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The Unraveling Of The Netanyahu Project For The Middle East
Nahum Barnea, a leading Israeli commentator, writing in Yedioth Ahronoth in May (in Hebrew), set out, unambiguously, the âdealâ behind Trumpâs Middle East policy:
In the wake of the US exit from JCPOA [which occurred on 8 May], Trump, Barnea wrote, will threaten a rain of âfire and furyâ onto Tehran ⌠whilst Putin is expected to restrain Iran from attacking Israel using Syrian territory, thus leaving Netanyahu free to set new ârules of the gameâ by which the Israel may attack and destroy Iranian forces anywhere in Syria (and not just in the border area, as earlier agreed) when it wishes, without fear of retaliation.
This represented one level to the Netanyahu strategy: Iranian restraint, plus Russian acquiescence to coordinated Israeli air operations over Syria.
âThere is only one thing that isnât clear [concerning this deal]â, a senior Israeli Defence official closest to Netanyahu, told Ben Caspit, âthat is, who works for whom? Does Netanyahu work for Trump, or is President Trump at the service of Netanyahu ⌠From the outside ⌠it looks like the two men are perfectly in sync. From the inside, this seems even more so: This kind of cooperation ⌠sometimes makes it seem as if they are actually just one single, large officeâ.
There has been, from the outset, a second level, too:
This entire âinverted pyramidâ of Middle East engineering had, as its single point of departure, Mohammed bin Salman (MbS).
It was Jared Kushner, the Washington Post reports, who âchampioned Mohammed as a reformer poised to usher the ultraconservative, oil-rich monarchy into modernity. Kushner privately argued for months, last year, that Mohammed would be key to crafting a Middle East peace plan, and that with the princeâs blessing, much of the Arab world would followâ. It was Kushner, the Post continued, âwho pushed his father-in-law to make his first foreign trip as president to Riyadh, against objections from then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - and warnings from Defense Secretary Jim Mattisâ.
Well, now MbS has, in one form or another, been implicated in the Khashoggi murder. Bruce Riedel of Brookings, a longtime Saudi observer and former senior CIA & US defence official, notes, âfor the first time in 50 years, the kingdom has become a force for instabilityâ (rather than stability in the region), and suggests that there is an element of âbuyerâs remorseâ now evident in parts of Washington.
The âseamless office processâ to which the Israeli official referred with Caspit, is known as âstovepipingâ, which is when a foreign stateâs policy advocacy and intelligence are passed straight to a Presidentâs ear â omitting official Washington from the âloopâ; by-passing any US oversight; and removing the opportunity for officials to advise on its content. Well, this has now resulted in the Khashoggi strategic blunder. And this, of course, comes in the wake of earlier strategic âmistakesâ: the Yemen war, the siege of Qatar, the Hariri abduction, the Ritz-Carlton princely shakedowns.
To remedy this lacuna, an âuncleâ (Prince Ahmad bin Abdel Aziz) has been dispatched from exile in the West to Riyadh (with security guarantees from the US and UK intelligences services) to bring order into these unruly affairs, and to institute some checks and balances into the MbS coterie of advisers, so as to prevent further impetuous âmistakesâ. It seems too, that the US Congress wants the Yemen war, which Prince Ahmad consistently has opposed (as he opposed MbS elevation as Crown Prince), stopped. (General Mattis has called for a ceasefire within 30 days.) It is a step toward repairing the Kingdomâs image.
MbS remains - for now - as Crown Prince. President Sisi and Prime Minister Netanyahu both have expressed their support for MbS and âas U.S. officials contemplate a more robust response [to the Khashoggi killing], Kushner has emphasized the importance of the U.S.-Saudi alliance in the regionâ, the Washington Post reports. MbSâ Uncle (who as a son of King Abdel Aziz, under the traditional succession system, would be himself in line for the throne), no doubt hopes to try to undo some of the damage done to the standing of the al-Saud family, and to that of the Kingdom. Will he succeed? Will MbS accede now to Ahmad unscrambling the very centralisation of power that made MbS so many enemies, in the first place, to achieve it? Has the al-Saud family the will, or are they too disconcerted by events?
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-06/unraveling-netanyahu-project-middle-east