The kiss-of-death (In Italian: Il bacio della morte) is the sign given by a mafia boss to a family-mob-member that signifies that the specific family-mob-member has been marked for death. Marlon Brando, playing Don Corleone, made it famous in the "Godfather" movies.
Obama has just given the Saudis a kiss-of-death, and the Saudis know it.
As a backdrop to recent events, on May 19, 2011, President Obama spoke concerning his war on Muammar Qaddafi:
“Unfortunately, in too many countries, calls for change have thus far been answered by violence. The most extreme example is Libya, where Muammar Qaddafi launched a war against his own people, promising to hunt them down like rats...
"But in Libya, we saw the prospect of imminent massacre, we had a mandate for action, and heard the Libyan people’s call for help. Had we not acted along with our NATO allies and regional coalition partners, thousands would have been killed. The message would have been clear: Keep power by killing as many people as it takes.”
During the first three days of the US attack against Qaddafi in 2011, the US fired 124 precision Tomahawk missiles (costing 1 million dollars a piece), flew hundreds air sorties, and instituted a no-fly zone against Qaddafi.
On to much more recent events. On Friday, March 28, 2014, while about to leave for Saudi Arabia, Obama opined on his failure to attack Assad when the Syrian ruler gassed over a thousand people to death:
“It is, I think, a false notion that somehow we were in a position to, through a few selective strikes, prevent the kind of hardship we’ve seen in Syria. It’s not that it’s not worth it.
"It’s that after a decade of war, the United States has limits.
"And it’s not clear whether the outcome, in fact, would have turned out significantly better.
"To look at a country like Syria and see how it’s been torn apart, to see the humanitarian crisis that’s taking place, surely, that is not consistent with any reasonable interpretation of what Islam is all about, to see children starving or murdered, to see families having to abandon their homes.”
After the Saudi meetings, Voice of Americareported:
1) Topping the list of concerns is Iran - a rival of Saudi Arabia.
2) The Saudis also have grievances about Obama's decision to not follow up on his threats to strike at the Syrian government after its poison gas attack in a Damascus suburb last year, and what the Saudis see as Washington's reluctance to arm Syrian rebels.
3) The White House says that while the U.S. and Saudi views have - in the words of one senior official - “not been exactly aligned,” there is no fundamental split in the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
And here are a few observations:
1) The Saudis didn’t raise the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In fact, by the Arab League’s recent “10 No’s” vote a couple of days before, the Saudis turned Obama’s pre-condition of “Israel-Surrender-'West-Bank'-First, then form Arab-Israel alliance against Iran-second” on its head.
The Saudis in effect made their pre-condition Obama’s neutering of their Shiite Iranian monster first and last. Once Iran is dead and buried, the Saudis will talk about the Palestinian Arabs. The Saudis had de facto protected Israel’s flank by pushing the maximalist Arab League position which thus insured that Abbas couldn’t compromise on an inch (not that he would have anyway).
2) The Saudis will now be convinced that Obama is lying through his teeth on everything concerning Iran. Obama says, “It’s not clear whether the [Syrian] outcome, in fact, would have turned out significantly better.” Obama may be able to lie to American’s about ObamaCare, but he’s not going to sell the Saudis the same lying rug for a fifth time.
3) In 2011, Obama dropped 124 unmanned Tomahawks on Qaddafi in 3 days before he had barely killed even a thousand people, but in 2014, after Assad had murdered 120,000 Sunnis like “rats,” we hear that “It’s that after a decade of war, the United States has limits.”
Obama has confirmed the Saudis worst fears, no matter how one looks at it. If Obama is telling the truth, America is finished in the Middle East, and can’t defend the House of Saudi; but if Obama is lying, he is lying so badly, it’s hard to contain one’s laughter.
40 Obama reiterated over and over - before he was elected - that he’s not a “Muslim.” However, he seems to present himself as an absolute authority on what “Islam” is all about, and especially about the specific meanings of Iran’s various anti-nuclear “fatwas” - the ones that no one has ever seen! Nevertheless, Obama explains to us, benighted infidels, that Assad and Iran’s murdering of 200,000 Sunnis in Syria and having Shiite Muslim snipers “shoot-to-maim-not-kill” Sunni Muslim children, “is not consistent with any reasonable interpretation of what Islam is all about, to see children starving or murdered, to see families having to abandon their homes.”
Is Obama really serious about that statement? Is he saying, “Islam is only about murdering Jews and Christians, but not other Muslims”? Can it be that he doesn’t watch the news? He has dropped his golf-handicap a couple of strokes.
Obama is so busy 24/7/365 trying to push Israel into 1967-Auschwitz Borders that will irrevocably weaken the Jewish State, that he doesn’t think of anything else.
In conclusion, this is the way the Saudi's see it: Either Obama is so delusional that he really believes what he is saying, or Obama is the biggest fabricator the world has ever seen. Either way, the Saudis now see Obama as an Iranian-stooge, and realize that they have to face a nuclear-Iran without any U.S. defense.
And this is the way the Israeli's see it: Any Obama security guarantees for either the “peace” process or Iran are either total lies, or totally worthless because “It’s that after a decade of war, the United States has limits.” For Obama, after he creates a “West Bank” Palestinian state and/or if Iran develops a nuclear bomb, saving 6 million Jews will be outside “the United States’ limits.”
Israel is going to have to face Iran without the U.S., and possibly with Obama defending Iran by giving Iran a head’s-up warning when Israel launches any attack.