Biden Meets With MBS In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia follows his criticism of SA during his campaign for President, where he said he would “Make Saudi Arabia a pariah”. Clearly, the visit shows that his priorities have changed. Why? Because gas prices in the US are at all-time highs and the President’s opposing party faces a potential election landslide this year. To avoid that, he must get SA to produce and sell more oil to the USA. 

Oh, what Biden would give to change his tune from the campaign. Like any good politician, he told the people what they wanted to hear. Biden is showing what a mistake it is for the US to try to address Saudi human rights violations directly and publicly through its insistence on international norms. Saudi is not a normal state, and appealing to international norms and human rights violations will not induce the Kingdom to do anything differently. Instead, the US should strengthen its alliance with the Kingdom, reward its cooperation with Israel, and help address matters of mutual concern. 

Real change in Saudi Arabia will come from the Saudi women and its people demanding that those in power make the necessary changes to bring their home into the 21st century. Not Western politicians rebuking Saudis and wasting valuable time in meetings that should be spent on greater international matters. Just as a surgeon cannot perform a major operation without getting into the body, the US Government will never be able to bring about internal change. All they can bring about is a show of change. When they try to go in like in Iraq and create what they called stability they only create chaos. 

The real warriors for change can only be the Saudi people, but the people of Saudi Arabia are scared. I’d like to say that they need not be, but in truth, they should be. However, that fear should strengthen their resolve. Freedom cannot be won in silence.

MBS’s 2030 vision is excellent on paper. He wants to take his country into the future, so he says… it looks great for the US to have such a young ruler as an ally. Finally, a ruler from a younger generation, a man who can take Saudi Arabia forward. That is until he orders a New York Times Journalist to be dismembered in a Saudi embassy. To help people forget, let's make Saudi Arabia the heroes that saved the American people from high gas prices and Biden the one who facilitated it. Just another show of improvement for all who are outside Saudi Arabia. 

The US pushed the Saudis to outlaw slavery in the 60s because it looked bad for them to be allied with a country that still had slavery. All it did was cause them to call it something different and cover it with a veil. The US pushed for Saudi Arabia to give women the right to drive after the media caught wind of the executed drive-outs by women in the Kingdom, the mass arrests, and the imprisonment and subsequent torture of a Saudi female activist protesting the guardianship laws. Here you go ladies and the media have a bone! While the western world cheered, the women still had no right to drive or do anything without the permission of their male guardians. The list goes on and on. In truth, there is no internal change until the people band together and take matters into their own hands. 

The US's insistence on internal change, an end to beheadings, Women’s Rights, and Human Rights are in vain. People think that if the US demands Biden address Human Rights issues in Saudi Arabia that it will make a difference, and MBS will stop ruling with impunity, but all it does is push the violations further under the veil that covers Saudi Arabia. For change to truly be successful, it can only come from within the country. The people need to band together and demand more freedoms, the women need to use any influence they can get their hands on to move the agenda for women to be treated as equal citizens in their country. Many have spoken up, but they were swiftly rounded up, tortured, killed, and used as an example of what happens when you show dissatisfaction with the status quo put forth by the royal family. We all know that you don’t need to do much to be charged with disrupting the country's security. A crime for which the punishment will rest upon how much disruption you were causing or could have caused. Jamal Khashoggi is a prime example. 

A call must be made not to the Saudi royal family, not to the government, but to the people to demand an end to human rights violations, end the oppression of women, and bring the country into the 21st century. No formal meeting or negotiation can stop MBS from continuing to be what he has always been a dictator. An internal public stand by its people just might. MBS can arrest, torture, lock up, dismember, and behead the few, but he will have a very hard time doing so with the many.