"Israeli officials want public commitment from US to protect Saudi regime if it comes under threat"

[JackRiddler]

Former Nightline host Ted Koppel, writing from Jerusalem for the Wall Street Journal, says:

Israeli officials want a public commitment from Washington to protect the Saudi regime should it come under threat...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704330404576291063679488964.html

KOPPEL:

My own reporting on the Middle East in general and Israel in particular goes back almost 40 years-to the days of Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy in the region. On a recent visit to Jerusalem, I met with a number of very senior current and former government officials who spoke on a not-for-attribution basis. They were anything but restrained in voicing their concerns, and some of the views expressed in this article reflect the outlook of the prime minister himself.

Overshadowing all other concerns is the fear that Iran is poised to reap enormous benefits from the so-called Arab Spring. "Even without nukes," one top official told me, "Iran picks up the pieces. With nukes, it takes the house."

Hearing Israeli leaders express grave concerns about Iran and its nuclear potential is nothing new. What is new is a growing worry that America's adversaries will be less inclined to take warnings from Washington seriously. Each week that passes without the overthrow or elimination of Moammar Gadhafi is perceived in Jerusalem as emboldening the leadership of Iran and North Korea."Imagine," one source told me, "how Gadhafi must be kicking himself for giving up the development of Libya's nuclear program."

The Israeli government is so concerned that America's adversaries may miscalculate U.S. intentions that it is privately urging Washington to make it clear that the U.S. would intervene in Saudi Arabia should the survival of that government be threatened. That is, after all, what President George H.W. Bush did more than 20 years ago when Saddam Hussein ordered Iraqi forces into Kuwait and moved forces in the direction of Saudi Arabia. "This," President Bush said on more than one occasion, "will not stand." And it didn't.

SNIP

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Note that Koppel is stil transporting the 20-year-old lie that Iraq posed any threat to Saudi Arabia in 1990. The claim that Iraq massed forces for an attack on Saudi Arabia was revealed as a lie not long after.

That aside, the scenario under discussion here is not an invasion. It is the possibility that the people of Saudi Arabia will overthrow the royal family in the course of the Arab spring.

What these Israeli officials are suggesting would of course be just about the worst possible decision for the United States. The worst possible thing that the US could ever do would be to involve itself in a war to salvage the Saudi regime, or to make any further commitments to the oil kingdom, one of the worst regimes in the world.

The US should be withdrawing its destructive international empire and repurposing the enormous resources it swallows toward ending the era of dependence on oil, period. The parochial fantasies of Israeli officials should not be any kind of factor in determining US policy.

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