http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4056900,00.htmlOp-ed: Israel, Saudi Arabia should form alliance of necessity vis-à-vis Iran’s nuclear threat.
Finally, Saudi Arabia and Israel have common ground for establishing a temporary strategic alliance, similar to the one that existed during World War II between the Soviet Union and United States against the Nazi regime.
Both countries mistrust President Barack Obama as a reliable ally and fear the prospect of a nuclear Iran.
Despite the major differences in values and a history of enmity, it seems only rational that Saudi Arabia should seek the unthinkable and cooperate with the Jewish state in order to preserve its survival and political independence. Otherwise, the Saudis and other Persian Gulf states will be the first victims of a nuclear Iran, without a capable, strong and reliable ally to come to their aid.
British Defense Secretary Liam Fox told the House of Commons in January that Iran may be capable of developing nuclear weapons by the end of 2012. By then, most US and Western military forces will be leaving the Middle East, and Israel will be the only remaining military power capable and motivated to militarily solve the Iranian problem.
However, Israel needs strategic cooperation from Saudi Arabia to succeed, including permission to fly over Saudi territory and emergency logistical support. Most importantly, Israel needs Saudi Arabia to delay any international or Arab plan to pressure Israel on establishing a Palestinian state. While the world will be dangerously distracted and waste months with on the Palestinian issue, Iran will be off the world radar and much closer to attaining its goal.
The Saudis should be aware by now of the following truths:
First, Israel’s leadership is more loyal to its Arab allies than President Obama. While Israel stood by Mubarak, it took Obama three days to call for Egypt’s president, a long term US friend, to leave office and to threaten him with foreign aid cuts. It seems that Obama only confronts and abandons allies, but prefers not to meddle in the internal revolts of enemies like Syria and Iran.
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Second, an ongoing state of war or a campaign of hatred and anti-Semitism against the Jewish state no longer guarantees an Arab regime‘s political survival, we saw in Syria, Libya and Yemen.
Third, Iran is the main danger to Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf states, not Israel, as the WikiLeaks cables revealed, with Saudi King Abdullah repeatedly imploring Washington to “cut off the head of the snake” (Iran) while there was still time.
Fourth, Obama will never advocate a military solution against Iran, as we saw in the last two years with his futile policy of engagement and economic sanctions. Only Israel has the will, the self-interest and the know-how to stop the Iranian menace. Israel already demolished the nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 and a Syrian reactor in 2007. After the US withdraws most of its armies from the Middle East, Obama’s ideology will negate the possibility of sending US troops to eliminate the Iranian threat.
Fifth, establishing a Palestinian state is not in the best interest of Saudi Arabia or Israel. As previously happened after Israel withdrew its military forces from Gaza in 2005, Hamas will be able to take over the new state by winning subsequent Palestinian elections, as it did in 2006, or by militarily defeating the PA,
as it did in 2007. Such state would become another Iranian base, threatening Israel but also destabilizing Jordan next door and encircling the Saudis from the northwest.
Instead of considering initiatives to rally Western countries, including the US, against International recognition of a Palestinian state, Israel’s leadership should look into creating new alliances, even with traditional enemies. As the Arab proverb says, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Topic: Our Saudi Arabian allies (Read 472 times)