An older brother, who has spent his life traveling with his wife (they are childless) and photographing and writing light travel articles, has been in Oman these past two weeks and writes me an enthused e-mail about how Sultan Qaboos is such a “leader”, having recently hosted Netanyahu and even Mahmoud Abbas on visits to Oman to promote “peace” between the Palestinians and Israelis. Little does this brother really know: the Zionists have never wanted peace, just submission.

Oman is claiming that Israel should be fully “accepted” in the Mideast by other countries while the Zionist state “also bears the same obligations.” (I presume this latter involves the Israelis making “peace” not solely on their own terms but on terms cognizant of the aspirations of others, too.) Bahrain’s foreign minister as well as the Saudi foreign minister at the same time expressed the view that “peace talks” would help normalize diplomatic ties between Israel and the Arabs.

Why the lovefest of late between Israel and various states on the western side of the Persian Gulf? I don’t understand it unless:

1. The Arabs are simply exhausted by decades of discord and enmity with Israel.

2. They see some gain, probably economic, from what amounts to almost total abandonment of the human and political rights, enshrined in international law, of millions of Palestinians at the precise time they, the Palestinians, have never been under such duress and attack in the West Bank and Gaza.

3. Arab alignment with Israel puts more pressure on Iran to conform to U.S. and Arab demands, given that Iran is feared by the Arabs. 4. They don’t have guts.

One cannot anyway assume that “Israel” is not going to be around, at least not in any foreseeable future. One cannot say that “Israel” has absolutely no right to exist even if Palestine was literally stolen from the natives last century. But what “Israel”?

Who could legitimately argue with Israel if it fully democratized and gave up the “Jewish state” insistence, or alternatively gave the Palestinians an East Jerusalem capital and a viable state with the “Green Line” its border?

And also gave the Golan back to Syria. If Israel did all this, would it have to, as it claims, be so worried about Arab or Iranian hostility? No, because the hostility would vanish.

But what is most distressing right now is that these various Arab states are making friendly overtures to the Zionists at the precise moment that Israel has become a full-fledged pariah to 95 percent of humanity, and while its sole big benefactor, the U.S., is at risk of losing its monetary control of much of the world as well as it’s “empire”, because it is slowly bankrupting itself fiscally and morally and making enemies with its sanctions almost everywhere.

Now, for example, John Bolton and Trump are even trying to sanction Venezuela for attempting to sell some of its own gold reserves. It seems as if the concept of national sovereignty has been abolished by the U.S., including national/private property.

Sanctions don’t appear to work, at least with Iran. In fact, if recent history is any guide, they have only worked when concessions have been made TO Iran, which is another way of demonstrating that some real “fairness” has been applied. (And in any case, Mike Pompeo’s 12 demands of Iran are insulting and concede nothing.)

Further, Trump is going to fail to push Iran’s oil exports to zero, and some waivers have already been granted to some Iranian oil importers such as India. But attempting to escalate sanctions now, even if Iran remains in the JCPOA and thus will not expand its nuclear program, is likely to witness an escalation of Iranian interests in Syria and Iraq.

Also, inasmuch as there is a crisis underway, this is a crisis the U.S. fomented unilaterally. The JCPOA was working just fine and the Trump Administration could have leveraged off that and addressed Iran with more, serious diplomacy to try to manage other issues. Guess who scuttled that approach — the Zionists, whose idea of “peace” reflects the musings of the Roman historian Tacitus when he wrote about the Roman conquest of Britain – “making a desert and calling it peace.”

This latter is something the weak-kneed Arabs seem to be forgetting as they kiss up to the Zionists and Natanyahu like a bunch of abject pansies.