Stuck Between the Kaaba and A Hard Place

“If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” (Moshe Dayan, 1915-1981)

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia remains a close personal friend of both GW Bushwacker and his evil robot sidekick Dick Cheney. This fact alone is enough to hate the guy. It gets worse. In this photo, we find him praying to his Invisible Wahabi Anti-Israel Misogynistic Sky Fairy alongside Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Kaabah in Mecca on December 8, 2005. Mr. Ahmadinejad has questioned the Holocaust and has called for Israel to be wiped off the map. GW has called him “evil.” (It takes one to know one, I guess.) I can’t help but wonder what they’re praying for.

Now some of you will be frantically running for cover over such an event, and others may not see any significance to it at all. The fear mongers will of course say that the Saudis and the Iranians are now forming a coalition against US interests behind our backs. I disagree. As much as I tend to mistrust the Saudis, King Abdullah, believe it or not, is a moderate in relation to some of his Saudi co-religionists. In 2002, he actually suggested an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict through negotiation and concession, and although the conditions were ultimately unacceptable to both parties (no surprise there), it did show some welcome initiative on Abdullah’s part. He does have the power in the Moslem world to broker peace agreements (to some extent anyhow), and I think this is what he will attempt to do with Mr. Ahmadinejad.

The question is ‘Why?’ One might assume the King Abdullah will always take the side of his fellow Moslem, but that isn’t always the case, as was evident by King Abdullah’s open support for two wars against a Moslem neighbor named Saddam Hussein. No, the issue here is, as always, the Almighty Dollar; the real Kaaba that King Abdullah worships in front of. He likes his money as much as he does his deity, and knows that another extended war with yet another and larger Moslem nation will cost him dearly. Should an Israeli-Iranian conflict ensue, the Saudis would be caught between “the Kaaba and a hard place”, struggling between the supporting of American corporate interests that enrich them and their Moslem co-religionists of poorer nations that deal only in ideology. He has his own interests to protect. I wish him luck.

There is also another factor. The Saudis have prided themselves on being the “keepers of the faith” and the powerhouse of the Islamic world. Their oil wealth and international savvy has earned them some right to claim as much. Many Moslems reject the Saudis as sell-outs to the 'Infidel' or as condescending to the rest of the Arab world (it happens to be true.) King Abdullah wants to protect his prestige as Islamic world leader by diffusing the Islamic-populist upstart from the north, someone who is gaining significant ardor from all over Islam. The oil endowed Saudis (and Kuwaitis) need stability to maintain the status quo, knowing that if Israel should no longer exist, the Saudi royalty themselves could become the targets of this growing populist, militant movement. Were it not for the religious conflicts, a class struggle would easily take hold.

Let’s hope that at some point, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is going to try and talk some sense into Mr. Ahmadinejad. A tense and fragile peace, even when founded on personal greed and arrogance, is still much better than open war.

Let’s also hope I’m right about this.