Ending the Cozy Saudi Tie

Philadelphia
ush administration officials
and leading U.S. senators
responded very differently to
the news that Princess Haifa
al-Faisal, wife of Prince Bandar, the
Saudi Arabian ambassador to the
United States, had given many thou-
sands of dollars to a person connected
to two of the 9-11 suicide hijackers.
Their difference highlights a problem
that needs addressing through congres-
sional legislation: undue Saudi influence
deriving from the spread of its money.
Senators spoke out forthrightly and
honestly on the issue raised by the
princess' donations.
• Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.:
"Either [the Saudis] have to change or
the relationship that we have with
Saudi Arabia is going to change dra-
matically. For too many generations,
certainly years, they have pacified and
accommodated themselves to the most
extreme, fanatical elements of Islam."
• John McCain, R-Ariz.: "The list
goes on and on of Saudi failures and the
central role that they have played in one
way or another in the rise of Islamic

B

Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle
East Forum and author of "Militant
Islam Reaches America." E-mail:
Pipes@MEForum.org

fundamentalism all-over the world."
• Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.: "The
Saudis are on all sides of every issue.
We, in some ways, have had a good
relationship with them over the years,
and in other ways, it appears as if
they're funding our enemies."
• Richard Shelby, R-Ala.: The Saudis
have got "a lot of answering to do in
my judgment."
The senators also criticized U.S. law
enforcement's reluctance to deal with the
problem of Saudi financing of terrorism.
Lieberman noted that "The FBI and
maybe other parts of our government
have seemed to want to almost defend
the Saudis, or not be as aggressive .as
they should be about the Saudis."
Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., con-
curred: "It seems every time the Saudis
are involved, we stop [doing a proper
investigation]."
By contrast, the Bush administration
offered excuses for the Saudi couple
and glossed over the problems of law
enforcement.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
poured cold water on the revelations:
"I think it's unlikely that Prince
Bandar or Her Royal Highness would
do anything that would support ter-
rorist activity" — a most unusual
endorsement given that the FBI is
actively investigating this matter.

Jews And Hebron

Efat, Israel

by are there still Jews in
Hebron?
This question is again
being asked, as if the very
presence of Jews there is what pro-
vokes the kind of wanton murder per-
petrated by terrorists on Friday night,
Nov. 15.
Hebron now holds the distinction
of being the only Palestinian-con-
trolled city where Jews continue to
live and visit regularly. As one of
Israel's four holy cities and the burial
site of the patriarchs and three of the
matriarchs, Hebron attracts a constant
stream of visitors as well as locals who
pray at the Cave of the Machpelah,
where their ancestors are entombed.
A more compelling question we
should be asking, however, is why
can't a few hundred Jews live peace-
ably in Hebron among 130,000

Yehoshua Halevi is an Israeli writer and
photographer. He is the former publisher of
the Jewish News of Western Massachusetts.
E mail• kgwhite@netivsion.netil

-

Arabs? What kind of threat do 70
families — 450 people, and many of
those young children — pose to the
Arab community? One could ask the
same question about the entire
Middle East; namely, why can't a
quarter of a billion Arabs tolerate the
presence of 6 million Jews living in
Israel?
The answer, I believe, is that the
enemies of Israel understand that cut-
ting off the Jewish people from their
heritage is the surest path to the
destruction of Israel. Bus bombings
and suicide missions will kill a few
and scare off a few others, but ulti-
mately, Israelis are not going any-
where. The only way to win the war is
to sever Jewish ties to the land. Thus,
barring Jews from Hebron is one step
toward the terrorists' explicitly stated
goal of destroying the Jewish state.

Denying Jewish Claims

This strategy has produced several
successes during the past two years of
conflict.

The State Department
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
spokesman, Richard Boucher,
met Saudi King Abdul Aziz in
praised Saudi efforts to pre-
February 1945.
vent the financing of terrorism
Since then, U.S. politicians,
as "very strong," though he
diplomats, flag officers and
did concede that "there is
lobbyists have enjoyed a cozy
always more to be done."
relationship with their coun-
President George W. Bush's
terparts on the Saudi side.
DANIEL
press secretary, Ari Fleischer, pro-
The
tie is premised on
PIPES
moted the self-serving Saudi line
Americans
— Democrats and
Special
that Osama bin Laden specifical-
Republicans
alike — being
Commentary
ly recruited Saudi hijackers for
accommodating to the king-
the 9-11 attacks to "drive a .
dom's wishes and in return,
wedge" between the United States and
being plied with substantial sums of
Saudi Arabia. (This idea is palpably false:
money, either at the time or after they
that 15 out of 19 hijackers were Saudi
leave government service.
was not a political ploy but the result of
A culture of corruption, in other
the fact, as Stephen Schwartz explains,
words, pervades the upper reaches of
that "Saudis are the largest national con-
the White House and several depart-
tingent by far in Al Qaida.")
ments; it does not, however, extend to
The most embarrassing display by
the Congress — perhaps because the
the administration, however, came
Saudis do not understand the work-
from the distaff side. Colin Powell's
ings or importance of an elected body
wife Alma and the president's mother
and so have not tried to buy it.
Barbara — both with a history of
Effectively fighting the war on terror
socializing with the princess — called
urgently requires the passing of legisla-
Haifa al-Faisal to express what the
tion that breaks up the cozy power-
New York Times delicately termed their money nexus in the executive branch,
),
support and sympathy.
by making sure that U.S. officials can-
Why this undue solicitude for Saudi. not tap into Saudi funds after they
retire from government service.
feelings?
This hedging by the executive
Such laws should be high on the
new Congress' agenda when it con-
branch fits a pattern going back
almost 60 years, to when President
venes in January. ❑

"

located within the city's
At the very outset of the
ancient walls. And still more
fighting, Israeli forces fought
and lost a battle in defense of
recently, Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat claimed at
Joseph's tomb in Shechem.
Shortly after troops aban-
Camp David and elsewhere
that there never was a Jewish
doned the site, the tomb was
Temple in Jerusalem.
ransacked, burned and con-
It's all part of an attempt to
verted to a mosque.
YEHOSHUA
deny the Jewish claim to the
Likewise, an ancient syna-
HALEVI
land of Israel. If we lose our
gogue and yeshivah in Jericho-,
Special
left to the stewardship of the
Commentary foothold in Hebron, history
tells us, there will be nothing
Palestinian Authority, also was
raided and burned at the
Jewish left in no time at all.
onset of the current intifizda (upris-
Lucky for us, though, those recalci-
ing). And there have been numerous
trant residents of Hebron, the ones
peddling T-shirts emblazoned with
attempts to overrun Rachel's Tomb in
Bethlehem.
the slogan "Hebron: from now until
forever," aren't buying any of this.
In Jerusalem, the Temple Mount,
the holiest place to Jews (the Western
Their courage and deep ideological
convictions are keeping the door open
Wall is only referred to as such by
default since the Temple Mount is
for Jews around the world who want
to visit and pray at one of Judaism's
largely off limits to Jews), has been
most important holy places.
closed to Jews for the past two years.
Prior to that, Jews allowed access, and
who so much as mouthed what. _
Resettling Hebron
looked like words of prayer, were
There has been a continual Jewish
quickly led away.
Nor is this a new strategy. From
presence in Hebron from the biblical
1948 to 1967, when Jordanian forces
period until today, except for the years
occupied Jerusalem's old city, they
1929-1967. When nationwide riots
destroyed all of the 27 synagogues
HALEVI on page 34

12/6

2002

33