Redux: Saudi State Media Aids Netanyahu & Opportunistically Attack Hezbollah

The Saudi-Israeli honeymoon continues with state media praise for Netanyahu.

Contrary to popular Western perception that Arab regimes exploit the Palestinian conflict for their own repressive ends to distract from their incompetence, the state of Arab politics today is one where Arab governments want to stay at arms length from the question of Palestine.

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This is due to the fact that Arab regimes are clients of the United States (bar Syria) and raising voice in support of Palestine will not go down well with the American patron. Some regimes are in great need of American support - especially the Saudi royals who would eventually flatter without American backing.

So Arab regime no longer speak in defense of the Palestinians, prefer to avoid the issue, and cringe whenever tensions flare up because the suffering of the Palestinians at the hands of Israel highlights the subservient nature of Arab regimes and further undermines their credibility and legitimacy with their people. Every time the conflict escalates, Arab regimes fret between having to continue their toeing of the line of American hegemony while appeasing their angered populace.

This is why the prefer to avoid the issue of Palestine, because they do not want to offend the United States and the American Congress in particular, but also know that the absence of strong words in support of the Palestinian further makes salient their client status in front of their people.

The Saudi media -owned by the corrupt members of the royal family - is key in this. The media 1) seek to undermine the Palestinian cause by not reporting on it as much as, say, al Jazeera and as much as the Arab people want 2) offering cheap and sleazy entertainment as a distraction.

It also seeks to promote its “peace proposal” with Israel in the hopes of getting the Palestinians to sell-out so that the matter no longer bugs the Saudi royals. Part of this propaganda is being an apologist to Israel and pretending that Israel is sincere about a genuine peace with the Palestinians.

Consider this royal family-owned newspaper al-Sharq al-Owset headline (Arabic link) proposing that far-right Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, who only just accepted the principle of a Palestinian “state” months ago, has offered to give up 90% of the West Bank.

Of course, 90% is not sufficient for the justice of the Palestinians. But it is not even that. The Israeli government is not taking negotiations seriously let along proposing comprehensive offers.

But the Saudi media - reflecting the Saudi-Israel honeymoon over the shared worry over Iranian nuclear capability - has been servicing Israeli/Zionist propaganda for quite some while now. Nothing new here, folks. Just the Saudi royals selling out principle for their own skin.

Redux: The Saudi royal media plays on Israeli standards in every way. One of its pet-peeves is the Lebanese party-cum-militia Hezbollah because it is Shiite (and the Wahhabi fanatics hate Shiites) and Iranian-backed (and they resent and fear Iran's influence) and they always seek to undermine it popularity in the Arab (born due to the fact that it drove Israel from South Lebanon after an 18-year occupation and brought it to a stalemate in the 2006 war) and it does so by attacking it whatever way the wind blows:

In this front page headline, the mouthpiece of Prince Salman and his sons (Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat) mocks Hizbullah for not shooting at Israeli yesterday. The same newspaper mocks and attacks Hizbullah whenever it shoots at Israeli. Inconsistency? Not really. It just adjusts its yellow journalistic propaganda to the interests of Israel, whatever they are.

They have no honor, decency or shame. Just the bittersweet oil money.

H/T: Angry Arab.