To be honest, I am not crying over Khashoggi’s untimely death. He was a chief spreader of antisemitic tropes. He denied Jewish history in Israel, referring to it as a ruse; he promoted the antisemitic, Russian-fabricated, fake conspiracy named The Elders of Zion; he referred to Jews as deceivers and swindlers.
In September 2012 – after the riots in Egypt and Libya, leading to the murder of the US ambassador in Benghazi, Khashoggi claimed that the Jews passed legislation that criminalized the questioning of the Holocaust, while even Catholics failed to criminalize the abuse of Christ.
But unrelated to this wicked mentality, the killing of one depraved individual citizen by a leader of a state should not dictate the relationships between the US and that state. There are many other aspects of those relationships, they should be taken into account before the drop of the guillotine.
US-Saudi relationships are multifaceted. They include more than just energy production. They are key to the establishment of a strong front, in concert with Israel, designed to hold back Iranian imperialistic ambitions.
Accordingly, when considering foreign policy, the Khashoggi affair, an internal Saudi matter, should be weighted together with the rest of the package, so that global and American interests are taken into account in a cool-headed way rather than an idealistic, vehement manner.
The last time US foreign policy attempted to promote human rights and democracy rather than weighing US and global interests, it facilitated the removal of Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, and got instead a democratically elected, Islamic fundamentalist, Mohamed Morsi, whose policies were detrimental to most Egyptians, Egypt’s neighbors, as well as the US. Morsi was replaced via a military coup, which instated Abdel-Fattah El Sisi as president. Interestingly, this time The US State Department expressed concern over the military intervention. US President Barack Obama released a statement saying he was deeply concerned by the decision by Egyptian military to depose Morsi, and called for a swift return to civilian government.
But there was no condemnation. The US administration also stopped short of calling the military intervention a coup. They must have learned something.
At the same time, the current US president, when campaigning for his future job, dismissed the experience-based conclusion, and opted for a loud, emotional, idealistic, senseless declaration, criticizing and condemning Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS).
But the latest realities made him do a U-Turn. He went to visit MBS who, apparently, lost respect for Joe, even though Biden attempted to whitewash and spin his previous statements in a less critical way. But some things leave a stain that do not come off in the washing machine. That one was probably one such stain.
One of Biden’s key objectives in visiting Saudi Arabia was pleading with MBS, the Crown Prince, for producing more oil. Increasing world supply of oil would reduce the price at the gas station and would help control the spiraling inflation. This became especially relevant after MBS sent Joe home empty-handed. He must have mocked Joe behind his back.
But then again, instead of begging the one you had put down and accused of being a murderer, would not it be easier to follow your objective of “Buy American”, while becoming energy independent and even an energy exporter? This is no longer a question of price at the pump. This is a question of national security.
Nevertheless, Joe is not a person who can be convinced by following logical arguments. He can only be moved by his clueless handlers. These impractical ideologues went to war on fossil fuels with nothing to fall back on when other forms of energy are unable to fill the huge gap in demand. The transition these handlers were seeking could not be materialized overnight, but their ideologies prevented them from realizing that simple detail.
They missed the fact that the contributor to global warming is energy consumption, regardless of where the energy is sourced from. It matters not whether the oil originates in Texas, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, or Russia, it only counts toward global warming if it is consumed anywhere on the planet, so even if the US reduces its consumption of fossil fuels while China increases its consumption, it becomes a zero-sum game, and the objective of halting the global warming trend loses steam.
Logical thinking is a trait missing in this administration. My only hope is that things will start changing, coming November.
Dr. Avi Perry, talk show host at Paltalk News Network (PNN), is the author of "Fundamentals of Voice Quality Engineering in Wireless Networks,"and "72 Virgins," a thriller about the covert war on Islamic terror. He was a VP at NMS Communications, a Bell Laboratories - distinguished staff member and manager, as well as a delegate of the US and Lucent Technologies to the ITU—the UN International Standards body in Geneva, a professor at Northwestern University and Intelligence expert for the Israeli Government. He may be reached through his web site www.aviperry.org