Robert Parry

Exclusive: Early U.S. presidents warned against the dangers of “entangling alliances,” prescient advice that the neocons want President Obama to ignore amid demands from Israel and Saudi Arabia that America tie itself up in the endless and bloody sectarian conflicts of the Middle East.

American neocons are rallying to the new Israeli-Saudi alliance by demanding that President Barack Obama engage more aggressively against the two countries’ foes in the Middle East, thus “bolstering Israeli and Saudi confidence,” as the Washington Post’s deputy editorial-page editor Jackson Diehl declared.

For years, the Washington Post has served as Official Washington’s neocon flagship, bristling in support of every hawkish demand for U.S. intervention in the Mideast, most notably assembling a flotilla of misguided consensus in support of President George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq and then pounding any American skeptics who dared emerge over the horizon.

Diehl’s column on Monday [10/28/13] represented an extension of the neocons’ knee-jerk support of Israeli interests to those of the Saudi monarchy, Israel’s new secret friend. Diehl hoisted the banner of this odd-couple alliance in excoriating President Obama for letting down these two “allies” as they maneuver to crush what’s known as the Shiite crescent extending from Iran through Iraq and Syria to the Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.

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Stephen Lendman

A previous article discussed an unholy Israeli/Saudi alliance. It's an axis of evil. They're strange bedfellows. They have no formal relations. It's believed Saudi Prince Bandar ibn Sultan visited Israel covertly. Doing so broke a decades long taboo. Both countries have common regional interests. They include toppling Syria's Assad. They want Iran's government replaced.

Reports suggest both countries formed an anti-Iranian military alliance. On November 17, the London Sunday Times headlined "Two old foes unite against Tehran," saying: "Convinced that Iran is tricking the world over nuclear weapons, Israel and Saudi Arabia may work together to curb its ambitions."

None exist. Both countries know it. At issue is eliminating a regional rival. More on that below.

Multiple rounds of Iranian nuclear talks failed. On November 20, another attempt begins. The myth about Iran pursuing nuclear weapons persists. Israel wants America's Iran policy toughened. AIPAC wants new sanctions enacted. According to an unnamed senior State Department official: "We are going to send teams around the world to make sure the sanctions stay in place, (so) that the whole sanctions regime will not collapse."

Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David Cohen added: "The relief we are considering as part of an initial phase would be limited, temporary, targeted and reversible." "We will continue to monitor Iran's financial activity and take action, as we always have, to target Iranian attempts to evade sanctions." "The overwhelming economic pressure from our sanctions will remain in place, and we will continue to leverage these sanctions until we have a full, verifiable and peaceful resolution to international concerns surrounding Iran's nuclear program."

So-called concerns are contrived. Expect no letup in Washington's longstanding anti-Iranian agenda.

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Finian Cunningham

The violation of children’s rights by the Israeli and Bahraini regimes is more than mere coincidence. It is indicative of a much broader strategic alignment that has emerged between the Zionist regime and the Persian Gulf Arab monarchies.

The use of state terrorism against children by Israeli military and Bahrain regime forces is not some random, isolated aberration. The scale and systematic pattern of the violations strongly suggests that the regimes are collaborating closely in methods of counter-insurgency.

In Bahrain, it is exclusively the majority Shia communities that are targeted by regime forces of the Saudi-backed Al Khalifa monarchy.

In recent months, hundreds of children, under the age of 18 and some as young as five years-old, have been arbitrarily arrested and detained without trial in both the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and in Bahrain. Over the past four months, up to 100 children have been snatched from their homes without warrants, detained indefinitely, interrogated and even tortured, according to Bahraini human rights sources. Some of the children have been convicted of terrorism on the basis of forced confessions and given jail sentences of up to 15 years.

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