From JTA:
“A Jewish woman was appointed to Bahrain’s main legislative body.
“Nancy Khadhori, who has written extensively about Bahrain’s Jewish community, was appointed to the Shura, or consultative council, the upper house of the Arab country’s national assembly. The council members are appointed directly by the king of Bahrain.
“Khadhori replaces Jewish council member Huda Nono, who left the council to become Bahrain’s ambassador to the United States.”
The report that Huda Nono [Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo], a Jewish woman citizen of Bahrain, was appointed as the country’s ambassador to the US in July 2008, apparently was, curiously, not seen as “fit to print” by the NY Times or Washington Post, but given what we have learned from WikiLeaks’ publishing of US cables from the Gulf region, it would seem to have had some significance.
While Jeffrey Goldberg and The Israel Project are making a lot of noise about the cable reports that the Arab monarchs from the Gulf are united in their support of an attack on Iran, this story from JTA today lends some evidence to my position that the call by some, if it not all of these leaders, the Shia-hating Saudis being the exception, may have said what they did to the American ambassador because they are anxious to cultivate American support and equally anxious to keep out of the crosshairs of the Israel Lobby and particularly those democracy-loving neocons.
It also occurs to me that some of the sheiks may have been given their lines, so to speak, with a view towards gaining approval for the $60 billion dollars arms deal that the Obama administration has been working pushing for some time. Having strong anti-Iranian statements from the Gulf to show Howard Berman, Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen, Chuck Schumer and the rest of the pro-Israel leadership in both houses would go a long way in dissuading them from blocking the sale.
Now those who disagree will say that I am going out of my way to find an explanation for the Wikileaks report on the Arab monarchs’ position, but when one considers the uniqueness of the US-Israel relationship when compared to Washington’s relations with even its closest allies, the UK, France, Germany, and Italy, as revealed by the different tone and sense of distance one finds in the cables regarding the latter, I think my take on the subject has legs. How far those legs will walk remain to be seen.
