NOTE: Over the past few days, I’ve published two new pieces. The first deals with Israel’s arms trade with some of the most genocidal regimes in the world. It’s my first piece published at Jacobin Magazine. The second, published by Middle East Eye, puts into context the recent Gaza hostilities, their impact on Israeli politics, and the likelihood the government will fall leading to new elections. I’d be grateful if you read them and circulated them on social media so they will be widely read.
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One of the many great tragedies of the Trump presidency is, just when you thought he couldn’t go any lower, he somehow figures out a way to do just that. Every day brings another insult to decency, democracy, the rule of law, and just plain sanity. But today marks a special new low.
After concocting a plan with the Saudis to paper over their brutal murder of journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, Trump has now doubled down on his whitewash of this horrible crime. According to Middle East Eye managing editor, David Hearst, Trump sent Mike Pompeo, the former CIA director, to Saudi Arabia. He offered Mohammed bin Salman and his father, the King a “roadmap” for insulating MBS from blame and “managing” the fallout from the crime. Hearst summarizes the points of the plan:
When Pompeo declared on 18 October that Saudi Arabia should be given “a few more days” to complete its investigation into the case, he was giving them time to begin implementing his plan, the source said.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcomes Mike Pompeo to royal palace, where U.S. laid out elements of roadmap-coverup for Khashoggi murder
“They [the Saudi leadership] have done everything he wanted to execute,” the source said.
Since Pompeo’s visit to Riyadh, the Saudis have allowed Turkish investigators into their Istanbul consulate, offered to coordinate a joint Saudi-Turkish investigation, sent a team to Istanbul to pursue the probe and arrested at least 21 suspects.
The remaining step – pinning the crime on a member of the royal family – may be taken if the arrests of those Saudi suspects don’t work to ease the pressure on Riyadh, the source said.
So far, the Saudis have accused five individuals of the murder and they face the death penalty. But none of the five are members of the royal family. Presumably, if conditions fail to improve and, for example, western nations unite to place an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia (Germany has already done so), the royal family might be forced to implement that drastic element of the plan.
Of course it is ludicrous to pin sole blame for the murder on any of those who actually committed it. That would be like the U.S. arresting the Navy SEALs who assassinated Osama bin Laden. Why would you blame them when they carried out explicit orders given to them by their commanders and presumably the President of the United States? They are the ones who are the authors of the crime and should face judgment for it, not those who shot him dead.
MBS is solely responsible for this murder. All the others were henchmen carrying out orders he gave them. To claim that you are doing justice by executing the hired underlings is a perversion of truth. It is a legal charade.
Trump’s statement is also morally corrupt. He knows who killed Khashoggi. But he doesn’t care. Khashoggi was the equivalent of a peon. Someone serving his meal or sweeping the floors at Mar a Lago. A lowly guest worker who could be disposed of at will. Trump thinks he has bigger fish to fry: selling billions in weapons to the Saudis; selling a peace deal to benefit his Israeli pals and the billion-dollar donor, Sheldon Adelson.
Trump apparently believes that just as he can pardon any of his friends and admirers for their felonious behavior, he can pardon MBS as well. We’ll have to see whether his pardoning power extends as far as the Middle East.
Trump Debases Medal of Honor with Award to Miriam Adelson
Trump bestowed America’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Adelson’s wife, Miriam, last week. The purported claims for her meriting the award were her humanitarian medical relief work. But there was only one real reason she was honored: she is the wife of the billion-dollar man. In this way, Trump has perverted the highest honor an American president can bestow. He’s sold it for a few hundred million in GOP campaign donations.
Where Adelson goes the Lobby is sure to follow. Bibi Netanyahu has already weighed in on the Saudis’ behalf. As Clayton Swisher notes in this tweet, the Israel Lobby and he and the Lobby will go into full battle-mode lobbying Congress not to impose sanctions on the Saudis. Because that’s what good friends do for each other…
We’ve become almost anesthetized to Trump’s litany of lies and this statement is more of the same. It is filled with prevarication and distortions about Iran. But even worse is glossing over Saudi Arabia’s war crimes in Yemen. Trump lies when he claims that the Saudis would immediately withdraw military forces if Iran did the same. In fact, Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen well before the Iranians became involved, and the latter only did so after the Saudis threatened to liquidate the Shiite Houthis there. The Saudis have never made the offer Trump made on their behalf in this statement.
Trump continues by claiming the Saudis have offered humanitarian aid in Yemen. That too is a lie. In fact, it has brought 15-million to brink of starvation. It has strangled hundreds of thousands of young children, causing them to die of malnutrition. Only yesterday did a Saudi foundation named, naturally, after the king himself. offer $500-million in humanitarian relief for Yemen. That most certainly was tied directly to the Trump announcement. Though the offer was made the day before so it wouldn’t appear to have been coordinated.
Trump Dares Congress to Face Him Down Over Saudi Sanctions
What the Saudis have done in Yemen is an abomination. MBS should be brought to the Hague for war crimes. Not protected and honored by the President of the United States. Trump, in his statement, threw down the gauntlet to Congress. He practically dared them to oppose him. He knows they plan to impose sanctions on the Saudis. But he knows he can veto such bills. That would require bipartisan support to override his veto.
So far Lindsay-the-Timid, who folded like a deck of cards when Trump fired Sessions, has tweeted his strong support for Saudi sanctions. But my bet is that the enfeebled GOP will not withstand Trump’s scorn if they threaten to buck his lead. As they have so many times before, they will fall into line like good little children who strayed from the path, and needed a bit of discipline before returning to the straight and narrow. Remember how many GOP candidates went down to defeat in the midterms after distancing themselves from him?
This will leave the Democratic minority in the Senate with little to show. They will need at least 20 Republican votes to override a Trump veto. My bet is that they can’t get them. But I’d like to be proven wrong.
Republicans are making a very bad bet by continuing to align themselves with Trump. He may be king of the heap today. But he will be on the political dung-heap tomorrow. Then, anyone in any way associated with his vein of criminality will pay a steep price. Anyone who now bucks the king will be able to say he faced him down, and will reap the reward. Everyone else in the Party will become so much waste to be flushed down the toilet. My bet is that 2020 will be the Day of Reckoning.
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12 thoughts on “Trump’s Saudi Coverup – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم”
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“..the Israel Lobby and he and the Lobby will go into full battle-mode lobbying Congress not to impose sanctions on the Saudis”
Now I am curious.
When has the Israel Lobby ever lobbied for another country besides Israel?
@ Fast Lane: The Israel Lobby lobbied Trump after he came down hard on Qatar and supported the Saudi blockade. All it took was a fat Qatari contract with a GOP lobbying firm, hundreds of thousands of Qatari donations to ZOA and other Israel LObby groups, an all-expenses-paid junket for Israel Lobby potentates to meet the emir; and presto changeo, Trump backed off his anti-Qatari position. And this is just one example.
Back when Israel was an ally of Turkey, the Lobby pressured Congress to reject designating the Armenian genocide as a genocide.
Qatar, as I understand, supports Hamas, and, Qatar-based al Jazeera has twice gone undercover to expose the pernicious effects of the Israel Lobby; on expose in London, and expose in Washington, D.C.
Supporting Hamas and exposing the Israel Lobby are odds way to make friends with the Israel Lobby. Very odd.
In truth, Qatar used two jewish lobbyists to reach out to Trump supporters.
One, a former Syrian restaurateur turned PR man, named Joey Allaham, did donate $100,000 to the Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA), but upon learning that Allaham’s donations to the ZOA came from Qatar, ZOA leader, Morton Klein, told The Jewish Week he was “shocked” and that he sent the funds back to Allaham.
Morton Klein did travel to Qatar and met with it’s ruler, but Klein, but Klein has since renounced the Qatar PR offensive saying, that the Qatari regime had not fundamentally changed its ways.
“Al Jazeera’s recent coverage regarding Israel and Gaza has been despicably biased and incendiary,” he noted. “And I was outraged to see that this week, Qatar took a giant step backwards by holding a dinner honoring the vicious Muslim Brotherhood leader and terrorist Yusuf al-Qaradawi.”
Again. I ask you to show us your proofs, demonstrable evidence, that the Israel Lobby lobbied Trump on behalf of Qatar.
That’s not how things work. I don’t do your bidding here. I don’t prove anything to you. It’s not my job to satisfy you. THe proof is in the coverage which I’ve read extensively and you should too if you haven’t (instead of your selective reading of sources friendly to your point of view). You offer here a slanted, tendentious reading of events which is untrustworthy.
My understanding is that Qatar went on a massive lobbying effort on it’s own, reaching out to 250 ‘Trump influencers’, and, that some of the ‘influencers’ were prominent members of the Jewish community.
That’s not how the Lobby works. The Lobby figures who were enlisted on Qatar’s behalf were not just “prominent members of the Jewish community.” They were leading figures in the Israel Lobby chosen specifically for their influence in both those circles and on Trump. They had that influence on Trump because he perceived them as being central figures in the Lobby. Hence the eventual impact they had on softening his position vis a vis Qatar. That’s how the Lobby works fella. Wake up and smell the coffee and learn how things are done.
Qatar doesn’t just support Hamas. Qatar supports Israel as well in that it has had secret and direct contacts with Israeli officials.
Qatar censored the second Al Jazeera documentary. So Al Jazeera represents the official Qatari government position until it doesn’t. Then its work is shut down. In other words, the Lobby wanted the documentary to be censored and it was censored. That’s the work of the Lobby. It’s a perfect ending to the documentary itself since it illustrates how the Lobby works here in the U.S. (and UK as well).
Qatar used two jewish lobbyists to reach out to Trump supporters.
No, it used two well-connected GOP lobbyists with good connections to the Trump administration. They were chosen not because they were Jewish per se. But because they had excellent connections in the administration AND in the Lobby.
Though the funds donated to ZOA ostensibly came from Allaham, their source was Qatar. If the funds had been personal from Allaham, Klein would never have returned them. In fact, if the media hadn’t revealed the donation, Klein would never have returned them. So please don’t piss on our backs and tell us it’s rain. We know how the Lobby works. Likewise, if the PR-Lobby alliance had not been exposed Klein would have been happy to continue and reap these financial rewards from it. Besides, he really didn’t need to continue this effort since he suppressed the documentary and that was his main goal. As far as Qatar is concerned, it gained a softening of Trump’s views on the blockade and so it hasn’t needed the Lobby either.
But if it does in the future, you can be sure that the Lobby-Qatar alliance will be renewed in a way that offers mutual benefits to both sides.
I note that you have not disputed the Lobby’s efforts on Turkey’s behalf to deny the Armenian genocide. Hence, your claim that the Lobby only works directly and exclusively on Israel’s behalf are disproven.
Do not comment further in this thread. You are done.
While the responsibility should also be shared by whoever gave the order, the people who executed it, cannot be excused.
In the IDF for example, there is something called PKUDA BILTI CHUKIT BA’ALIL. פקודה בילוי חוקית בעליל or “clearly illegal order”.
Do you really believe anyone should be tried for Bin Laden escort from this world?
He was not “escorted” except by a SEAL bullet between the eyes. No man deserves to die in such fashion when unarmed next to his wife. Of Course he should’ve been brought to justice and dealt with through a legal process, not summary execution.
And yes Clinton,Obama and McRaven should be held accountable for ordering the execution.
[comment deleted: this is off-topic. If you publish another off-topic comment you may be moderated.]
[Comment deleted: you are now moderated. Your next comment violating the comment rules could result in banning.]
An assasination instead of a real trial is the easy way for those in power. Imagine the trial of bin Ladèn, then USA would have had to prove many things around the war on terror, including especially 911, really happend in the way the official story has told us. Also the real relationships between Bin Laden, USA and Saudi Arabia would have had seen the daylight. The assasination of bin Laden instead his trial shows “to all” that much of the past decades official story are fiction, not real facts.
To say that the Republicans are making a very bad bet aligning themselves with Trump is an understatement. They are putting nails in the party’s coffin. But the party does seem to have a lot of voters who stick by it unconditionally, whose loyalty is more to the party than to the country and the basic values the country has managed to stand for at home and abroad. I think Republican lawmakers will be running like rats from a sinking ship, but it will be too late. McConnell will make the history books as one heck of a villain. .
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“..the Israel Lobby and he and the Lobby will go into full battle-mode lobbying Congress not to impose sanctions on the Saudis”
Now I am curious.
When has the Israel Lobby ever lobbied for another country besides Israel?
@ Fast Lane: The Israel Lobby lobbied Trump after he came down hard on Qatar and supported the Saudi blockade. All it took was a fat Qatari contract with a GOP lobbying firm, hundreds of thousands of Qatari donations to ZOA and other Israel LObby groups, an all-expenses-paid junket for Israel Lobby potentates to meet the emir; and presto changeo, Trump backed off his anti-Qatari position. And this is just one example.
Back when Israel was an ally of Turkey, the Lobby pressured Congress to reject designating the Armenian genocide as a genocide.
You may be ‘curious,’ but you’re not very smart.
Please add cites to prove that “The Israel Lobby lobbied Trump after he came down hard on Qatar…”
My understanding is that Qatar went on a massive lobbying effort on it’s own, reaching out to 250 ‘Trump influencers’, and, that some of the ‘influencers’ were prominent members of the Jewish community.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-lobbying-qatar-targeted-250-trump-influencers-to-change-u-s-policy-1535554647
Qatar, as I understand, supports Hamas, and, Qatar-based al Jazeera has twice gone undercover to expose the pernicious effects of the Israel Lobby; on expose in London, and expose in Washington, D.C.
Supporting Hamas and exposing the Israel Lobby are odds way to make friends with the Israel Lobby. Very odd.
In truth, Qatar used two jewish lobbyists to reach out to Trump supporters.
One, a former Syrian restaurateur turned PR man, named Joey Allaham, did donate $100,000 to the Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA), but upon learning that Allaham’s donations to the ZOA came from Qatar, ZOA leader, Morton Klein, told The Jewish Week he was “shocked” and that he sent the funds back to Allaham.
Morton Klein did travel to Qatar and met with it’s ruler, but Klein, but Klein has since renounced the Qatar PR offensive saying, that the Qatari regime had not fundamentally changed its ways.
“Al Jazeera’s recent coverage regarding Israel and Gaza has been despicably biased and incendiary,” he noted. “And I was outraged to see that this week, Qatar took a giant step backwards by holding a dinner honoring the vicious Muslim Brotherhood leader and terrorist Yusuf al-Qaradawi.”
Again. I ask you to show us your proofs, demonstrable evidence, that the Israel Lobby lobbied Trump on behalf of Qatar.
@ Fast Lane:
That’s not how things work. I don’t do your bidding here. I don’t prove anything to you. It’s not my job to satisfy you. THe proof is in the coverage which I’ve read extensively and you should too if you haven’t (instead of your selective reading of sources friendly to your point of view). You offer here a slanted, tendentious reading of events which is untrustworthy.
That’s not how the Lobby works. The Lobby figures who were enlisted on Qatar’s behalf were not just “prominent members of the Jewish community.” They were leading figures in the Israel Lobby chosen specifically for their influence in both those circles and on Trump. They had that influence on Trump because he perceived them as being central figures in the Lobby. Hence the eventual impact they had on softening his position vis a vis Qatar. That’s how the Lobby works fella. Wake up and smell the coffee and learn how things are done.
Qatar doesn’t just support Hamas. Qatar supports Israel as well in that it has had secret and direct contacts with Israeli officials.
Qatar censored the second Al Jazeera documentary. So Al Jazeera represents the official Qatari government position until it doesn’t. Then its work is shut down. In other words, the Lobby wanted the documentary to be censored and it was censored. That’s the work of the Lobby. It’s a perfect ending to the documentary itself since it illustrates how the Lobby works here in the U.S. (and UK as well).
No, it used two well-connected GOP lobbyists with good connections to the Trump administration. They were chosen not because they were Jewish per se. But because they had excellent connections in the administration AND in the Lobby.
Though the funds donated to ZOA ostensibly came from Allaham, their source was Qatar. If the funds had been personal from Allaham, Klein would never have returned them. In fact, if the media hadn’t revealed the donation, Klein would never have returned them. So please don’t piss on our backs and tell us it’s rain. We know how the Lobby works. Likewise, if the PR-Lobby alliance had not been exposed Klein would have been happy to continue and reap these financial rewards from it. Besides, he really didn’t need to continue this effort since he suppressed the documentary and that was his main goal. As far as Qatar is concerned, it gained a softening of Trump’s views on the blockade and so it hasn’t needed the Lobby either.
But if it does in the future, you can be sure that the Lobby-Qatar alliance will be renewed in a way that offers mutual benefits to both sides.
I note that you have not disputed the Lobby’s efforts on Turkey’s behalf to deny the Armenian genocide. Hence, your claim that the Lobby only works directly and exclusively on Israel’s behalf are disproven.
Do not comment further in this thread. You are done.
While the responsibility should also be shared by whoever gave the order, the people who executed it, cannot be excused.
In the IDF for example, there is something called PKUDA BILTI CHUKIT BA’ALIL. פקודה בילוי חוקית בעליל or “clearly illegal order”.
Do you really believe anyone should be tried for Bin Laden escort from this world?
@ Jen: yes.
He was not “escorted” except by a SEAL bullet between the eyes. No man deserves to die in such fashion when unarmed next to his wife. Of Course he should’ve been brought to justice and dealt with through a legal process, not summary execution.
And yes Clinton,Obama and McRaven should be held accountable for ordering the execution.
[comment deleted: comment rule violation–off-topic.]
When someone does not approve of extrajudicial killings, you respond with a dumb remark. Sure, that will increase respect for your opinions…
[comment deleted: this is off-topic. If you publish another off-topic comment you may be moderated.]
[Comment deleted: you are now moderated. Your next comment violating the comment rules could result in banning.]
An assasination instead of a real trial is the easy way for those in power. Imagine the trial of bin Ladèn, then USA would have had to prove many things around the war on terror, including especially 911, really happend in the way the official story has told us. Also the real relationships between Bin Laden, USA and Saudi Arabia would have had seen the daylight. The assasination of bin Laden instead his trial shows “to all” that much of the past decades official story are fiction, not real facts.
To say that the Republicans are making a very bad bet aligning themselves with Trump is an understatement. They are putting nails in the party’s coffin. But the party does seem to have a lot of voters who stick by it unconditionally, whose loyalty is more to the party than to the country and the basic values the country has managed to stand for at home and abroad. I think Republican lawmakers will be running like rats from a sinking ship, but it will be too late. McConnell will make the history books as one heck of a villain. .