By Stan Goodenough
Sep 25, 2006
News Item:
News breaking early Monday alerted Israelis and concerned Middle East observers to the possibility of a fresh danger developing for the Jewish state.
The story, which came on the first working day of the Jewish New Year, revealed that efforts were being made to forge some form of anti-Iran alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Given the Saudis? prominent role in the land-for-peace process that has proven so costly for Israel, it is expected that any form of cooperation between the two states could give Saudi Arabia more leverage to push that process ahead, at Israel?s further expense.
Biblical lens:
Why do you gad about so much to change your way? Also you shall be ashamed of Egypt as you were ashamed of Assyria. Indeed you will go forth from him with your hands on your head; for the LORD has rejected your trusted allies, and you will not prosper by them. "They say, 'If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man's, may he return to her again?' Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me," says the LORD. (Jeremiah 2: 36, 37; 3:1)
Spiritually blind, Israel?s governments cast about wherever they think they can find help to get through one crisis after another. Most frequently Washington DC is the address to which they turn. But Israeli prime ministers have also gone shopping for support in Egypt ? a nation which, despite its treaty with Israel, still seethes with contempt for the Jewish state; in Norway ? where, also in secret meetings, the damned Oslo Agreement was reached ? and now, apparently, in Saudi Arabia.
If the reports prove to be true, then this latter reaching out is perhaps the most dangerous one of all. Saudi Arabia represents the head of the Islamic snake. Nothing good can or will come out of making any agreement with that beast.
Prayer points:
Pray for a total exposure of any plans by Israel?s leadership to form some kind of alliance with Jeddah.
Pray for the permanent collapse of all discussions between Israel and the diabolical house of Saud.
And pray that the people and the leaders in Israel will stop looking to man for help and look instead to their Maker.
?They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ?This is My people?; and each one will say, ?The LORD is my God.?? (Zechariah 13:9)
Full report:
JERUSALEM ? According to reports carried in all Israel?s mainstream media Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held a secret meeting with a top Saudi official 10 days ago.
King Abd?allah is believed to have been the other party to the talks.
Olmert reacted to the reports by denying that there was any truth to them.
But Ha?aretz cited unnamed government officials as confirming that the meeting did indeed take place.
The most widely-read Israeli daily, Yedi?ot Ahronot, said two items had been on the agenda:
Iran?s pursuit of nuclear weapons and its overall destabilizing influence in the region.
The Saudi-initiated ?peace? plan that led to the Palestinian Arab ?Prisoners? Agreement? calling for a unity government between Hamas and Fatah.
Last week it emerged that meetings between Israelis and Saudis have been taking place since the Iranian-sponsored Lebanese Hizb?allah movement triggered a war with Israel in July.
Hizb?allah?s aggressive action combined with increased Iranian war-mongering has clearly unnerved a number of Arab states.
But just what form any arrangement between the Jewish State of Israel and the Islamic Saudi Arabia could take is unclear.
Historically, Jewish leaders desperate to secure some kind of peace for their people have been willing to go cap in hand to Muslim leaders, playing to Islamic condescension towards Jews (and Christians) as dhimmi or inferior beings eager to receive help from the ?superior? Muslims.
Israel has long understood the danger posed by Tehran?s fire-breathing mullahs, and is apparently willing to pursue all possible options to neutralize or at least temper that threat.
But while Iran is the most militant Islamic state in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is the best-armed Arab one.
More significantly, Saudi Arabia is also the custodian of Islam, arguably the world?s fastest growing religion, and one that is universally hostile towards Israel.
Islam was born in the deserts of Arabia where Mohammed, an epileptic prone to fits and seizures, claimed to have had the visions that birthed his beliefs.
Mecca and Medina ? the two most sacred sites in Islam ? are Saudi Arabian cities, making the power that land wields over the world?s 2.2 billion Muslims enormous. Millions of people from around the world flock there every year.
Saudi is also home to one of the world?s largest reserves of crude oil. The black gold that gushes from that kingdom?s wells has made it one of the richest countries on earth and, as a consequence ? due to its special alliance with the United States and its access to US-built weapons systems ? one of the most powerful Middle Eastern entities.
The USA has already paid a terrible price for its close association with the Saudis: Untold numbers of American lawmakers, including President George W. Bush, are believed to have stocks and holdings in Arabian oil, making them malleable in Arab hands.
Indeed, King Abd?allah is said to be one of a handful of world leaders who can call the White House at will to arrange a meeting in the Oval Office.
It is believed that any arrangement between Israel and Saudi Arabia will offer the Arab state a substantial measure of power over the Jewish one ? spelling only more trouble for Israel.