April 11, 2013, - 5:10 pm
Alhamdillullah [Praise allah]! Saudi Arabia Recognizes Israel
This week, Wikileaks released thousands of documents and cables that were publicly available in American governmental archives, most of them from the early to mid-’70s. One of them is an April 6, 1973 cable from a U.S. diplomat in Cairo to the Secretary of State (who wasn’t yet Henry Kissinger; it was William P. Rogers, a big pan-Arabist), marked “SECRET” (and declassified in 2005) which summarizes his meeting with Saudi Arabia’s then-King Feisal’s advisor, Kamal Adham. The diplomat notes that Adham states that the Saudis do not regard eliminating Israel from the map “as a legitimate aspiration.” Yup, he recognized Israel’s right to exist. And there are other interesting things, such as the Saudis noting potential problems in Gaza. Of course, these Saudi positions could never be the public Saudi positions, or the Bin Ladenites that dominate the country would overthrow the minority House of Saudi that runs the place. Plus, they would have nothing to whip up the crowds over and get them off the topic of Saudi royal oppression.
Still, it’s an interesting cable, especially the unnamed diplomat’s uber-Islamo-butt-kissing stance, which was Rogers’ and Kissinger’s stance (and still is Kissinger’s stance) in spades (Kissinger took office, just a few months later, in September of that year). Adham, by the way, also headed Saudi Arabia’s Mukhabarat Al A’ama, or Secret Police/Intelligence, so it is interesting that he would say this, although it takes a similar position to newer Wikileaks cables in which the Saudis and other Gulf State sheikhs supported Israel stopping Iran from getting nukes, etc. Even though the Saudis proudly fund radicals, they don’t like radicals because they could lose power and a lifestyle of riches and plunder instantly to them.
SECRET
PAGE 01 CAIRO 01025 061031 Z
54
ACTION SS-25
INFO OCT-01 ADP-00 /026 W
——————— 127347R 060945 Z APR 73
FM USINT CAIRO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 2860
S E C R E T CAIRO 1025
EXDIS
DEPARTMENT PASS JIDDA
EO 11652: XGDS-1
TAGS: PFOR, SA, XE, EG
SUBJECT: THE FUTURE OF THE PALESTINIANS
1. IN CONVERSATION APRIL 4 ARRANGED BY SAUDI ARABIAN AMBASSADOR NAZIR AT HIS RESIDENCE, KING FEISAL’ S ADVISOR KAMAL ADHAM TOUCHED SEVERAL TIMES ON THE PROB- LEM OF THE PALESTINIANS. HIS MAIN POINT WAS THAT NEITHER THE PALESTINIANS NOR ISRAEL REALLY WANT A PEACE AGREEMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST. IN ALL THIS, I REFRAINED FROM TAKING UP THE REFERENCE TO ISRAEL, BUT SOUGHT TO ELICIT HIS VIEW OF THE FUTURE OF THE PALESTINIANS; I TRIED TO SET THE CONTEXT OF A RESPONSIBILITY OF THE ARAB GOVERNMENTS TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM.
2. THE FOCUS NARROWED DOWN TO THE ” MILITANT” PALES- TINIANS, AND ADHAM SAID THAT ARAFAT HAD EXPLAINED TO HIM THE PROBLEM HE AND THE PLO HAVE WITH THE HUSSEIN PLAN AS BEING ” WE ARE NOT PART OF IT.” IN OTHER WORDS, UNLESS THEY ARE INCLUDED IN THE DELIBERATIONS, THEY WILL NOT ACCEPT THE RESULTS. HE SAID THAT WHAT ” PALESTINIANS”– HE DID NOT SPECIFY WHICH ONES– WANT IS TO BE ALLOWED TO RETURN TO THE AREA ONCE CALLED PALESTINE AND THERE LIVE IN PEACE WITH THE JEWS.
3. I NOTED THAT THE USG IS ON RECORD THAT ANY SETTLE- MENT MUST TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE LEGITIMATE ASPIRATIONS
SECRET
SECRET
PAGE 02 CAIRO 01025 061031 Z
OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. THIS DOES NOT , HOWEVER, MEAN THAT WE REGARD ELIMINATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL AS A LEGITIMATE ASPIRATION. ADHAM SAID ” OF COURSE NOT– NEITHER DO WE.”
4. ADHAM REFERRED TO GAZA, AND SAID HE THOUGHT THAT, AS EGYPT HAD OPENED THE WAY, THAT PROBLEM COULD BEE [sic].
[Emphasis added.]
The cable goes on to talk about something having to do with Japan (it appears documents were mixed up). So I don’t know what comes after “THAT PROBLEM COULD BEE [sic],” unless “BEE” is an abbreviation and not a typo.
Since we had no U.S. mission in Egypt on the date of this cable, perhaps the author was Joseph N. Greene, Jr., who was the Principal Officer of the U.S. Interests Section at the Spanish Embassy in Cairo at the time.
Tags: Adviser to Saudi King, Henry Kissinger, Israel, Joseph N. Greene Jr., Kamal Adham, King Faisal, King Feisal, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia recognizes Israel, Saudi King, Saudi King Faisal, Saudi King Feisal, Wikileaks, Wikileaks Israel, William P. Rogers
Debbie,
The House Of Saud is fairly progressive by Saudi standards. Those waiting in the wings are worse.
Now that we know al-Qaeda is active in Syria, it takes little to imagine what would happen if the Bin Ladenites took over Saudi Arabia.
NormanF on April 11, 2013 at 5:37 pm