A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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March 09, 2005The House of SaudA few weeks back, I caught the excellent PBS Frontline documentary on the House of Saud. It airs again in the Boston area on channel 2 on March 30 at 9 PM. Catch it if you can. I learned a lot. A very good substitute is PBS/Frontline's chronology of Saudi Arabia. Just reviewing this summary of affairs suggests how very much of what has gone in the middle east has been related to our relationships with Saudi Arabia, with Israel, and with Russia during the cold war. The rulers of the house of Saud have painted themselves into something of a hellish corner. Posted by Brian Keegan at March 9, 2005 12:35 PM Comments
One thing that's interesting about the House of Saud is that unlike most other monarchies today they are really a throwback to the old imperialist type of monarchy. There is a really stark difference when you compare them to Jordan's monarchy or even to the Morrocan monarchy - both of whom go out of their way to stand for something beyond just being monarchs. Jordan in particular deserves props for their relationship with Israel. With respect to the Morrocan monarchy... what always springs to mind is how the King during WWII (I forget his name) not only flatly refused the Nazi demand that he turn over Morrocan Jews for.... "processing," but he deliberately rejected the very notion that Morrocan Jews were a subset of Morrocan society. He rhetorically included them as full and equal members of the Morrocan family. Posted by: Kevin at March 9, 2005 01:15 PM |
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