Over 25 years ago, I was showing a pro-Israel Republican Californian Congressman how a Palestinian Arab 'West Bank' State armed with Katyushas rocket could do to Tel Aviv what the Hamas just did to the Gaza-belt of south-west Israel. Immediately, he put his hand on the Samarian/Judean mountains of the 'West Bank', and said: OK, now I understand why the 'West Bank' is important to Israel, but why is Israel important to me?? I have real constituents who regularly come into my office and say, “Israel is the source of instability in the Mid-East!” or “Israel is an apartheid state!!” I looked at him and counter-asked, “You’re not asking me whether “an Israel with, or without the 'West Bank” is important, you’re asking whether “an Israel at all” is important. And, he responded “Exactly.”
I blithely ignored the fact that the Congressman had just posited Holocaust 2.0, I began to verbally describe that “Syria is over here” and “Egypt is over there.” After describing where Egypt “was,” I quickly realized that the Congressman had no remote idea what countries surrounded Israel, or even where Israel was, and that my verbal descriptions were a total waste of breath. So, I politely thanked him and left. But, on my train-ride home, I drew out my first Israel strategic maps which conclusively proved that without Israel’s strategic-depth, Saudi Arabia was a dead-country walking.
But as a preliminary matter, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain are not entering into the Abraham Accords because they think they’ll make a couple of good economic deals. They are entering a partnership with Israel because they have practically realized that Israel is THE ONLY cause of stability in the Middle East, and their only real-time military area-access to an emergency air-bridge US troop insertion to save their regimes.
When PM Netanyahu stood on the UN General Assembly podium last and showed the “red straight-line-out” from Saudi Arabia through Israel to the Mediterranean Sea, he was actually showing Iran something completely different: An emergency “red straight-line-in” access through Israel to save Saudi Arabia from an Iranian invasion. One could even say, Bibi’s 2023 UN map actually launched the 10/7 Hamas raid on Israel. Or, Bibi’s red line “New Middle East” map was “the Map that launched a 1000 Hamas terrorists.”
Why? Let’s play a simple Newtonian mind experiment, and assume that the 7 million Jews of Israel decided that they couldn’t hold-out any longer, and they all left for sunny Florida or rainy London, and handed the keys of Israel to whomever, or, G-d forbid, Hamas and its cohorts had succeeded in their plans to destroy Israel on Octoer 7th. Would Hezbollah/Syria, or Egypt just sit there and watch the Israeli dinghies as the Jews left? No, they both would rush to claim the crown jewel of Jerusalem. There never was a Palestinian State, nor will there ever be a Palestinian State. There would just be a larger Hezbollah/Syria, and a larger Egypt. I’ve shown that step to thousands of people and everyt ime the listener says, “Well, of course there won’t be a Palestinian Arab +State, just a bigger Hezbollah and a bigger Egypt.
Then I ask, don’t you know that the only reason Jordan still exists is because Israel protects Jordan from Syria? I.e. in 1970, when Syria was about to attack Jordan, Israel told Assad’s dad, if you cross the line south into Jordan, we will annihilate you! Today with Hezbollah sitting on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, Jordan is more exposed than ever to being wiped out. Without Israel, Jordan would be toast. 25 years, and not a single person ever disagreed with my maps that without Israel’s protection, Jordan would disappear.
I only ever needed those two simple obvious steps. Because without israel, and Jordan, Saudi Arabia has two northern neighbors on their land border:
1) Egypt, the most populated, poorest, and most conventionally militarily mighty Sunni muslim country now sharing a land border with Saudi Arabia, and
2) a combination of Hezbollah/Iraq/Iran on the more eastern land border.
And, did I forget that Egypt controls the Suez Canal, and Iran sees Saudi Arabia’s eastern oil-rich Shi’ite population as their own citizens? Suffice it to say, with those two land-contiguous northern neighbors Saudi Arabia, and all of the oil-rich Gulf states would be wiped off the face of the planet. In short, Israel is worth 10 aircraft carrier battle groups air/land-bridge access to Saudi Arabia and the oil-rich Gulf states.
And as an important pre-concluding point, why will the 40 Million a-year budget AIPAC never make the argument that “Israel is worth 10 aircraft carrier battles groups to the US Defense Budget”? Because AIPAC is a Land-for-Piece-infected Jewish money-draining organization. The “10 Aircraft Carrier Battle Group” argument is mutually exclusive with AIPAC’s/American Jew’s “Piece Process” Mantra.
What moron would ever put an Iranian 'West Bank' Palestinian Arab State on an American Aircraft carrier? What rank idiot would take “risks for peace” with 10 Aircraft Carriers, let alone an American canoe? That’s why Republicans like Israel safe even though virtually no Jews support Republicans; and conversely, why the Jewish-supported Democrats like Obama want Israel militarily-crippled with a West Bank Palestinian Arab State. Go figure!
In short, the “Big Lie” Israeli and American Jews have swallowed whole for over 4 decades is that “Israel is the cause of instability in the Middle-East.” Or, that Israel has to create a Palestinian Arab State to forge a Saudi Arabian alliance. Any “West Bank Palestinian State” would inevitably be an “Iranian/Hamas 'West Bank' Palestinian State.” And, an Iranian/Hamas West Bank Palestinian State is the last thing Saudi Arabia or any of the Sunni Arab states need or want.
Israel is only valuable to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states if Israel is militarily supreme and invincible, and can act as a secure land/air military bridge to Saudi Arabia. What use would Israel be to anybody if it were to be militarily crippled by a 'West Bank' Iranian/Hamas Palestinian State? One could say Israel is already partially militarily crippled by just the pesky Iranian/Hamas Gaza statelet. Thus, Israel was and always has been Saudi Arabia’s protector, and Saudi Arabia’s first, and last, line of defense.