The Saudis Host Hamas' Top Brass - And Reveal The Middle East's New Order

In another sign of the changing lineup in the Middle East, our `eternal friends' the showed their contempt for `moderate' Abbas and the US and embraced Hamas by giving the Hamas top brass a red carpet reception in Riyadh.

The delegation included Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal, Musa Abu Marzuk, the No. 2 man in Hamas, Muhammad Naser and Sami Khater, members of the Hamas politburo.

The Hamas delegation met with several top Saudi officials and members of the royal family, including Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, who no doubt gave them a detailed briefing on the Annapolis gang rape of Israel and what can be expected from the new arrangements with the Americans. From there of course, it will get back to Iran, the Hamas patrons. That's if the Saudis haven't already talked to them, which they no doubt have...probably at Doha, where Ahmadinejad was the guest of honor and he and Saudi king Abdullah strolled the grounds hand in hand.

As I've written before, it's patently obvious that the sudden `discovery' by the new NIE that Iran supposedly has ended its quest for nuclear weapons is a signal to the Iranians that the US military option is off the table. And it ties in with the humiliation of Israel at the Annapolis Conference and the UN, the embrace of the Saudi `peace' ultimatum by Condi Rice, and the recent crumbling of the March 14 anti-Syria opposition in Lebanon and the ascension to the presidency of the pro-Syrian and pro-Hezbollah candidate Michel Suleiman to the presidency.

I see this as amounting to nothing less than a budding reapproachment between Iran and the Bush Administration, with the Saudis as the middle men.

I largely agree with Saudi journalist Jihad El-Khazen in the Arab newspaper Al-Hayat. In exchange for quiet and a reduced arms and IED flow into Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush Administration suddenly removed not only the US military option but any prospect of a third round of sanctions, something that has left France, Germany and Britain feeling silly for going along with the idea, and the Russians emboldened to resume nuclear fuel shipments to the mullahs and to send a war fleet to the Syrian port of Tartus for the first time since the Cold War.

As for China, Chinese UN Ambassador Wang Guangya, when asked if sanctions were likely simply said that the Security Council members `now have to consider that things have changed.'

The idea of sanctions never had much hope, but like the Witch in the Wizard of Oz after Dorothy's House fell on her, the sanctions are now `not only really dead but most sincerely dead.'

Another part of the deal was obviously Lebanon, where the Siniora government was sacrificed and thrown under the bus as the Bush Administration obviously agreed to cut its losses and allow Syria and Hezbollah to take over, leaving the Lebanese to their tender mercies. With Sulieman in charge, the UN tribunal on the murders of Hariri and the other Lebanese politicians,journalists and dissidents will just be another UN project that goes nowhere and does nothing.

As I've noted, the Israelis are likewise a part of the package. Like the Lebanese democracy movement and the Iranian dissidents, they've likewise been sacrificed and if I were them, I'd pretty much plan on going it alone and not relying on any security guarantees they may have gotten from the Bush Administration which will continue to use its leverage on Israel's weakest and most corrupt leader to force Israel into strategic concessions, no matter what the cost to its security

There may very well have been some additional quid pro quos from the Arabs for all this largess that we're unaware of.I've noted before the large amounts of Arab capital now moving into the US financial markets into places like CitiGroup, the NASDAQ,and the heavily Bush family invested Carlyle group, among others.

There may also be a connection with the Saudis continuing to lean on OPEC to keep oil sales pegged to the falling dollar...in effect importing US inflation and keeping the US economy out of recession, at least temporarily.

Aside from a briefing by the Saudis for their terrorist pals in Hamas on Annapolis and a coordination of strategy against Israel, there was more talk of a reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah...which of course destroys one of the chief understandings that Israel had when going into the talks in the first place.

Look for that to happen, or for Hamas to simply take over completely and push Abbas out of the way after the maximum in concessions is extracted from Israel.At that point, unless the Israelis take control of the situation and take drastic action, they will be placed in an untenable position with indefensible borders, with a united terrorist front in control of `Palestine' armed with advanced Iranian missiles within easy range of Israel's coastal plain and a rearmed Hezbollah to the north with even more advanced missiles, all aimed at Israel's civilians.

This is Peace In Our Time with a vengeance, and we will pay a huge price for it.

I seem to remember, deep in my memory a distant phrase, uttered by a ghost: "You're either with us or with the terrorists."

Whatever happened to that man, anyway?