Introducing President Trump to the assembled 50 Muslim/Sunni Presidents on May 21, 2017, King Salman of Saudi Arabia spent 8 pages of text excoriating the “Iranian Regime and its affiliated organizations such as Hezbollah and the Houtis, as well as ISIS (Daesh) and Al-Qaeda” for “attempts to exploit Islam as a cover for political purposes that fuel hatred, extremism, terrorism, and religious and sectarian conflicts.”
The Saudis have realized that the Iranian knife is at the Saudi and Sunni jugular vein. The Saudis need all the military help they can get and have finally come to understand how militarily vital Israel’s existence is to the safety of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Pundits have claimed Israel needs to create a Palestinian State in order for the Saudis to allow the Israelis help protect them from Iran. That is nonsense. Israel is only valuable to Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Muslims as a military superman and if Israel is pushed back to the 1967 Auschwitz borders, Israel won’t be militarily capable of defending itself, let alone defending Saudi Arabia.
How dangerous is a 'West Bank' State is to Saudi Arabia and all the Sunni Muslim countries?
First, an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria (aka 'West Bank') is most dangerous to Abbas, the master-terrorist himself, and to his corrupt cronies and families currently robbing the Palestinian Arabs of Judea and Samaria. Without Israeli protection, Abbas and his entire corrupt crew will be murdered by Hamas or ISIS, thrown off buildings, unless they manage to run away just like they did in Gaza. The West Bank Palestinians themselves will be subjected to Hamas corrupt rule that makes the Abbas regime look like paradise. Iran will have eliminated Abbas, and claimed East Jerusalem for itself. The 'West Bank' will turn even worse suffering and hell for the Palestinian Arabs living there.
And Jordan? Iranian proxies Hamas and Hezbollah were the tactical forces that helped overthrow President Mubarak of Egypt. With an Iranian proxy PA State next door, how long will King Abdullah last? Not very long.
Thus, in two short strokes, a Palestinian Arab State will catastrophically destabilize what has been a reasonably stable Saudi Arabian northern border for 60 years.
Can the Saudis and the Kuwaitis forget Palestinian Arab treachery when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait? They helped Saddam invade, and brutally occupy Kuwait. Has King Abdullah of Jordan forgotten the Palestinian Arabs acted towards his father in Black September 1970 through July 1971? It is said that that Abdullah’s father, King Hussein, would joke about Arafat saying, “Yasser Arafat could never come to a bridge that he wouldn’t double-cross.”
And, do you need any more proof of the Palestinian Arabs stance than how they have stood behind Assad and his Iranian-backed killing machine? Count on the Palestinians to double-cross Jordan and Saudi Arabia if they have a state.
In addition, if there is a Palestinian Arab state, all of Israel’s air force bases will be in range of rudimentary Sarin-poison-gas-tipped katyusha rockets. They don’t call the 1967-borders “Auschwitz Borders” for nothing. With the 'West Bank' and Jordan in Palestinian Arab - read Iranian -hands, Israel will be spatially militarily disconnected from Saudi Arabia. Jordan will turn into a Houti Yemen-like enemy to Saudi Arabia’s north. The Saudis can’t handle one Iranian Yemen now and most certainly will not be able to survive another.
A Palestinian Arab 'West Bank' State is not only a danger for Israel, it will bring the Saudis and the Sunnis an Shiite-Iranian-controlled Jordan. It’s no wonder the "Palestinian issue" barely rated even a sentence in the last paragraph of King Salman’s speech.
All the Sunni Muslims are depending on Saudi leadership to protect them from the Iranians.
The Saudis and the Sunnis need a Israeli military superman who can not only defend itself, by itself, but also blunt any Iranian attack on the Kingdom in the first 24-48 hours of hostilities until the United States can mobilize and scale-up its in-theater order of battle.
Mark Langfan is Chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) and specializes in security issues, has created an original educational 3d Topographic Map System of Israel to facilitate clear understanding of the dangers facing Israel and its water supply. It has been studied by US lawmakers and can be seen at www.marklangfan.com.