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LETTER FROM BEHIND THE ARRAS

By Polonius
 

In the wake of the anthrax attack on Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, some in the Capital are reminded of an old saying that President Bush might have heard at Harvard Business School:

"No one is irreplaceable."

Already Washington insiders are beginning to truly think the outside the box, thinking the unthinkable -- about replacing the unreliable and dangerously repressive Saudi regime that funded the rise of Osama bin Laden with more moderate and pro-American rulers.

The analysis is simple and straightforward: They believe that the key to peace in the Middle East, as well as to the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, is the return of the Arabian lands belonging to the Hashemite Kingdom, lands stolen from the Jordanian Royal family by the Saudis.

Ibn Saud captured the city of Riyadh in 1902, and his army swept across the Arabian Peninsula in a series of conquests lasting until 1926. On September 23, 1932 he became King of "Saudi Arabia."

But King Abdullah bin al-Hussein of Jordan is in fact the legitmate and hereditary ruler of Arabia. He is a 43rd generation descendent of Mohammed. Because of his blood tie to the Prophet, his ability to bring Western progress to the region is far greater than any usurper's.

This belief may in some part be due to his education in the West. The king attended boarding schools in England (St. Edmunds, Surrey) and the United States (Deerfield Academy), and both England's Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and Oxford University as well as Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. On returning to Jordan, he became an Army officer, specializing in special operations, as well as Regent to King Hussein.

His royal family ruled what we now call Saudi Arabia until the somewhat gentler Hashemites were overthrown by the fiercer Saudis -- the Taliban of their day -- in 1925.  The Saudis claimed their predecessors were too Western. Of course, the Saudis needed to be more fundamentalist than the Hashemites, because they had no other claim to ruling over Mecca and Medina, the holiest sites in Islam. (Bin Laden has just followed their example, claiming to be purer than the Saudis.) The more fundamentalist, the greater the non-hereditary claim to power, to cloak their illegitimacy in a mask of piety.

Indeed, Saddam Hussein reportedly offered the Saudi oilfields to Jordan's King Hussein, should he prevail in the Gulf War. What Saddam Hussein once offered, America now stands in a position to deliver.

Such a delivery to King Abdullah would show the rest of the Arab world that America rewards its friends -- and punishes its enemies and their accomplices in ways they will never forget.

At the time the Saudis first took over the region, it seemed like a good deal for the United States. No one much cared how the Arab tribes lived in the desert, and Americans supported the Saudis -- in exchange for oil.  They were two upstart powers, challenging an older colonial order represented by the British and Hashemite monarchies.

As a result of the Saudi connection, Aramco -- the Arabian-American oil company -- came to dominate the international oil business in the way Shell and British Petroleum had once done. The 1956 Suez conflict, in which Britain and France sided with Israel, while the United States took the Arab side, forcing its allies to back down, sealed the relationship.

But since Bin Laden's attack on the United States, and the rise of a terror network fueled by Saudi money with the cooperation of prominent Saudi princes, some in Washington are suggesting that returning the Saudi oilfields to their rightful owners might be the quickest way to cut the Gordian knot of Islamic terror.

For starters, King Hussein of Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel. Abdullah is standing by that treaty. There is no war between Israel and Jordan -- though there is indeed a state of war between the Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Arab League members like the Saudis.

And unlike the daily incitements to violence and anti-semitism seen in the "cold peace" with Egypt, Jordan does not presently threaten the existence of the Jewish state.

A rich, peaceful Jordan would be in a far better position to broker a settlement to the Palestinian question.  For Israel and Jordan share borders with the Palestinain enclave where Arafat is currently established.

With control of its oil revenues returned to their rightful owner, King Abdullah will be better able to defuse any possible threats to either country, and be in a position to reward Palestinian pacifism with an Arab "Marshall Plan."

Indeed, unemployed Palestinians and Jordanians would be in an excellent position to replace Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia, localizing the workforce in a way that will increase the ability of the region to progess towards Western living standards.

Historians of the region point out that if anyone has knows how to defeat Arab terrorists, it was King Hussein of Jordan. After a military campaign in the 1970s known as "Black September" by the Palestinians, Hussein chased the smashed remains of the PLO into Lebanon, never to return.

More recently, Hussein's son, King Abdullah was targeted for death by Bin Laden while still a Prince. Unlike the Saudi leaders, who have remained publicly on the fence to this day, Abdullah flew to Washington to volunteer his support for the war on Afghanistan shortly after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

More importantly, the Hashemite monarchy is firmly pro-Western. King Hussein married both and Englishwoman (King Abdullah's mother) and an American (Princess Noor, daughter of Pan Am founder Najeeb Halaby).

And when King Abdullah visited the United States, he pledged to aid America in words we still have not heard from the Saudis:

"We're here to give our full, unequivocal support to you and to the people of America. And we will stand by you in these very difficult times."

Although a monarchy, Jordan is among the most democratic countries in the Arab world, with an active Pariliament and a working electoral system. Indeed, Hussein managed to isolate the Islamic fundamentalists in his Parliament. Indeed, the website of the Jordanian embassy in Washington openly declares Abdullah's belief in democracy.

"King Abdullah is committed to building on the legacy left by the late King Hussein to further Jordan's democratic institutionalization and political pluralism, while working for a just and comprehensive peace in a climate of openness and tolerance.".

The undemocratic and corrupt Saudis, as Bin Laden never fails to note, are unable to defend the oil fields by themselves, relying instead on the United States and a mercenary army. Their claim to rule Saudi Arabia is based not on historical legitimacy, but on military prowess -- prowess they no longer possess.

The Saudis did nothing to prevent Osama Bin Laden and his Saudi suicide squad from attacking the United States. Their intelligence service did not warn American's to intercept the terrorists. And they refused full and open cooperation with the war in Afghanistan.

Their actions show that they are no longer reliable friends of the United States.

Last but not least, the insulting behavior of a Saudi prince visiting the site of the World Trade Center in New York City -- who to this day blames "the Jews" for Mayor Guiliani's gutsy and inspiring refusal of a $10 charitable contribution presented as an anti-Israel propaganda exercise -- shows that more insults are on the way if President Bush does not act soon.

The Saudis monarchs have betrayed America. They aided Bin Laden. They threaten Israel.  They are a danger to world peace.

Those in the know are humming the refrain: "It is time for them to go."