Rumor: Saudis Finance Israeli Anti-Iran Campaign

April 15, 2015

A report by Robert Parry at Consortium News asserts that Saudi Arabia has paid several billion dollars to Israel to lobby in Washington for anti-Iranian positions:

Over the past several years, as both Saudi Arabia and Israel have identified Iran and the so-called “Shiite crescent” as their principal enemies, this once-unthinkable alliance has become possible – and the Saudis, as they are wont to do, may have thrown lots of money into the deal.

According to a source briefed by U.S. intelligence analysts, the Saudis have given Israel at least $16 billion over the past 2 ½ years, funneling the money through a third-country Arab state and into an Israeli “development” account in Europe to help finance infrastructure inside Israel.

The claim is thinly sourced but I regard it as possible. Parry was the first to report the Iran-Contra scandal and has good journalistic credentials. There are many common interests Saudi Arabia and Israel have in Lebanon and Syria as well as in their common position against Iran. Just think about Israel's support for the Saudi financed Jabhat al-Nusra in the Golan heights.

But the common interests between Saudi Arabia and Israel, documented in Parry's piece, are also entirely plausible without any money paid by Saudi Arabia.

A slush fund of that size, if it exists at all, can hardly be hidden for long. If there is some truth to the claim I expect more confirming leaks.

Until then let us file this under "rumor".

Posted by b on April 15, 2015 at 16:06 UTC | Permalink

Comments

– Surprisingly Israel, Iran & Saudi Arabia do have one thing in common. They all want to be the dominant regional power. Therefore it’s not surprising that Israel & Saudi Arabia would team up and try to keep Iran from gaining more influence in the region. But it has be done in a very covert way. What would the citizens think when they would learn about a Saudi-Israeli connection ?
– I think another route is also possible. Saudi Arabia could also dole out money to members of Congress and other US organisations (e.g. neocon thinktanks) to buy influence. To help to keep the pressure on Iran high. Directly or in-directly through US arms manufacturers.
– In 2005 (2004 ?) the Saudi foreign minister gave a speech in the US in which he said something like “The US handed Irak to the iranians on a silver platter”.
https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/saudi-arabia-feeling-iranian-pinch-iraq

Posted by: Willy2 | Apr 15 2015 16:39 utc | 1

I would be surprised if there’s that much money involved. On the other hand Israel is KSA’s most loyal ally. And vice versa. It’s not the US, the Israelis essentially ‘play’ the US. If $16B over 3 years or so has gone to Israeli ‘interests’ then part of that has gone to AIPAC to support political contributions. That could eventually turn congress folks into criminals.

Posted by: okie farmer | Apr 15 2015 16:40 utc | 2

Consortium News has published some very good stories lately on the Saudi-Israel connection and its control of Congress. One that appeared the other day by Anthony Shaker, “Saudis Pour Oil on the Mideast Fire,” was particularly scathing:

King Salman needs the Sunni-Shia conflict more than ever, too, just to perpetuate the waning rule of his dynasty and the aberrant social conditions of his subjects. Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabism has rotted away society to the core, just as it has everywhere else it has taken root.
Dr. In’am al-Rabu’i, the president of children’s studies at the Armed Forces Hospital in Jeddah, warns that the country suffers from widespread sexual ailments. This has been known for some time. But a recent study has shown that a whopping 23 percent of all Saudi children have been raped at least once, mostly within families.

Not that pederasty is unique to KSA, I just appreciated the no-hold-barred level of invective.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Apr 15 2015 17:34 utc | 3

The elite in control of the Western ideological empire do not honor nation state physical, political or financial boundaries but use them as tools for their ongoing extension and maintenance of said empire. The House of Saud knows how it attained power and is told to some degree by the upper elite what it needs to do to maintain that control in the region.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 15 2015 17:35 utc | 4

The sooner this Saudi scum are wiped out the better, they along, with Kuwait have also given more billions to Egypt http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2015/March/middleeast_March133.xml&section=middleeast this to go with 12 billion given last year[protection money] I would like to see the Iranians arm the Yemen Houtis in a clandestine manner, and hope they can destroy some of the thousands of miles of pipe lines and Saudi oil infrastructure which feed the fat Saudi perverts need to arm Al Qaeda and gamble and whore round Europe.

Posted by: harry law | Apr 15 2015 17:49 utc | 5

#2
“That could eventually turn congress folks into criminals”
I think it’s to late for that;)

Posted by: jo6pac | Apr 15 2015 17:54 utc | 6

I’m surprised that Robert Parry would print this rumor without any verification or even researchable information. The Saudis have plenty of support in the US including the Bush family and our present Regime.
Was Perry just short on stories to print or is he also being paid by someone to add to the propaganda we read.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Apr 15 2015 18:50 utc | 7

But how long are the saudis able to fund that (financial) alliance ? And their meddling in Yemen, Iraq & Syria ?
http://dollarcollapse.com/oil/opec-going-broke-dumping-dollars-is-that-good-or-bad/
When oil exporting countires like Saudi Arabia are starting to run Current Account Deficits then that WILL be felt in ….. Turkey. Do expect more turmoil in Turkey.

Posted by: Willy2 | Apr 15 2015 18:56 utc | 8

@7 wow.. i was looking forward to your response to this and you didn’t disappoint!
now i ask, who would ever think someone was paid to add to the propaganda other then someone who might also be paid to add to the propaganda?

Posted by: james | Apr 15 2015 19:07 utc | 9

Did Money Seal Israeli-Saudi Alliance?
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/04/15/did-money-seal-israeli-saudi-alliance/

Posted by: ALAN | Apr 15 2015 19:13 utc | 10

@2,@6
The Israelis have effectively bought the Republicrat Party over the past year – they’ve owned the Demoblicans forever – and big-time Saudi money would account for their smashing success there, while at the same time allowing the Israelis to spend the US Aid they usually earmark for kickbacks to the US Congress on their own recent building boom in Jerusalem.
Saudi Arabia looks increasing vulnerable to me. Mike Whitney had a link to a ‘retired’ CIA officer’s take on the vulnerability of the Saudis from way back in 2003 – maybe the Israelis will take out the Abqaiq complex in a false flag ‘Iranian’ operation, and then the US/Israel will rush to the Saudi’s ‘aid’ and occupy the oil fields?
That’d be the patented 9/11-ish approach to the US/Israeli common ‘problem’ in Saudi Arabia.
Whatever … the US/KSA/Israel are having great ‘success’ along the ‘future’ dimension in the Middle East, according to their common, vicious and demented axis of reference … 12 Million Middle Eastern Children Are Not Going to School.
No doubt where the axis of evil in the Middle East lies today, although the actual financial anatomy of their alliance has not yet been definitely fleshed out.

Posted by: jfl | Apr 15 2015 19:14 utc | 11

With the variety of options available for Jewish millionaires to launder money through Israeli charities and investments, surely there are means available for Saudi funds to be funneled into the Israeli economy inconspicuously.

Posted by: Rusty Pipes | Apr 15 2015 22:19 utc | 12

@9
As usual you have nothing useful to add to the conversation.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Apr 15 2015 22:46 utc | 13

The House of Saud is in trouble. They are blowing through their petrodollar reserves to pacify their people. They have sworn enemies to their North and the South; ISIS whose goal is to rule Mecca and the Houthis who already defeated their ally, the Egyptian army, in the 1960s. They’ve formed an alliance with their enemy Israel. I count four Saudi senior officers killed in the last year. They have totally corrupted their sole hegemon, the USA, which is unable to rescue its citizens stranded in Yemen. The drone wars turned Yemen upside down into a failed state but Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is still operational. Pakistan and America are unwilling or unable to place troops on the ground to assure that the Saudi King continues to occupy his throne.
This is not going to turn out well. The next global financial collapse will be triggered either the fall of the House of Saud and the cut off of Saudi oil, Germany’s exit from the Euro due the failure of Europe to come to the aid of the people of Greece and the periphery states, or a shooting war between Russia and NATO brewing in Ukraine.

Posted by: VietnamVet | Apr 15 2015 22:49 utc | 14

The Collapse Of The Petrodollar: Oil Exporters Are Dumping US Assets At A Record Pace
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-15/collapse-petrodollar-oil-exporters-are-dumping-us-assets-record-pace

Posted by: crone | Apr 15 2015 23:22 utc | 15

Houthis don’t like the US. Their motto: “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam”.
@VietnamVet #14:
The House of Saud is in trouble.
It did not get the backing from Pakistan and Turkey it was expecting. Only half-hearted support from Egypt, which gets bribed by US military aid. Erdogan even visited Iran last week.

Posted by: Demian | Apr 15 2015 23:24 utc | 16

C@15
Interesting article, Crone but it leaves out one important fact. Most of those Petrodollars that don’t go to buy overpriced commodities anymore will have to be invested into the same investments as the oil price windfall was, they don’t vanish they become savings. They may not go through the hands of these countries but they will circulate.
The oil price boom we have left behind was a bubble and the producer countries may have overspent their bonanza and now need to cash in their windfall investments but the Petrodollars will still be used to purchase this market priced oil and other commodities.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Apr 16 2015 2:37 utc | 17

Agreed with Our Gracious Host. That is a *lot* of money, even over several years, even by the truly amazing scale of Washington’s corruption. If they really spread that many billions around, they’d have gotten a bombing campaign in Iran by now. They probably could get the US government to bomb Los Angeles for that much! Especially when it is The Lobby doing the asking, it takes far less to by majority resolutions in the US Congress.

Posted by: An Ony Mouse | Apr 16 2015 2:42 utc | 18

# 2 makes some valid point[s] here. U.S.Congress criminals? Really. Let’s see what takes place if Congress indeed blows up the P5+1 Nuclear talks/deal, especially if the other members begin to trade with Iran. Hell of a lot of good the sanctions will do if the U.S. is the only one doing them. Certainly is a twist on reality if true.

Posted by: Norman | Apr 16 2015 4:15 utc | 19

Re: Willy2 @#1
“Therefore it’s not surprising that Israel & Saudi Arabia would team up and try to keep Iran from gaining more influence in the region. But it has be done in a very covert way.”
Yeah, like another false-flag operation as the Ghouta gas attack or the Hariri assassination. The Israel/Saudi cooperation has been present for decades in Lebanon and Syria.
○ Syria Expendable In Joint US-Israel ME Power Schemes

Posted by: Oui | Apr 16 2015 5:35 utc | 20

A nice line from the Angry Arab, talking about historical events, no doubt also relevant to today:

“Salman also oversaw the collection of private funds to support the Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s, working very closely with the kingdom’s Wahhabi clerical establishment.”

Posted by: Laguerre | Apr 16 2015 6:05 utc | 21

http://www.globalresearch.ca/saudis-face-defeat-in-yemen-and-instability-at-home/5442870
Saudis Face Defeat in Yemen and Instability at Home
Let Yemenis Determine Their Future
By Mike Whitney
“The interventions of US imperialism, with the direct collaboration of the Saudi monarchy, have plunged the entire Middle East into chaos and bloodshed—from the destruction of Iraq, to the transformation of Libya into a militia-ravaged “failed state,” to the ongoing carnage inflicted upon Syria … This predatory imperialist offensive threatens to ignite a region-wide conflagration, even as Washington deliberately ratchets up military tensions with both Russia and China. The threat of these separate conflicts coalescing into a third world war grows by the day.”
– Bill Van Auken, Obama’s criminal war against Yemen, World Socialist web Site
In its ongoing effort to prevent the rise of “any popularly supported government in the region”, the US has joined Saudi Arabia’s savage war of annihilation against Yemen’s northern tribal rebels, the Houthis. The Pentagon has expedited the delivery of bombs, ammunition and guidance systems to assist the Saudi-led campaign and is providing logistical support to maximize the impact of its bombing raids. The US has also set up a “joint fusion center”, provided “aerial re-fueling platforms” and “advanced US-made weaponry” with the explicit intention of suppressing a militant group that overthrew the US-backed puppet government in the capital of Sanaa in the fall of 2014. The level of coordination between the makeshift Arab coalition (The Gulf Cooperation Council or GCC) and the US suggests that Washington is not only fully aware that food depots, water facilities, refugee camps and critical civilian infrastructure are being deliberately targeted and destroyed, but that the White House has given the green light to actions that will inevitably lead to widespread famine and social collapse. Here’s a little background from an article in The National:

“Yemen Economic Corporation, one of Yemen’s largest food storage centres, was destroyed by three coalition missile strikes in Hodeidah last Tuesday, according to the Houthi-controlled defence ministry. The corporation had enough food for the entire country. The government’s military food storage centre in Hodeidah was also targeted and destroyed on Tuesday, according to the defence ministry.
Also in Hodeidah, country’s second largest dairy plant was hit by five Saudi missiles on Wednesday, killing at least 29 people, mostly employees, and injuring dozens of others.” (Yemeni civilians struggle to get by amid conflict, The National)

Posted by: okie farmer | Apr 16 2015 7:21 utc | 22

– The Saudis are heading for financial trouble because they didn’t reduce their spending while at the same time the price of oil fell. That means that the saudis no longer have a Current Account (CA) Surplus but a CA Deficit instead and that simply forces them to dip into their savings (= selling US Treasury bonds). And selling US Treasury bonds is a force pushing US interest rates higher.
It’s also a forces reducing the US Current Account Deficit. And that means that the US will be forced to pay a larger % of the bill for their own foreign (military) “adventures”.
For those who hate the US: From say 2000 up to say 2007/2008 foreigners paid the ENTIRE military bill of all those US foreign military adventures. Since 2009 the US has been forced to pay – at least – a part of those expenses AGAIN.

Posted by: Willy2 | Apr 16 2015 13:36 utc | 23

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