Israel, Saudis Huddle in Moscow with Russians: End of U.S. Alliance?
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Did anyone notice last week that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Moscow to meet with Russian President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin?
Also believed to be in on the meeting: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal or Saudi Intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz.
Before we get to what was or might have been discussed and why this meeting took place, guess who wasn’t invited and guess who JUST HAPPENED TO CALL urgently to Bibi Netanyahu while the Moscow meeting was taking place?
“President Obama called Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu today to convey his condolences over the terrorist attack in Jerusalem yesterday, which killed one person and wounded many others, and to express his concern about the recent rocket and mortar attacks against Israel from Gaza. The President reaffirmed the United States’ unwavering commitment to Israel’s security. The Prime Minister expressed appreciation for the call and said that Israel would continue to update the United States on the investigation into the attack in Jerusalem. The leaders agreed to remain in close touch on a range of regional security issues………”
"Okay, so...uh...next time you come to Washington I promise not to leave you in the library with no dinner for three hours......Hello? Bibi? You still there?
Interesting that the “Muslim-in-chief” would suddenly be sympathetic. Five members of a Jewish family, including a baby and two children, were knifed to death in their beds the week before, Israel was being bombed with mortars and shells from Gaza and a bus bomb blew up, and the Obama administration was muted and even expressing sympathy to the Palestinian Authority on the day the PA was celebrating the deaths of Israelis. With friends like Obama, is it any wonder the Israelis seek an ally somewhere in the world?
How sad the state of Israeli-American relations must be that the Jewish state’s prime minister feels compelled to seek possible help from Russia, which sells weapons to many of Israel’s mortal enemies. Strange bedfellows indeed, but the harshness and lack of sympathy displayed by Secretary of State Clinton, the president, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and National Security Council advisor Samantha Power, anti-Semites and anti-Israel to the core all of them, makes a Russia/Israel/ Saudi connection actually seem logical. The three actually have many shared concerns:
March 24, 2011. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left.
Meeting his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow on Thursday, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin specifically warned against extremism, an evil that he said endangers the world peace.
The two men also discussed an array of issues of mutual interest, separately stressing the need to stave off the terrorism threat.
Putin accepted an invitation by Netanyahu to visit Israel in May 2012 to attempt a ceremony of the unveiling of a monument to the victims of World War Two.
Netanyahu also met with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and urged him to prevent the establishment of radical regimes which he said can threaten world peace and the wellbeing of both Israel and Russia.
The prime minister also thanked Medvedev for Russia’s help during the Carmel fire disaster last December. Netanyahu said the Russian pilots showed bravery and professionalism and left an enormous mark.Netanyahu also met with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and urged him to prevent the establishment of radical regimes which he said can threaten world peace and the wellbeing of both Israel and Russia.
The prime minister also thanked Medvedev for Russia’s help during the Carmel fire disaster last December. Netanyahu said the Russian pilots showed bravery and professionalism and left an enormous mark.
debkafile’s Jerusalem and Moscow sources note that this is the point at which Israel’s declining security situation becomes relevant to a possible Israeli-Saudi dialogue.
Neither Jerusalem nor Riyadh is at ease with the US role in favor of the popular uprisings against veteran Arab regimes – and most particularly the US-UK-French military intervention in Libya. Both find this policy detrimental to the national and security interests of America’s foremost Middle East allies.
They also share resentment for the benefits accrued from this wave of unrest by Tehran and the effect it has had to turn world attention away from its progress toward manufacturing a nuclear bomb.
The Saudi king and Israeli prime minster are apprehensive, on the strength of their intelligence input, that Iran will eventually seize control of the popular uprisings in Arab lands, especially Egypt.Riyadh alone took a substantial precautionary step against this menace by sending military units into the Bahrain on Feb. 14 to pre-empt the Iranian-backed Shiite threat to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the tiny kingdom’s financial and oil assets at the back door of the rich eastern Saudi oil center.
Israel’s leaders in contrast have never struck any position or policy with regard to the turbulence around its borders, ignoring the perils they pose to its security.
Netanyahu’s trip to Moscow, which opposes the US-British-French operation in Libya, is his first attempt to explore a diplomatic option outside Israel’s alliance with the United States. The Russians, the Saudis and the Israelis too see advantages in discussing such options and testing new paths of cooperation to renew the direct exchanges Riyadh and Jerusalem maintained in the past through back channels on the Iranian issue.
It is therefore not surprising to find US Defense Secretary Robert Gates arriving in Israel Thursday.”
Gates’ rather wimpy plea to Israel to take the attacks by the Palestinians as an opportunity for more peace talks seems ridiculous in context of 50 mortar shells and a bus bombing, but at least he wasn’t barking about the right to build condominiums.
Israel and the Saudis have no interest whatsoever in helping Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya and Egypt, and rightly so.
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