Posted on 11/17/2017 9:03:24 AM PST by Kaslin
The dramatic events in Saudi Arabia of the past few days portend a game change in the Middle East not seen in decades. Predictably, the mainstream media, desperate as they are to find something, anything to blame on President Trump, have completely missed it. Instead, they have babbled about the market implications of the arrests of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Co., Saudi Arabia ‘emerging’ as an arms manufacturer, conflict with Hezbollah, palace intrigue, etc. etc. Few have put their finger on the actual events – a palace revolution in Riyadh that could change the Middle East in profound and possibly positive ways. For the logic of what’s taking place in the House of Saud is a revolt against the medieval obscurantism that has been the lifeblood of radical Islam and indeed terrorism since the middle of the 20th century. There is no guarantee that it will succeed, for the forces arrayed against it are formidable, but fundamentally, as with the demise of any long-lasting obscurantism, the more appropriate question to ask is: ‘What took so long?’
To seasoned observers, what is taking place in Riyadh is not a complete surprise and some inkling of changing attitudes was on hand as far back as the Arab Spring in 2011, when the Saudis appeared to end their longtime support of the Muslim Brotherhood, and take the side of the military in Egypt, quite unlike the Obama administration which remained wedded to the myth that the MB was a ‘moderate’ organization. Three years later, the UAE declared 82 Islamic organizations, including two prominent American ones (CAIR and MAS) long supported by the Saudis, to be terrorist and this past summer came the break with Qatar for its support of radical jihadists in Syria and elsewhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Lots on this on twitter from @ThomasWictor.
Pretty interesting.
They sure are moving fast. Looks like the kenyan’s Pro-Iran reign of terror scared the poop out of the Sauds.
This taqiyya act may be them time to get their affairs squared away before the motion lotion runs out. After that, it will be another Somalia.
Given the general lack of good guys in the Middle East I generally assume things kinds of things are little more than rearranged deck chairs. Hope to be wrong, but history shows a trends.
This could be as big a watershed moment for the Arab world as the fall of the Soviet Union was for the communist world... And hardly anyone here is noticing it.
“This could be as big a watershed moment for the Arab world as the fall of the Soviet Union was for the communist world... And hardly anyone here is noticing it.”
Here’s my POV on the whole thing: The oil money is running out. No, it isn’t going to ever disappear for them (especially the Saudis), but oil as a source of vast and unending income is...ending. Or, rather, HAS ended already. Something that the Arabs could never have done anything about - the advance of oil exploration and extraction technology - is the cause; that, and the deposit of trillions of barrels of oil in shale formations across the United States, Canada, Australia and other nations. This was bound to happen at some point, and the rapid advances in fracking, etc. have just accelerated it. So, unless the Saudis (and Kuwaitis and others) who enjoy the benefits of Western technology and protection want to suddenly do without those things, they HAVE to cut a deal...
...and along comes Trump, the ultimate deal-maker, and someone who is also unabashedly pro-American. IMHO, Trump let them know that they could cut a deal NOW - or never. If never, then we’d economically grind them into the dust, and not protect them (or just barely so) from internal revolution or the Iranians if push came to shove. This is very much like what happened with the Soviets - the Soviet General Staff, after the Israelis shot down 79 advanced Soviet jets (some piloted by Russians) without a single loss of their own in a single engagement, came to the Politburo and told them that “we cannot defeat the West, cut your best deal now, before it is too late.” So they did - and Gorbachev’s rise was part of that deal.
That, IMHO, is what is happening in Saudi Arabia. They are not only going to largely cut out funding to outright terrorist groups, but also to other nations that support terrorists. They will stop making bribes (whatever they may be called) to American political parties. They will cooperate with us and with Israel to stop the Iranians. In return, we won’t crush them quite so hard, and we’ll have their backs vs. internal revolts and outside threats. IOW, it is an updating and revising of the agreement that Reagan had with the Saudis to help crush the Soviets, protect them from the Iranians (there really is nothing new under the Sun) and ensure that they had a reasonable income while we did, too.
Just my $0.02.
Nailed it.
That's because MSM is focused on bread and circus - and downplaying anything Trump might get credit for.
Thirty years from now there will be a huge amount of oil – and no buyers. Oil will be left in the ground. The Stone Age came to an end, not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of oil. --Sheikh Ahmed Zaki YamaniThe late Ariel Sharon referred to the House of Saud as "those 3000 corrupt princes". As states go, Saudi Arabia wasn't effectively in control of either the geography or the foreign policy. With the recent roundup, the creepy death-dealers and potential rivals are dealt with.
There’s another side to this.
Israel became water independent. They now use desalinated water for agriculture.
What they did portends the biggest agricultural revolution since the neolithic revolution 10000 years ago—(according to some israeli technologist. imho desalination is just one of roughly 5-6 neolithic scale agricultural revolutions). Desalinated water will be cheap enough for agriculture in every desert on earth. It going to happen. The saudis just signed a deal for solar power where they get electricity for under .02@kwh. that’s the lowest cost of electricity in history.
That’s very close to making desalination cheap enough for agriculture.
The saudis all know this. They know that when they can farm all their deserts—nothing nothing nothing at about radical islam means anything. anything at all.
all they have to do is wait for the technology to be developed for them.
It’s amazing how few are noticing. This thread has 11 replies!
“The saudis just signed a deal for solar power where they get electricity for under .02@kwh.”
Got a link for that? Thanks.
The energy ministry said Abu Dhabi’s Masdar and Electricite de France SA bid to supply power from a 300-MW photovoltaic plant for as little as 6.69736 halalas/kWh, or 1.79 cents, according to a webcast of the bid-opening ceremony on Tuesday in Riyadh. If awarded, that would beat the previous record for a solar project in Abu Dhabi for 2.42 cents/kWh.
“It’s amazing how few are noticing.”
They’re too busy worrying about what boob touched whose boobs decades ago.
We deserve whatever befalls us. As I’ve noted many times, we have become a sick society.
Amazing.
What will the power at night cost?
Could it be that a major Arab country Saudi Arabia emerging from the shadows to embrace & give full recognition to Israel with others quickly following suit, how be it only to build a counter hedge to Iran? Israel has a lot of non public dealings with these Arab countries (Jordan, Egypt etc) but they all fear their public reprisal if it was done officially.
Jordan still owes Israel a huge debt when they gave them the info that Arafat & Co wanted to assassinate king Hussein and take over the country.
good point.
no word on that deal. but in the usa it looks like battery adds .015@kwh—this was from a record low contract priced signed in arizona in May by Tuscon Electric Power.
TEP declined to reveal the exact pricing, but the all-in cost for the solar-plus-storage project is “significantly less than $0.045/kWh over 20 years,” said Carmine Tilghman, senior director for energy supply at TEP. And, at under 3¢s/kWh, he says he believes the solar portion of the PPA is “the lowest price recorded in the U.S.”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/how-can-tucson-electric-get-solar-storage-for-45kwh/443715/
fyi coal power comes in at above .05@kwh
As always, the author confuses the Saudi Government with Saudi citizens. They are different and distinct.
The current change has long been anticipated. The change exposes the distinction.
It is s new political world in the Middle East. I suspect both Turkey and Iran will move strongly to control it’s direction and will attempt to remove the Saudi royal family.
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