I watched the 2020 Republican National Convention on C-Span, largely because the screen is uncluttered with banners and preview windows and they hang around at the end of such events for a while, particularly when President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence or First Lady Melania was the last speaker. I would try to turn to Fox for analysis only to see first up the shining visage of a Marie Harf or a Juan Williams, the DNC mole from a parallel universe that has lately been obsessing about something called “Qanon violence” whatever that is.

Mornings at Fox have not been much better lately with the likes of former DNC Chair Donna Brazile who on Tuesday morning’s episode lost it entirely when questioned about the DNC’s failure to address and accept responsibility for the anarchy, the rioting, the looting, the burning and the deaths resulting from the Democratic Party’s push to empty the prisons, defund and otherwise neuter the police, and to not arrest or prosecute vigorously those perpetrating the violence. As Breitbart reported:

Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” host Brian Kilmeade cut away from former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile, also a network contributor, after she derailed a segment with conservative commentator Tammy Bruce.

While commenting on the first night of the Republican National Convention, Bruce said, “No Democratic has spoken out against the nature of what’s happening in Kenosha, Portland, Seattle, Baltimore, New York, Chicago. Americans have a choice, and the fact is that the Republicans are showing an expanse of what the American sensibility and what the American future is.”

Brazile said, “This is why the choir sounds like aa note coming from a scratched record. It sounds like I will never be an American in your world, because, after 400 years, my family cannot walk out of this house without fearing violence.”

Kilmeade said, “That’s not what anyone said.”

After an extended back and forth, Brazile said, “She ignores the reality of what is happening. She is ignoring it because I see it. Tammy, I see it every day. I see the violence, Tammy.”

She continued, “Coming from someone who does not live my existence — you do not recognize my existence, Tammy. You do not recognize my existence!”

Bruce said, “It’s a shame.”

Brazile shot back, “You are the shameful one. You are the shameful one. You cannot erase my history.”

Whatever was she ranting about?  No one is trying to erase her history or her version of history.  But it is Donna Brazile, not Tammy Bruce or anyone else, who is ignoring the reality of Democratic governors and mayors letting their cities be burned and their businesses looted in anarchy that has nothing to do with George Floyd or any social injustice real or imagined. It has everything to do with seizing power from Donald Trump, canceling our middle class, our culture and our Judeo-Christian system of law enforcement and justice

As it turns out, George Floyd’s “murder” may not be what happened, with a video showing him sitting unmolested in a police car saying he couldn’t breathe and later struggling with police, his body full of fentanyl, three times the lethal dose, and other deadly drugs. So what are the protesters going to do with this news? Rise up en masse, pull some sort of ghoulish Emily Litella double-take and shout, “Never mind?” As the Washington Examiner reports:

The Hennepin County medical examiner said that a fentanyl overdose may have been the cause of George Floyd’s death, court documents suggest.

Chief Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker said there was “no physical evidence suggesting that Mr. Floyd died of asphyxiation,” according to documents obtained by the court as part of a lawsuit from one of the officers involved in Floyd’s arrest, Tou Thao.

As the Daily Mail suggests in its reporting, George Floyd’s death might even be listed as a suicide, based on his reported and documented actions:

An attorney for one of the Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s killing claims the black man contributed to his own death because he overdosed on fentanyl during his arrest. …

Lane’s attorney Earl Gray has been trying to get the charges against him dropped, claiming there is insufficient evidence to establish the officer committed a crime.

In a memorandum filed in court on Monday, the attorney claimed that Floyd swallowed a ‘lethal dose’ of fentanyl as he was resisting arrest.

The attorney pointed to bodycam footage of the arrest in which he claims Floyd had a ‘white spot on the left side’ of his tongue when Lane and another officer first approached him following reports he had used a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes at a convenience store.

Gray has claimed in the memo that Floyd intentionally ingested ‘2 milligrams of fentanyl, a lethal dose’ after Lane ordered him to put his hands up to be taken into custody.

All he had to do is sit in the police car, like every other defendant who is initially arrested. While attempting to avoid his arrest, all by himself, Mr. Floyd overdosed on Fentanyl,’ the filing says.

‘Given his intoxication level, breathing would have been difficult at best. Mr. Floyd’s intentional failure to obey commands, coupled with his overdosing, contributed to his own death.’

Don’t expect to get such reality-based information from the likes of the Fox News lineup of swamp creatures such as Marie Harf, Jessica Tarlov, Richard Fowler, Leslie Marshall. Austin Goolsbee, Richard Hahn, and the poster child for fairness and objectivity, Donna Brazile, who has done this before.

Donna Brazile, the disgraced former DNC leader and newly minted Fox News contributor who leaked debate questions to Hillary Clinton, got away with swearing at RNC Chairwoman Ronna Mcdanion the morning after Super Thursday, as Joe Biden called it, instead of being pulled from the air immediately as Fox would have cheerfully done to any conservative analyst who similarly ranted before telling say, the DNC Chair, to similarly “go To hell.”

McDaniel had appeared earlier on  “America’s Newsroom,” and opined that perhaps the withdrawal of Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg and the support of Beto O’Rourke was part of deal-making that included future cabinet positions and other future considerations in exchange for their endorsements and conveniently all showing up together at Joe Biden’s rally before the crucial Texas primary. McDaniel suggested, based on the 2016 nominating shenanigans that perhaps the DNC was once again conspiring to deny Bernie Sanders its nomination for president. This was the partisan analysis of a political operative in an election year, an opinion she was entitled to express, an opinion well-grounded in the historical record.

This struck a nerve with Brazile, who, asked to comment on McDaniel’s analysis, went off on a borderline incoherent rant that stunned Newsroom co-hosts Ed Henry And Sandra Smith who said nothing to correct the record or apologize to an equally stunned audience as Brazile went off the rails:

Ms. Brazile, a Fox News contributor and former interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman, became visibly irate during an appearance on “America’s Newsroom” after co-host Sandra Smith asked her to weigh in on comments made earlier on the program by Ms. McDaniel, who said a potential brokered Democratic convention would be “rigged” against the Vermont senator.

“Stay the hell out of our race,” Ms. Brazile responded. “I get sick and tired … of listening to Republicans tell me and the Democrats about our process. First of all, they don’t have a process. They are canceling primaries. They have winner-take-all. They don’t have the kind of democracy that we see on the Democratic side.

“And for people to use Russian talking points to sow division among Americans — that is stupid,” she continued. “So Ronna, go to hell! This is not about—”

“Whoa, whoa,” co-anchor Ed Henry interjected.

“No, go to hell,” Ms. Brazile repeated. “I’m tired of it, Ed.”

Again, it is hard to imagine a GOP or conservative getting away with this vitriol. Russian talking points? Really? Fox’s idea of analysis is to provide a forum for Brazile to cry, “Russia, Russia, Russia?” So impressed was Fox with Brazile’s eloquent and cogent analysis that she was back in the evening for post-election analysis and on “Fox and Friends” the following morning. This is typical for Fox News who has been veering to the left of late, a recent example being Neil Cavuto’s rewriting of history when he agreed with guest A.B. Stoddard that Trump lost all his 2016 debates with “cringeworthy” performances.

And then there’s Juan Williams, who recently reacted almost as irrationality when asked on an episode of The Five about Democratic responsibility and culpability for urban violence in Democratic-run cities. As the Daily Caller reported:

Juan Williams compared blaming Democrats for ongoing riots and “anarchist violence” to blaming President Donald Trump for “QAnon violence” during a Thursday discussion on Fox News’ “The Five.”

Guest-co-host Martha MacCallum played a clip of a former police officer being knocked down and assaulted on a New York City street.

“This was on 39th street,” MacCallum said. “This is basically midtown in the middle of the afternoon. They pulled 600 police officers off the streets, and now we are seeing this. So is this a mistake for Democrats to ignore this?”

“They haven’t mentioned it once, Juan,” MacCallum said, referring to the ongoing Democratic National Convention.

“There is not widespread violence in American cities,” Williams responded. “Let’s not buy into Donald Trump’s nonsense about American … violent crime in this country is down.”

“Stop it, Juan … You can’t be serious. I’m not Donald Trump. I’m telling you the facts. Every day I tell you the facts, Juan, and you keep shifting it to Donald Trump. It’s pathetic. You need to come up with a new talking point,” co-host Greg Gutfeld said.

Gutfeld continued and said, “the murders and shootings are up,” as Williams continued to speak at the same time.

“This is not anarchist violence by a small group in Portland, Oregon, that’s suddenly being blown into like, ‘oh that represents what is going on in American cities,’” Williams said. “That’s just wrong! That’s just a total distraction. The reality is that Democrats are not responsible for some violent anarchists no more than Donald Trump is responsible for QAnon violence or Proud Boy violence …”

“Qanon violence?” he said while laughing. “That’s funny. There is none. That’s funny. You are hilarious. You are hilarious.”

Again, Juan, what in the world is Qanon violence? Where is it happening? The answer is that it isn’t and doesn’t exist except in the fevered recesses of Juan Williams’ brain. Something on the Democratic talking points Donna Brazile and her cohort of Democratic moles inside Fox missed? Maybe Joe Biden knows. Oh, he forgot.

President Trump has commented on the decline of Fox News as an objective source of information, particularly its weekend lineup. As the Washington Examiner reported:

President Trump criticized Fox News’ weekend lineup, saying they were loading up with Democrats, making them worse than CNN.

“Watching @FoxNews weekend anchors is worse than watching low ratings Fake News @CNN, or Lyin’ Brian Williams,” Trump said Sunday on Twitter. “Like CNN, NBC is also way down in the ratings. But @FoxNews, who failed in getting the very BORING Dem debates, is now loading up with Democrats & even using Fake unsourced @nytimes as a ‘source’ of information.”

“@FoxNews is changing fast, but they forgot the people who got them there!” Trump added.

So it would seem that FOX continues to embrace its latest Democratic heartthrob, Donna Brazile. The continued listing to starboard of Fox News, which rose to prominence precisely because it cut through the politically correct swamp fog that passed as media news just as Donald Trump sliced through the swamp itself on his way to the White House, was on full display on Fox News. It’s time to drain the Fox News swamp as well.

The peace agreement between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel is an important boost to the formation of a strategic Middle Eastern alliance between Israel and moderate Sunni states.

The pact takes Israel’s central role in cooperating with Sunni Arab states out of the shadows. A boost to regional stability, the peace agreement will enable expanded cooperation on defense and intelligence affairs, trade, investment, joint technological development, and could foster positive religious-cultural dialogue.

No less importantly, it also deals a blow to two radical Islamist forces that are determined to destabilize the region, threatening Israel and Sunni-Arab countries alike. The deal threatens these forces’ ability to control the region’s dialogue about Israel’s presence, Islam, and challenges to some extent their ability to promote a dark vision for the future.

The Iranian-Shi’ite axis is the first of those radical forces that stand to lose from the agreement. Iran and its armed proxies – militant, well-armed Shi’ite militias deployed across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen – have reacted vehemently against news of the pact, reflecting deep concern over its implications.

The second force concerned about the agreement is the Muslim Brotherhood camp, which is led by Turkey and includes Hamas, Qatar, and hardline Sunni political Islamists across the region.

Both the Iranian axis and the Muslim Brotherhood camp are inherently threatened by the UAE-Israel pact since it challenges their ideology and the justification they provide for their destabilizing actions.

“The [Iranian] regime fears the emergence of a new international alliance that will have greater power to contain its hegemonic regional aspirations, and there is a new urgency to the need to prove to the Iranian people that the government’s imperialist foreign policy works to their benefit,” said Doron Itzchakov, an Iran specialist from the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.

Itzchakov explained that the Iranian regime’s leadership is “covering its embarrassment and apprehension with a stream of defamation and threats,” including a statement by Iranian Parliament Speaker Muhammad Bakr Qalibaf, who called the agreement “despicable and a betrayal of human and Islamic values,” and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who warned the UAE’s leaders “not to open their gates” to Israel. A special adviser to the speaker of Iran’s parliament stated that “Abu Dhabi’s behavior has no justification, turning [its] back on the Palestine cause. With that strategic mistake, UAE will be engulfed in [the] Zionism fire.”

Israel and several Sunni Arab states share a vision of the threat Iranian axis poses, a fact that has helped to push the Gulf states closer to Israel.

Cities and strategic sites in Saudi Arabia have come under missile fire from the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, which, like Hizballah, are armed by the Iranian Quds Force. The Houthis claimed to have fired a cruise missile at the UAE’s nuclear power plant in 2017 (though the UAE said no missile targeted its plant). Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been engaged in a bloody war with the Houthis, though the UAE withdrew its forces from southern Yemen last year.

Several ships docked at UAE ports were sabotaged last year in attacks widely attributed to Iranian forces, and the Islamic Republic has repeatedly threatened the Gulf states’ ability to export oil, in retaliation for sanctions on Iran’s own oil exports.

The Gulf states clearly recognize that the threat posed by Iran’s quest for hegemony is the same threat that is seeking to turn Syria into a network of missile bases that target Israeli cities. They see that the Iranian axis has already turned Lebanon into a frontline Iranian military attack post that threatens Israel with 130,000 projectiles, and is active throughout the region to subvert and threaten countries in its way. Iran has repeatedly sought to destabilize and set up terror networks in Bahrain.

This recognition of these common interests led the foreign minister of the UAE, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to state in 2019 that Israel was justified in attacking Iranian targets in Syria.

“Every nation has the right to defend itself when it’s challenged by another nation, yes,” he said when asked about Israeli strikes.

Few statements exemplify the common danger faced by Israel and moderate Arab states better than the threat released in July by a Houthi intelligence officer, who warned that his organization has a “bank of vital and important targets” in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

The formation of a Middle Eastern coalition of states that views radical Islamist actors as severe threats could mean enhanced coordination and the sharing of intelligence, as well as defense technology.

Israel is a world leader in the development and deployment of drones and cyber defense systems, while its intelligence-gathering capabilities on Iranian activities are well known throughout the region. Such assets could be shared with the UAE – a fact that nearby Iran will surely be displeased about. The possibility that a succession of other Gulf states, such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, eventually will follow the UAE’s path will also disturb the Ayatollah’s regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The Iranian regime appears to be fighting a losing domestic battle to convince its population that allocating resources to attacking Israel and supporting Hizballah and Hamas are vital Iranian national priorities. Iranian protesters have openly questioned this rationale.

The Muslim Brotherhood camp, for its part, is also vehemently opposed to the agreement because it weakens its regional position. Sunni Islamists have long accused Arab governments of seeking normalization with Israel, and instead of denying the claim, the UAE has emerged to own it, in a bold maneuver that pushes back against the radical rhetoric.

Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyah condemned not only the pact but also Egypt’s support for it, describing the agreement as “a violation of Arab and Islamic consensus as well as a stab in the backs of the Palestinian people.”

The UAE and Turkey are rival states, and Turkey, which has become increasingly hostile to Israel, and hosts Hamas operatives on its soil, has threatened to suspend ties with the Gulf state in recent days.

The UAE and other Gulf countries view Turkey as part of the Muslim Brotherhood club that rejects their moderate interpretation of Islam and their drive to create prosperity and stability in the Middle East.

Qatar, which is sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood, but which also hedges its bets and maintains a low profile, unofficial ties with Israel, has been involved in a two-year diplomatic crisis with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, both of which accused Doha of supporting terrorism.

According to the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news agency, Qatar has in recent days launched a massive campaign to influence Arab public opinion via media channels it funds, primarily Al Jazeera, against the landmark UAE-Israel agreement.

Ultimately, the UAE’s decision to normalize ties with Israel has alarmed Islamists and put them on the defensive.

Date Originally Written: 22 August 2020

Date Originally Published: 27 August 2020

Author and/or Article Point of View: The author writes from a perspective that realistically assesses U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives in the Middle East region. This assessment concludes that many factors—among them diplomatic, economic, ethical, military, and political—shape U.S. policy, but that regarding the U.S.-Saudi relationship, core national security interests compel the partnership.

Summary: Changes underway within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s leadership are significant and substantive. It is in the U.S. national security interest to acknowledge and encourage those changes, even while urging more progress in areas that concern America’s ethical foundations, like human rights.

Text: This article is written in response to “Assessing the Relationship Between the United States and Saudi Arabia—An Unethical Partnership With Multiple Purposes?,” authored by Lt.Col Matthias Weinger, an Austrian Army officer that was published at RealClearDefense on August 3, 2020. That piece argued that the U.S. partners with Saudi Arabia purely out of economic considerations—a need for Middle East oil—and in unethical disregard for the Kingdom’s poor human rights record. That premise is not only inaccurate but insulting to the leadership of both countries.

To begin, the U.S. under the Donald J. Trump administration has become energy independent for the first time since 1957. What that means is that in 2019, even though it still imported energy, the U.S. overall produced more energy than it consumed. This milestone was achieved thanks to a booming oil and natural gas industry and new drilling technologies like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Additionally, the Saudi national oil company Aramco and the U.S.’s Haliburton have been working together since 2018 under a deal to boost the Saudi output of natural gas. This effort is part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed’s Vision 2030 economic plan. Although it has shown somewhat uncertain progress, it is a much-needed blueprint to diversify the Saudi economy, attract foreign investment, and spur economic modernization. The point here is that the U.S. no longer is hostage to an energy lifeline from the Middle East: we not only produce enough of our own energy, but American oil experts are actually helping Saudi Arabia to expand its own energy production.

Next, we should address the lingering legacy of 9/11. While Al-Qa’eda jihadis carried out those horrific attacks under Taliban protection with deep Saudi involvement, the Iranian regime in Tehran, in fact, originated, directed, and executed the plot with the help of its Shi’ite terror proxy Hizballah. Nearly nineteen years after September 2001, it is amazing that so many still seem unaware of the findings of the Havlish, et al. v. bin Laden, et al. legal case, in which Judge George Daniels of the Southern District of New York federal court ruled in December 2011 that Iran and Hizballah were co-responsible with Al-Qa’eda for 9/11. To date, while the leadership of Saudi Arabia has changed profoundly, that of Iran and Hizballah has not. This is an important distinction we must make in viewing the evolving situation in the region.

A strategic-level understanding of the critical importance of key Middle East waterways likewise is necessary if we are to arrive at accurate assessments about the players currently involved in vying for control over them. As this author wrote in “The Bab al-Mandab Strait Must Not Fall to Iran”] on July 27, 2020, Saudi Arabia and its Coalition are fighting to keep that important waterway from falling under Iranian regime threat. Looking at a map of the Arabian Peninsula and its surrounding areas, we can see that the Bab al-Mandab connects the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Who controls—or is able to threaten—that Strait commands access to some of the most important shipping channels in the world. The U.S. supports Saudi Arabia and its Coalition partners in their effort to prevent the Iranian regime and its Houthi rebel proxies from gaining such a position from which to threaten international freedom of the seas. Maintaining free and open navigation in international waterways is in the security interest of all of us.

Finally, the remarkable changes underway in Saudi Arabia must be acknowledged. Since the June 2017 rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to a position of de facto leadership in the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia has seen changes unimaginable even a few years ago. Although as noted above, MBS’ Vision 2030 has not gone as smoothly as hoped for, bold new policies to diversify the Saudi economy towards a high-tech future as well as changes in ancient social mores have shaken up the country and brought widespread support especially among its youthful population for its millennial Crown Prince. Women now may drive, cafes, movie theaters, and sports stadiums are open to mixed-gender patrons, the powers of the dreaded religious police have been severely curbed, and many Wahhabi clerics languish in prison. Perhaps the most notable of these changes was the decision in April 2020 by the Saudi Supreme Court to end flogging as a criminal punishment. The reason this, unlike other merely social changes, is so significant is that flogging is one of the hudud punishments; that is, it’s part of Islamic Law (shariah). Abolishing flogging is the first time the Saudis have ever officially instituted national-level law that counters shariah.

One may say that such changes are internal to the Saudi Kingdom and affect U.S. interests only in the sense that such progress on the human rights front is always welcome to nations that value the principles enshrined not only in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights but our own Declaration of Independence. But then, we come to another change in official Saudi policy that profoundly affects the entire Middle East region, including places where the U.S. has many important alliances and partnerships. That change is the growing relationship of Saudi Arabia with the Jewish State of Israel, the U.S.’s own most important ally in the region. Other neighbors like Egypt and Jordan were the first to conclude peace treaties with Israel. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the first to land a commercial aircraft (carrying coronavirus supplies for the Palestinians) at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. But behind the scenes, contacts between Israel and regional representatives from Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others have been growing in a way few expected.

The growing threat of a nuclear-armed Iran surely plays a key role in both the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries’ gravitation towards Israel and the U.S.’ open support for such rapprochement. Arms sales to all of the above are part of it, too, as Saudi and other GCC states are interested in Israeli technology. But it would be wrong to view these developments from a purely mercantilist perspective, without taking into consideration the overwhelming security concerns that bring the GCC, Israel, and the U.S. into increasing alignment. It’s a convergence of factors, some admittedly opportunistic, that drives the new reality. However, it must be recognized that tectonic plates are, in fact, shifting—and in the direction of greater regional stability, which is a positive for all of us. U.S. national security leadership must remain alert, but not cynical, about the direction of events in the Middle East. America’s relationship with the young Saudi Crown Prince is a linchpin for those developments, possibly for decades to come.