Middle Eastern equation

What can explain the unequivocal support of the US for Israel? One of the more successful theories is the realist notion that powerful states act in order to maintain and increase their power and the bedrock of American superpower is its economic dominance of the world. The world economy runs on Middle Eastern energy. Therefore, the US considers influence over this region as fundamental to its imperium. In no scenario can Israel turn its back on the US. It is not only America’s most dependable ally in the Middle East, but also the most dependent one. It is America’s insurance policy.

This is not to discount the influence of the Israeli lobby in Washington. The point is that Israel serves as a permanent surrogate for the superpower in a region critical to its interests. But if we continue in the same vein of analysis, it is clear that there is another country in the Middle East of even greater importance to American economic hegemony. If Israel is the insurance policy, then Saudi Arabia is the credit line that keeps the American enterprise solvent. This is because the Saudi Kingdom is the world’s largest oil exporter and is wholly committed to selling its petroleum in dollars. Nearly everyone needs Saudi oil; therefore nearly everyone needs US dollars. Since the US abandoned the gold standard, there is nothing of real value that guarantees the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.

But something doesn’t quite fit here. Saudi Arabia is no Israel, a country parked by history in opposition to ‘Muslim’ interests. It is rather a country that positions itself as a champion of the Muslim world, by virtue of its great wealth and its status as the keeper of Islam’s holy cities. So if Israel is dependent on the US and the US depends on Saudi cooperation in its economic dominion, why can’t the Saudis use this potentially enormous leverage to Palestine’s advantage? Why can’t they pull their American chain to bring much-needed relief to their Arab-Muslim brothers? The stratagem seems straightforward enough. The Saudis could tell the US to bring about real pressure on Israel to dismantle its occupation of Palestinian land, otherwise their fountain of black gold would render its treasure in another currency. Unlike the Arab oil embargo of the 70s, this approach would risk no loss of revenue to Saudi Arabia, simply a change in currency of sale to, say, the euro.

For such an obvious idea, it is odd that the Saudis have not even suggested it. Or would it be entirely novel to Saudi minds? Here is another novel idea then: The next time our religious parties hold an anti-American demonstration, why don’t they also call upon the Saudis to abandon the dollar. Now that would be novel indeed.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2010.