Saudi Prince Makes Biden's Secretary of State Wait for Hours, Then Postpones Meeting: Report
CORRECTION, Oct. 17, 2023: The United Arab Emirates was one of the countries involved in the Abraham Accords. Its name was misspelled in an earlier version of this article.
When someone misses a scheduled meeting, Americans tend to take it in stride, but cultural norms in the Arab world emphasize a higher level of respect and adherence to specific etiquette.
For example, checking one’s watch during a conversation in a social setting is considered impolite, as is positioning one’s shoe towards another person or crossing one’s legs when facing them.
Punctuality is particularly valued in a professional context, according to Cultural Atlas.
So what does it say that Saudi Prince Mohamed bin Salman stood up U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken after keeping him waiting for hours for a meeting?
The Joe Biden Effect: Saudi Crown Prince Humiliates Secretary Anthony Blinken
Read more here: https://t.co/he5LgjN7SU pic.twitter.com/vwCGFo0NgI
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) October 16, 2023
Blinken was scheduled to meet the crown prince in Riyadh on Saturday evening, according to The Washington Post, but Salman didn’t show, a snub that may go deeper than Westerners can perceive. The prince eventually met Blinken on Sunday, but, unsurprisingly, the conversation didn’t go as Blinken may have wanted it to.
During the eventual meeting, Prince Salman criticized Israel’s actions, calling for a cessation of military activities and an end to the “siege of Gaza.”
His statements are in sharp contrast to President Joe Biden’s statements, which promised to stand with Israel and “make sure that Israel does not run out of these critical assets to defend its cities and its citizens.”
Blinken faced similar opposition in Egypt, where President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi criticized Israel’s actions, asserting they had gone beyond the “right of self-defense” and that it amounted to “collective punishment.”
While it cannot be considered unexpected that Arab states would side with Arab sentiments over Jewish ones, the remarkable thing about the Trump administration was that somehow, he managed to broker peace between the Jews and Arabs.
The historic Abraham Accords, which codified the normalization of relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, marked the “dawn of a new Middle East,” in Trump’s words, and opened the door for other countries to normalize relations with the Jewish state, which would have led to transformation in the area, according to The New York Post.
War is raging in Israel because Joe Biden unfroze $6 billion for Iran, fueling the terrorism in Gaza.
Under President Trump, there was peace in the Middle East because of the historic signing of the Abraham Accords.
The world saw peace through strength.
See the difference? pic.twitter.com/ppconwRHa8
— Congressman Troy E. Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) October 9, 2023
A recap of the peace process efforts published by Time reveals an interesting point perhaps unintended by the writers of the piece.
The article points out that the second intifada took place in the year 2000 after a Camp David summit between former President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, intended to negotiate a settlement, destroying any prospect of normalization of relations in the region at that time.
When the Biden administration aimed to extend these accords by involving Saudi Arabia, violence resumed, echoing a previous historical pattern in hyperdrive, according to the Associated Press.
My home is under attack tonight again. We are really so scared here. Israel needs help!! We’ve been suffering rocket attacks all week.
And for those of you who say Hamas is fighting back, they STARTED this war by launching rockets at Israel and committing massacres against… pic.twitter.com/Rmko2MvoWo
— India Naftali (@indianaftali) October 14, 2023
During the Trump administration, aid to Palestinian authorities was also reduced, according to the New York Post, without any large-scale retaliation against Israel.
Could it be possible that Trump’s peace through strength policies enabled the administration to achieve success in normalizing relations where other administrations, especially the current one, have failed?
In May 2017, Saudi Arabia honored President Trump with their honorary ‘sword dance.’
July 2022, When the Crown Prince met with Biden, he got a fist bump and rolling eyes. pic.twitter.com/gsk9KiDhSs
— 🇺🇸ProudArmyBrat (@leslibless) October 14, 2023
Is there a perception in the Middle East that the United States, Israel’s greatest ally, is growing weaker, influencing the timing of these attacks?
Words are only “violence” until you start to see the results of true violence.
Mean tweets are starting to sound really good right about now.
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