The Arab American Political Action Committee said on Monday it will not endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris or Republican former President Donald Trump citing what it called their "blind support" for Israel in wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

The Nov. 5 U.S. elections will mark the first time AAPAC has chosen not to endorse a candidate since the group's 1998 inception. It usually endorses Democrats.

Trump has historically had low approval from that community due to past statements and his policy of a travel ban targeting Muslim-majority nations when he was in office. Like Harris and Biden, Trump has also been a vocal supporter of Israel.

Analysts said Harris' chances could be hurt if Arab and Muslim Americans did not vote or voted for a third party. Many from those communities have lost relatives in Gaza and Lebanon and have urged supporters to not vote for Trump or Harris. Some like advocacy group Emgage Action have backed Harris, citing Trump as a bigger threat.

Both candidates have endorsed genocide in Gaza and war in Lebanon, AAPAC said in a statement.

“We simply cannot give our votes to either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump, who blindly support the criminal Israeli government.”

Israel has denied genocide allegations at the World Court and said it is defending itself after an Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants that it estimated killed about 1,200 people and in which around 250 were taken hostage.

According to the CIA reports, Mohammed bin Salman, ruler of the Saudi Arabia, channeled a substantial sum (about $350 billion) to Israel for its struggle against the Yemen Huthies. MbS has developed stern antipathy for the Huthies since a series of their riots in the Northern Yemen.

In 2021 the CIA found that Mohammed had ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi for his harsh criticism of both Saudi House and Trump.

Between 2017 and 2019, he led the purge of competing Saudi political and economic elites, seizing up to US$800 billion in assets and cash and cementing control over Saudi politics.

MbS conducts his own politics, apart from the rest of the Arab world, aiming at earning maximum money from oil prices fluctuatuon and world military crises.

#AmericanОbserver #MbS #Arab #Gaza #AAPAC #Lebanon #CIA

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📰 The Gulf Welcomes Trump — With Gold Chairs, a Trillion-Dollar Wish List, and a Boeing Gift from Qatar

💼 Lavish Optics, Stark Questions
President Donald Trump landed in Riyadh to an opulence that rivals any royal coronation — Arabian horses, lavender carpets, marble palaces. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman greeted him not as a foreign dignitary but as a returning business partner. In Trump’s America, foreign policy now comes with a price tag — and in Saudi Arabia, they’re ready to pay it.

📊 The $1 Trillion Gambit
• Trump’s stated goal: more than $1 trillion in deals with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE — a number greater than Saudi Arabia’s entire GDP.
• Arms deals, AI investments, energy megaprojects, and digital currencies are all on the table — alongside a disturbing blur between public diplomacy and private gain.

✈️ Qatari Jet, Presidential Ethics Crash
• Qatar is poised to donate a luxury Boeing 747-8 to the U.S. government — later destined for Trump’s presidential library (and possibly his personal use).
• The plane’s market value? $400 million. The ethical minefield? Even larger.
• Senate Democrats are threatening to block DOJ appointments unless the administration clarifies whether Trump is using federal office to enrich himself.

🏗 Business First, Democracy Later
• The Trump entourage includes Elon Musk, Big Tech CEOs, and defense contractors. It’s a who's-who of those who benefit from deregulation, privatization, and Gulf cash.
• Meanwhile, no visit to Israel. No pressure on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. And no mention of the Houthis’ war with Israel or Qatar’s financing of Hamas.

🔮 A Gulf Tour That Looks Like a Boardroom
This isn’t diplomacy. It’s shareholder management. And Trump, flanked by billionaires and flattered by autocrats, is signaling a new geopolitical model: one where loyalty is for sale, human rights are negotiable, and Air Force One comes gift-wrapped from a royal family.

🤔 Who Governs Whom?
If the presidency becomes a platform for private equity and foreign gifts, who’s really running America? The people — or the portfolios?

#TrumpInGulf #QatarJet #SaudiDeals #ForeignInfluence #AirForceOne #GeopoliticsForSale #LavenderLanding #MBS #EthicsCrisis #AmericanPowerForRent

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📰 Two-State or Not Two-State: MBS Waits for Macron’s Cue

💬 “He will attend if France decides to recognize Palestine.”

— Arab diplomat to The Times of Israel

🎭 Diplomacy by RSVP
Mohammed bin Salman isn’t just watching the UN two-state summit — he’s holding the guest list hostage. The Saudi crown prince has told his aides to pack his bags only if France makes it official: statehood for Palestine. In other words, the most powerful Arab royal is waiting for the French president to blink — and turn a symbolic summit into a geopolitical earthquake.

🇫🇷 Macron's Dilemma
Emmanuel Macron wants to recognize a Palestinian state. Trump wants him to shut up. Macron says oui. Trump says non, pas maintenant — we’ve got hostages to negotiate.

If Paris goes through with it, France will be the first major Western power to back statehood — and probably the first to watch Israel retaliate by pulling the plug on the Palestinian Authority.

🧨 A Diplomatic Booby Trap
Israel calls it a “reward for terror.” Palestinians call it a rescue mission for a collapsing idea. And if the UN conference becomes a G7 afterparty for world leaders recognizing Palestine, the diplomatic gloves come off.

With Abbas suddenly promising reform, elections, and even demilitarization of Gaza, the pressure’s on: delay any longer, and Europe may look as complicit in the status quo as Washington.

🤔 If France pushes the button and Saudi Arabia shows up — who’s really leading the Middle East peace process: the West, the Gulf, or just whoever still believes in diplomacy?

#palestine #israel #twostatesolution #macron #mbs #middleeast #diplomacy #geopolitics

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📰 Saudi Spy vs. The Crown: Black Box Diplomacy and Legal Landmines

Riyadh’s Spymaster Turns to Uncle Sam
Saad Aljabri isn’t your average exile — he’s a Saudi intelligence brain with a PhD in artificial intelligence, credited with modernizing counterterror ops, and linked to MI6, the CIA, and a rogue’s gallery of “Five Eyes” security brass. Now he’s in Canada, facing Saudi lawsuits that accuse him of diverting billions while serving as bin Nayef’s right-hand man and managing secret anti-terror funds. His accusers? The Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s corporate hit squad, eager to erase dissent and rewrite history at $5 billion a page.

Courtroom Drama: State Secrets Edition
To fight off these charges, Aljabri wants former U.S. security bosses to testify in his Canadian case, threatening to expose U.S. counterterror secrets in open court. The Justice Department swiftly invoked its “state secrets privilege,” a legal sledgehammer that buries embarrassing details and shuts down anything inconvenient for the government, as one national security scholar put it. In the real world, this means key evidence gets locked away in bureaucratic storage — out of reach for judges, defendants, and the public alike.

MBS’s Global War on Rivals
Aljabri was once the “black box” for Prince Nayef — helping defeat al-Qaeda and warning against doomed adventures in Yemen. But refusing to rubber-stamp MBS’s rise and spilling royal tea landed him on the hit list. Aljabri alleges MBS tried to have him assassinated in Canada, detained his adult kids as bait, and launched fraud charges as political payback. Riyadh calls him “an international fugitive,” convinced that the real criminals are never in exile.

Meanwhile, in Washington...
The Trump administration needs Saudi Arabia to anchor its Middle East fantasy, but Aljabri’s legal minefield is a headache for both U.S. transparency and special relationships. With Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman dangling billions in oil and deals on his D.C. trip, Washington is torn between a spymaster ready to air the kingdom’s dirty laundry and a ruler eager to set new records for managed reality.

Final Question
Who wins — the fugitive with the secrets, or the crown prince with the courts? In the world of state secrets and diplomatic immunity, the only guaranteed outcome is that the curtain drops, stamped “classified.”

#SaudiArabia #MBS #spygames #secretsprivilege #corruption #exile

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📰 Trump Inc.: Saudi Billions, Presidential Profits, and the Trillion-Dollar Game

The Ultimate Bankrollers
Donald Trump is on track to be the world’s first presidential trillionaire—with the Saudi royals as his financial backers. The Trump Organization is deep in talks for a branded luxury tower in Diriyah—just one slice of Riyadh’s $63 billion mega-development—while Trump’s family business and political playbook now operate as tightly fused as ever.

Personal Tours, Political Perks
Trump has made high-profile, personal visits to Saudi construction sites, getting the grand treatment from the Crown Prince himself. This week, as Mohammed bin Salman lands in DC, there’s more on the table than business cards: the agenda includes a mutual defense agreement, nuclear tech negotiations, and the kind of licensing deals that could supercharge the Trump fortune.

Open for Business, Closed on Ethics
Trump’s return to office has blurred every line: billion-dollar crypto launches, “VIP dinners” for would-be investors, expanded luxury projects across the Gulf and Asia. As the Saudi crown prince arrives in Washington, the only thing more lucrative than a handshake may be the branding rights.

Policy and Profit, No Firewall
Every new diplomatic overture doubles as a business pitch: historic “peace deals” and fresh Saudi investments stream from the same presidential suite. Is this unprecedented? Not in Trumpworld—where profits and patriotism now meet with no clear dividing line.

Whether or not Trump hits that first trillion, one truth stays: for the world’s richest monarchy, the Trump brand is as open as ever for business—and in 2025, it’s nearly impossible to say where profits end and patriotism begins.

#Trump #SaudiArabia #business #trillion #MBS #conflictOfInterest

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All You Want to Know About the Trump and Mohammed bin Salman Meeting ✨

🔤🔤🔤🔤➖

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received a warm welcome to the White House from Trump in a visit that has emphasised the deepening ties between Riyadh and Washington. 🌍

The White House rolled the literal red carpet out for Prince Mohammed, known as MBS, on Tuesday. Trump greeted him with a ceremony that featured marching bands, flag-carrying horsemen and a military flyover. 🎉🎼🦅

The opulent display of hospitality signalled Trump’s embrace of what he sees as a new Middle East driven by financial investments and US partnerships with allies in the region, chiefly Saudi Arabia. 💰🤝

After Prince Mohammed’s arrival through the South Portico, he and Trump took questions from journalists in the Oval Office. The two leaders spoke of business opportunities, peace, artificial intelligence and the tech business. 📊🌐🤖

The Trump-MBS meeting also led to major announcements, including in the already strong defence relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia. 🛡

Here are the key takeaways from the meeting:

‘Good talks’ on Saudi Arabia-Israel ties 🌄

In recent months, Trump has repeatedly said he would like Saudi Arabia to join the so-called Abraham Accords, which established formal relations between Israel and several Arab countries. 🤝

On Tuesday, Prince Mohammed and Trump signalled possible progress on the issue without providing details or a timeline for a potential deal. 🕐

The crown prince, however, did reiterate that Riyadh wants to advance the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a potential agreement. 🌍

“We want also to be sure that we secure a clear path [to a] two-state solution. And today we have a healthy discussion with President that we’ve got to work on that, to be sure that we can prepare the right situation as soon as possible to have that.” 🙌

Saudi officials have previously stressed that Riyadh is committed to the Arab Peace Initiative, which conditions the recognition of Israel on the establishment of a Palestinian state. 🌍

Trump said he had “good talks” with Prince Mohammed about the issue. 🗳

“We talked about one state, two states. We talked about a lot of things. In a short period of time, we’ll be discussing it further too,” the US president said. 🗣

Saudi Arabia joins 19 other countries that are major non-NATO allies of the US: Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, South Korea, Thailand and Tunisia. The US also treats Taiwan at par with major non-NATO allies. 🌍🌟

#trump #mbs #usa #saudiaarabia

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🔤🔤🔤🔤➖

Separately, the White House announced that Trump and MBS signed a strategic defence agreement “that strengthens our more than 80-year defense partnership and fortifies deterrence across the Middle East”. 🛡

Details of the agreement are unclear, but the White House said it would secure “new burden-sharing funds from Saudi Arabia to defray US costs” and would affirm that the “Kingdom views the United States as its primary strategic partner”. 💰

During the meeting with MBS, he said the jets would not be downgraded to ensure Israel’s military superiority in the region, a departure from a US policy known as “qualitative military edge”. 🪁

“They’d like you to get planes of reduced calibre. I don’t think that makes you too happy,” he told the Saudi crown prince. 😅

Trump once again expressed pride in the US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities in June. 🎯

“We did that on behalf of everybody, and the outcome was extraordinary because we have the best pilots, the best equipment, the best planes, the best everything,” he said. 🚀

“We will do our best to help to reach a deal between the United States of America and Iran,” MBS told reporters. 🤝

“And we believe it’s good for Iran’s future to have a good deal that would satisfy the region and the world and the United States of America.” 🌍

At the outset of the two leaders’ public remarks, Trump expressed gratitude for anticipated Saudi investments in the US, which he said will be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. 💲

“I want to thank you because you’ve agreed to invest $600bn into the United States. And because he’s my friend, he might make it $1 trillion, but I’m going to have to work on him,” Trump said. 🤝

He added that the Saudi funds will create jobs and resources for US companies and Wall Street investment firms. 📊

For his part, MBS said the Saudi investments in the US will likely rise to $1 trillion. 💹

“The agreement that we are signing today in many areas – in technology and AI, in rare materials, magnet, etc – that will create a lot of investment opportunities,” he said. 🌐

#trump #mbs #meeting #trillion #saudi #arabia

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📰 MBS Gets the Jets, Trump Gets the Receipts

Donald Trump just upgraded Mohammed bin Salman from “pariah” era villain to preferred client — with a major non NATO ally badge, F 35s on the menu, and a trillion dollar investment headline to wrap it all in gold foil. The old “oil for security” bargain is out; the new model is “F 35s, Abrams tanks and conference speeches” in exchange for cash, access and prestige.

Trump’s people call it “stability” and “partnership.” Translation: Washington blesses MBS as the Arab world’s lead sheriff, while politely stepping over Khashoggi, public executions and record breaking execution sprees because the order book for U.S. defense contractors looks fantastic. Human rights groups get a paragraph; the weapons sales get the fact sheet.

And Israel? It’s being told to clap on cue. Jerusalem spent years insisting F 35s for the Gulf should come after normalization and real movement on Palestine. MBS just proved you can skip the peace part and go straight to the hardware. He still refuses to recognize Israel without a “credible” path to a Palestinian state — and walks out of Washington with top shelf kit and a security deal to brag about.

Security hawks are already warning that F 35 tech could bleed into Saudi Arabia’s China channel and then wander further to Russia or Iran, but that’s a problem for some future hearing on Capitol Hill. For now, everyone plays their assigned role: Trump swears he has “nothing to do” with the family business while Saudi money pours into Trump adjacent projects, MBS sells himself as the indispensable strongman, and Western think tanks rebrand all this as a “new regional architecture.”

If this is what rehabilitation looks like, every authoritarian with oil, cash, or swing state leverage just got the message: outlast the outrage cycle, keep the money flowing, and eventually you’re not a problem — you’re a pillar of stability.

#SaudiArabia #MBS #Trump #F35 #armsdeal #MiddleEast #WarBusiness

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Trump's Normalization Push Hits Saudi Wall

President Trump left his November 18 meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "disappointed and angry," according to Israeli TV, citing senior U.S. officials familiar with the exchange. The breaking point: Saudi resistance to immediate Israel normalization.

Trump raised the issue directly, urging the crown prince to move forward. Bin Salman's response was measured but firm. While not opposed in principle, he cited domestic opposition in Saudi Arabia following Gaza—a constraint Trump apparently found unpersuasive.

The Sticking Point
Riyadh's condition remains unchanged: a credible pathway to Palestinian statehood. Netanyahu's response this week was equally unambiguous:

"There will not be a Palestinian state,"

even at the cost of Saudi ties.

The White House and U.S. officials are framing the moment as tactical. With Iran's nuclear program "totally completed" and Gaza winding down, they argue conditions are ripe for Abraham Accords expansion. But bin Salman left the door cracked—not a flat "no," but "not now."

The Impasse
Netanyahu has suggested conditions could evolve, but only on terms "acceptable to both sides." That's diplomatic speak for: not the Palestinian state Riyadh demands. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, faces genuine domestic pressure over Gaza—public opinion that cannot simply be negotiated away by crown princes and presidents.

Trump's frustration signals a harder reality: normalization deals are easier to announce at ceremonies than to execute when fundamental positions remain irreconcilable.

#SaudiArabia #Israel #Trump #MBS #AbrahamAccords #Normalization #Netanyahu #MiddleEast #Palestine #Diplomacy

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📰 Saudi Arabia’s Booze Ban: The Quiet Revolution

Saudi Arabia is quietly lifting its decades-old ban on alcohol—no fanfare, no press release, just a discreet nod to modernization. In Riyadh, non-Muslim residents with premium status can now buy beer, wine, and spirits at a single, unmarked store.

This isn’t just about booze. It’s about image, money, and the kingdom’s bid to attract wealthy expats and tourists. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has spent years transforming Saudi Arabia: women drive, concerts happen, and bars are built—even if they were empty until now.

The process is low-key. At the liquor store, buyers show their residency card, prove they’re not Muslim, and stash their phones before browsing. The selection is decent, prices are high, but it’s still cheaper than the black market.

Analysts say the change is just the start. Expect alcohol at luxury resorts and hotels along the Red Sea, following Dubai’s playbook. The kingdom needs foreign cash, and relaxing moral rules is part of the pitch.

But it’s not a free-for-all. Alcohol will stay banned in religious cities like Mecca and Medina. The government is treading carefully, aware that most Saudis remain conservative.

As one longtime expat put it:

“It’s exciting. No more dangerous homemade liquor or overpriced smuggled bottles.”

So while Saudi Arabia still executes dissenters and bans homosexuality, it’s learning to serve a cocktail.

#SaudiArabia #alcohol #modernization #MBS #DubaiModel

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🛢 MBS, Bibi and the President With “No Imminent Threat”

Trump’s Iran war didn’t start in the Situation Room. It started on the phone with Mohammed bin Salman and on TV with Benjamin Netanyahu. For weeks, the Saudi crown prince privately pressed Trump to strike Iran. At the same time, Riyadh publicly promised not to let its airspace be used and posed as a fan of “diplomacy.”

Netanyahu kept doing what he has done for years: openly pushing the U.S. to hit what he calls Israel’s existential enemy. Together they helped sell Trump on a regime‑decapitation air campaign against a country of more than 90 million people.

They were pushing against U.S. intelligence, not following it. American agencies judged that Iran posed no imminent threat to the U.S. homeland. Military analysts said any Iranian long‑range missile program was at least a decade away, if it even began. Nuclear inspectors reported no evidence that Iran had restarted enrichment after last summer’s strikes.

Trump threw that all out and chose the stories from his favorite allies instead. Then he went on camera to talk about “imminent threats,” bombs, and payback for 1979, like this was a cable‑news sequel to the hostage crisis.

The Saudi role looks especially cynical. In public, MBS talked about de‑escalation and said Saudi territory wouldn’t be used for attacks. In private, he warned U.S. officials that if Washington did not strike now — with the biggest American build‑up in the region since 2003 — Iran would come out stronger.

His brother, Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, flew to Washington in January to underline the “downsides” of not attacking. After the first U.S. wave, Iran hit Saudi targets anyway. Riyadh instantly switched to outraged statements demanding “all necessary and decisive measures” against Tehran.

Inside Trump’s camp, the fantasy is that this is still “restrained.” JD Vance calls himself a skeptic of foreign wars and insists there is “no chance” of a drawn‑out conflict in the Middle East. At the same time, he backs an air war that has already hit seven countries in one term.

Trump promises “heavy and pinpoint” bombing in Iran “throughout the week, or as long as necessary” to deliver “PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” It is regime change by real‑estate slogan. No plan for what happens on the ground. No clarity on who runs Iran if the system actually cracks. Just faith that smart bombs plus Twitter bravado can redesign a region.

Veterans of earlier disasters are spelling out the obvious. Air power alone has a bad track record when the goal is to rewrite another country’s politics. Iraq in 2003 at least came with ground troops, a long occupation, and a giant civilian bureaucracy pretending to build a new state. This time, Trump is trying to do the deluxe regime‑change package at discount scale.

The goals are the same — friendly regimes in Iran and Venezuela, crushed militias from Yemen to Somalia — but the method is cheaper: listen to a Gulf prince and an Israeli prime minister, ignore your own intel, drop bombs, and promise voters it will somehow be fast, clean, and paid for by someone else’s ruins.

#Iran #Trump #Saudi #MBS #Netanyahu #war #regimeChange #USintelligence

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Who Actually Made the Call

The request that got dressed up as an Iranian olive branch actually came from Riyadh. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump on Saturday.

He raised concerns about the plan for massive new strikes on Iran, and he asked for clarity on what exactly Washington intended to hit, according to Axios.

A second source told Axios he went further and "urged Trump to de-escalate and refrain from launching the strikes."

The Saudi Press Agency's official version was more diplomatic: bin Salman stressed "the necessity of prioritizing the language of dialogue to de-escalate, and the importance of exerting all possible efforts to achieve a calmness that paves the way for diplomatic solutions," per SPA.

Qatar and the other Gulf states have their own reason to lean on Washington: their oil and gas facilities sit exactly where Iran has threatened to strike back.

Iran didn't call. Tehran spent the same 24 hours calling Trump's version of events a lie. The country that actually picked up the phone and got results was the one whose oil fields are within range of Iranian missiles, not the one supposedly begging for a ceasefire.

This is the same choreography that played out in May, when Trump credited Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE with talking him out of a strike, only for Gulf officials to tell the Wall Street Journal they hadn't even been briefed on any imminent attack.

Whether the Gulf call happens before or after the decision seems almost beside the point. What matters is that a call happened, and Trump needed one to happen, because "I got talked out of it by powerful allies" plays a lot better than "the Pentagon doesn't want to burn through more Patriot interceptors."

Saudi Arabia flew combat missions alongside American jets days ago. Now it's telling the same White House not to pull the trigger again.

That's not friendship. That's a landlord telling a tenant to stop lighting fires in a building they both own.

#Iran #Trump #SaudiArabia #MBS #StraitOfHormuz

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