given these Arab concerns, the Shiite rise presents the US and Israel with a \tmeasure of opportunity. The only way Sunni Arab leaders can counter Iran’s \tbid for regional dominance is by securing US and Israeli actions….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Presumably, then, Indyk is well pleased by <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/middle_east\/6923347.stm\">Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s efforts<\/a> to use the promise of US military aid to construct an Arab-Israeli, anti-Iranian regional bloc.<\/p>\n<p>The conventional wisdom appears to be that Arab leaders will welcome this strategic alignment.\u00c2\u00a0 An <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/07\/28\/AR2007072800609.html\"> Associated Press<\/a> report suggests the formation of the anti-Iranian bloc is a slam dunk.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates \twill visit Egypt and Saudi Arabia for a rare joint lobbying effort…<\/p>\n<p>The Cabinet secretaries also will try to solidify what the U.S. sees as a \tbulwark of generally moderate Arab states against an increasingly ambitious \tand unpredictable Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Unity against Iran is not a hard sell….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While the Saudis may not actually go so far as to <em>refuse<\/em> the US military aid, I’m not sure the Saudis are sold on the Iran plan.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi King Abdullah has not yet embraced the Bush administration’s talking points on Iran, Lebanon, or Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, a case could be made that Secretary of State Rice–and Zionists like Martin Indyk–are dreaming of (and promoting military aid to…) a different Saudi King than the one who currently occupies the throne.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi King Abdullah has<em> <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=253\">refused<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=253\"> to cooperate with the US in any of its major proxy wars against Iran<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, the King has consistently favored <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=253\">dialogue<\/a> over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.muslimnews.co.uk\/news\/news.php?article=12527\">confrontation<\/a> with Iran.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Saudi Resistance in Lebanon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In Lebanon, Abdullah did everything he could to <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=111\">kill the anti-Iranian Cedar Revolution<\/a> and to foster unity between Iranian-backed Hezbollah and the Saudi-backed Siniora government.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Saudi Resistance in Palestine<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>King Abdullah’s “Mecca Agreement” fostered unity within the Palestinian Authority between Iranian-backed Hamas and the Saudi-backed Abbas government, even as the Bush administration encouraged Abbas to launch <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=280\">a proxy war against Iran in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=307\">Hamas defeated Fatah<\/a> in the Gaza proxy war, the US pressed for Fatah and Abbas to completely <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/worldlatest\/story\/0,,-6791417,00.html\"> isolate Hamas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There are important indications, however, that King Abdullah continues to resist US efforts to isolate Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>The US may have Egyptian support for the anti-Iranian effort, but a rift might have developed between the Saudis and the Egyptians in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas victory in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>In late June, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/bin\/print.php?id=6337968\"> Associated Press<\/a> reported on the split:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Egypt and Saudi Arabia may not be seeing eye-to-eye over how to deal with \tthe inter-Palestinian rivalry \u00e2\u20ac\u201d with Cairo feeling its traditional leading \tmediator role has been sidelined by Riyadh’s growing influence.<\/p>\n<p>In March, Saudi Arabia \u00e2\u20ac\u201d not Egypt \u00e2\u20ac\u201d managed to bring Hamas and Fatah \tleaders to Mecca for a reconciliation agreement. Since then, relations \tbetween the two nations have been cool, with Egyptian state-owned media \trecently reported that Saudi Arabia was undermining Cairo’s position.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In early July, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alertnet.org\/thenews\/newsdesk\/L04803042.htm\">Reuters<\/a> affirmed the Saudi position:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[Israeli] officials said some Arab countries, notably Saudi Arabia, \topposed U.S.-supported efforts to isolate Hamas following its defeat of \tPresident Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group in Gaza last month…<\/p>\n<p>In remarks to Reuters in Riyadh, Saudi political commentator Adel al-Harbi, \tan editor at the semi-official al-Riyadh daily… said King Abdullah was \ttrying “to get the Palestinian factions to come together in a unity \tgovernment” again, due to his objections to the political split between Gaza \tand the West Bank, where Fatah holds sway.<\/p>\n<p>“Saudi Arabia is against the idea of two authorities, one in Gaza and one in \tRamallah … that’s not Saudi Arabia’s policy,” Harbi said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even as Abbas wraps himself in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/aspxcontent\/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20070716\\ACQRTT200707161528RTTRADERUSEQUITY_0954.htm&\"> security of US <\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/2007\/07\/20\/news\/mideast.php\">Israeli support<\/a> he has been <a href=\"http:\/\/archive.gulfnews.com\/articles\/07\/06\/29\/10135686.html\">snubbed by Saudi King<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Moreover, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.middle-east-online.com\/English\/?id=21363\">Abdullah has pressed–against the objections of the PLO<\/a>–for an Arab League commission to investigate the events leading to the showdown in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Saudi Resistance in Iraq<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As I suggested in <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=267\">a previous post<\/a>, there are signs that within the Saudi royal family, King Abdullah represents a position that is relatively <a href=\"http:\/\/www.muslimnews.co.uk\/news\/news.php?article=12527\">soft on Iran<\/a> but hard on Iraqi Shiite rule.<\/p>\n<p>It would not be surprising, then, if Secretary of State Rice receives something of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesonline.co.uk\/tol\/news\/world\/middle_east\/article2175942.ece\"> a lukewarm response<\/a> to her request that Arab leaders rally around the Shiite-led Maliki government in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dreaming of a Crown Prince?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Martin Indyk may fancy himself the next Lawrence of Arabia, but Saudi King Abdullah seems unwilling to play the role of the cooperative Hashemite, Faisal bin Hussein.<\/p>\n<p>Is the US really throwing massive amounts of military aid toward a leader who seems so resistant to the American agenda in the Middle East?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Indyk and the Bush administration are merely naive about Abdullah.<\/p>\n<p>Or maybe all that US military aid is meant to strengthen a specific element of the Saudi kingdom, the <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=215\"> defense establishment headed by Crown Prince Sultan<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/?page=1§ion=0&article=71830&d=17&m=10&y=2005\"> National Security Council, heading by Sultan’s son, Prince Bandar<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Is it possible that Indyk and the Bush administration are already <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=267\">dreaming of the <em>next<\/em> Saudi King<\/a> should <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/onthisday\/hi\/dates\/stories\/march\/25\/newsid_4233000\/4233595.stm\"> something untoward<\/a> happen to King Abdullah?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Indyk wants to save the AMartin Indyk wants to save the Arabs. Inkyk–the Australian-born prot\u00c3\u00a9g\u00c3\u00a9 of indicted AIPAC official Steven Rosen, former US Ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administration, and current director of the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy–has welcomed signs that the Bush administration is looking to forge a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,6,3,12,31,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}