During a crackdown on political dissent last year, the Saudi Arabian government arrested dozens of peaceful individuals. Those seized in just a single week's raids, The New York Times reported, included "clerics, academics, a poet, an economist, a journalist, the head of a youth organization, at least two women, and ... a son of a former king." None of the detainees was known to advocate extremist or criminal acts; their offense was that they failed to publicly applaud Riyadh's diplomatic and economic campaign against neighboring Qatar.
That wave of arrests 13 months ago prompted Jamal Khashoggi, a former Saudi editor living in quiet self-exile, to break his silence. He wrote a column for The Washington Post decrying the "climate of fear and intimidation" in his homeland. He struggled to understand how Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely hailed as a reformer, could preside over such repression.
"I am raising my voice," he wrote, because "to do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot."
In subsequent columns, Khashoggi kept raising his voice about the Saudi government's human rights abuses and strangling of dissent. A few other journalists and activists kept raising their voices too. But only a few. Much more prevalent were the upbeat accounts of how the crown prince was such an impressive force for reform, moderation, and women's emancipation. The prevailing attitude was captured in the headline of one effusive column by Thomas Friedman: "Saudi Arabia's Arab Spring, At Last."
As the whole world knows, Khashoggi has now been silenced. If reports are accurate, he was tortured, murdered, and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month; the gruesome crime, it appears, was committed by a Saudi death squad that included several men with direct ties to the crown prince.
Journalist/dissident Jamal Khashoggi was tortured and murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
And so once again the West is being taught a lesson it never seems to master for long: Enlightened despots aren't enlightened. Any regime that imprisons, tortures, or kills people because of their opinions is by definition an enemy of the free world — our enemy. Tyrants may embrace capitalism or talk up political reforms. They may legitimately win an election or crack down on corruption. They may quote Thomas Jefferson or sign arms-reductions treaties. They may even make the trains run on time.
But if they jail or murder dissidents, they are not our friends. Granted, our governments may have interests in common, our businesses may buy and sell from each other, and our intelligence services may collaborate against a mutual foe. But at the most fundamental level, there is an unbridgeable moral gulf between a liberal democracy like the United States and a brutal dictatorship like Saudi Arabia. We forget that at our peril.
So-called foreign policy "realists" don't go in much for moral gulfs. They tend to regard human rights as a minor concern in international relations. President Trump's unwillingness to let Khashoggi's fate undermine US-Saudi relations is rightly drawing disgusted criticism. But how different is it from George H.W. Bush's insistence in 1989 that the Tiananmen Square slaughter not interfere with US-China relations? Or from Barack Obama's refusal to condition normalized relations with Cuba on a softening of the Castro regime's ruthless persecution of dissidents?
To be sure, Planet Earth is a messy place, and statecraft cannot be reduced to mere slogans. Nonetheless, no objectives matter more in the long run than the survival of liberty and human rights. That should always be a pillar of American foreign policy, as it was with the Truman Doctrine in the 1940s, the defense of South Korea in the 1950s, and support for Poland's Solidarity movement in the 1980s.
Yet when it comes to Saudi Arabia, liberty and human rights have always been treated as a non-issue. Though the House of Saud has always been cruel, intolerant, and cutthroat, the United States has for decades showered the Saudi regime with diplomatic and military support on the grounds that it provides stability (not to mention a steady flow of oil) in a volatile part of the world. The fulsome praise for Crown Prince Mohammed has been merely the latest iteration of the myth of what George W. Bush once called the "eternal friendship" between America and Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis execute prisoners at the rate of one every two days, often for crimes, such as apostasy and witchcraft, that don't exist in the civilized world.
There is no such friendship. With the Saudis there is only realpolitik, and to confuse the two is dangerous. The kingdom is ruled by a pitiless crime family, one that flogs and beheads dissidents for speaking their minds, that prohibits the practice of any religion but Islam, and that disseminates fanatical Wahhabi Islamism across the globe. The Saudis execute prisoners at the rate of one every two days, often for crimes, such as apostasy and witchcraft, that don't exist in the civilized world. "Saudi-funded radicals have been involved in every civil war across the Muslim world over the last decade," writes Michael Brendan Dougherty in National Review. There are not many societies with which we have less in common.
No one should have been surprised in 2001 that Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi. No one should be surprised in 2018 if it is proven that Riyadh dispatched a team of killers to literally butcher a nonviolent dissident in a foreign consulate. Saudi Arabia is an evil desert empire, and such things are to be expected.
Time and again, credulous Western elites convince themselves that one of the world's dictators has become a champion of reform. Time and again, they learn how wrong they were. Jamal Khashoggi will be remembered. The lesson of his death probably won't.
Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
This article originally appeared in The Boston Globe.
(16) chana, November 22, 2018 7:07 PM
Enlightened Despots
Thank you for your article. I am very sad about his death, and that such a ruthless crime can be perpetrated without anyone bringing the crown prince to justice, and that Trump (whom I voted for) will not call this one what it is. Very very sad.
(15) Anonymous, October 28, 2018 6:54 AM
A MUST READ
Read Rabbi Dov Fischer's comprehensive article in The American Spectator https://spectator.org/sordid-swordy-saudis-solve-problem-like-khashoggi/!!!!
(14) Dvora, October 28, 2018 1:57 AM
MBS - Khashoggi
My greatest condolences and heart felt support go out to the Khashoggi Family and his Fiance who refuses to meet with Donald Trump. Trump is in over his head. When it was released about Khashoggi missing after his visit to the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, I already knew he was dismembered. I read all I could about it. We all missed the beautiful light that emanated from Mr. Khashoggi who will be a family member to all of us who love truth, light, Democracy and free speech. Human rights can not be bestowed on people when a monster leads the Nation. To be human is to bury your dead. Plato. To memorialize, eulogize, speak of the good, the bad to grieve ,to cry and to laugh. To speak of al the departed meant to us. It is NOT HUMAN to dismember. To keep Family and friends from celebrating what that person meant to us. While reading I caught a post on the side referring to Mr. Khashoggi so I read it. Motherboard was the poster .Motherboard went to the Saudi site where they referred to the upcoming Saudi International Conference and they went to their sight. Suddenly the screen changed to Mr. Khashoggi bleeding profusely, no fingers in an orange jump suit to MBS. He was beheaded by the King Banners for ISIS surrounded them. no one there but Mr. Khashoggi was human. Trump is in over his head and if Motherboard is correct, Trump is supplying arms for ISIS. Truth is stranger than fiction. God bless and protect the Khashoggi Family, friends and associates and his beautiful Fiance. I want Justice for each and every one.
(13) DS, October 26, 2018 3:22 PM
Khashoggi wanted the best of both worlds
Khashoggi wanted the best of both worlds. He wanted to live the good life in America. He had a good job at the Washington Post, but at the same time he espoused the Muslim Brotherhood. He wanted the brothers to rule Saudi Arabia instead of the Royal Family. So, they hated him.
Can someone explain why we let someone become a citizen of America who espouses the Muslim Brotherhood, like CAIR? The Muslim Brotherhood wants to subjugate the US, the Great Satan.
The immigration laws of America are crazy. Why did the Washington Post want to hire him? Was it because if he dissed the royal family in print? Then it served the Post's and the democrat's goal of furthering a nuclear deal with Iran?
(12) Erez, October 25, 2018 5:11 PM
Dissapointed
I must say, Jeff, as someone who usually enjoys reading ur columns, I am quite dissapointed in what u say. Kashi phi is not a journalist, he is a propagandist and apologist for Islamic terror and the Muslim brotherhood. I agree that a free press is of paramount importance, however I don’t feel this should include propagandists and pathological liars. I’m sorry but on this u r wrong!
Alan S., October 26, 2018 10:55 AM
Yes, but...
so are the journalists and reporters for some major publications, such as the NY Times. Kashoggi was a major anti-Semite, and I do not weep for his murder by the Arabs. The Arabs similarly kill Israelis everyday, and on 9/11, killed thousands. Everyday, the NY Times prints outrageously biased articles against Israel., but nonetheless, freedom of the press to print the garbage the NY Times does in this instance is paramount in a democracy.
Where is the line drawn between Trump calling out the media as being the enemy of the people and what you say about including propagandists an pathological liars, when it is clear that Trump is a pathological liar and propagandist for the Republicans? This is rhetorical, as I am sure everyone has an answer.
(11) Frances Nelsen, October 24, 2018 11:22 AM
Your voice of sanity gives me hope.
Jacob everything, you wrote is everything thinking people the world over know is the truth. Thank you. As I near my eighth decade of life, I carry an ever-increasing burden of sadness in my heart for our country which places profit before people valuing blindness over clarity as it still proclaims we are the land of the free. We diminish our values and our status in the world community every time we pretend we care about the sufferings of others while we accept their bribes, whether it be oil, cheap labor, or historical ignorance. Thank you for being a voice of sanity. Yours and others like you spread light in a darkening world. When you chose to be a reporter, did you ever think you might become a martyr?
(10) Anonymous, October 24, 2018 6:58 AM
Good points by #6
We often have to choose the lesser of two evils as when US aligned with Stalin to fight Hitler. Arabia is a partner against Iran. Also an interesting metaphysical take by Rabbi Kessin is that MBS is doing the teshuva of Ishmael and DJT the teshuva of Esav. Check out his shiurs at TorahThinking.com!
(9) Tarik Aljebory, October 24, 2018 1:10 AM
100 years and more,,,What is the secret??!!
This regime is ,, corrupted, racist, and more important not competent, why has been ruling for more than 100 years?!! , this regime is supported by no one, but his own family, I am not a politician nor historian, but a lot of corrupted regimes ruled through the history, and all diminished and dissolved ,, yet this filthy royal family keeps ruling,, weird ,,, so weird , whats the secret ??!!
(8) Craig Shere, October 23, 2018 7:28 PM
Well said
Well said
(7) Pamela Fleischmann, October 23, 2018 3:08 PM
Thank you Jeff Jacoby
Profound words from Jeff Jacoby here in his definition of a tyrant: “But if they jail or murder dissidents, they are not our friends.” It doesn’t take much to see how this definition of “tyrant” must extend to those who hold children in cages and jail women fleeing domestic violence condoned by the countries in which they live.
(6) Anonymous, October 23, 2018 2:58 PM
Khashoggi was angry over Saudi partnership with Israel
Although this killing is undoubtedly brutal and grotesque, I cannot understand the Western whitewashing of Khashoggi and his mission. He was no Western reformer: his chief beef with the Saudi government (which dates only from 2017, by the way--before that he was cozy with the Saudi regime) was its apparent movement toward normalization with Israel. A fervent Islamist, Khashoggi decried Saudi failure to place the so-called "Palestinian" cause at the top of its priorities. He said Saudi Arabia should work with other Arab nations and not with the U.S. Look up his writings on the anti-Semitic site Middle East Monitor. Two days before his killing he was ranting in London about Israel and stating that Saudi Arabia would come to regret its support for Middle East peace and its alignment with the U.S. and Israel against Iran. Also, why does Western media keep saying he was living in the U.S.? He seems to have been resident in Turkey for some time. Agreed that this killing is appalling, but we should know who Khashoggi was: he was a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and denied all Jewish claims to any history in the Land of Israel. Khashoggi was not a Western crusader for human rights. He wanted the right to criticize his government for its developing ties to what he called "the Zionist entity."
David K., October 23, 2018 5:37 PM
Anti-Trump Politics?
This was my question and everything you say is correct. The only reason I see for this is the positive moves by this ruler towards Israel and the closer economic ties to Trump otherwise the left and erdowan haven't grown a conscience overnight.
Anonymous, October 23, 2018 5:58 PM
Yep, how many journalists has Turkey killed?
There is actually a Wikipedia entry detailing the dozens of journalists Turkey itself has killed. I'm pretty upset with Saudi Arabia for committing this atrocity, but I really don't like how the Western media has seized on it to try to pressure Trump to break off ties with Saudi Arabia, when that alliance seems to hold out the best hope for a stabilizing influence in the Middle East. I dearly hope Israel won't suffer as a result of this, but it's hard to see how it can turn out any other way.
David K., October 23, 2018 7:00 PM
The same with Russia
There seemed to be a moment when we could have somewhat normalized relations with Russia but the dems and the liberal media put an end to it knowing how much could be accomplished with such an alliance.
Right now Trump doesn't seem to bend and is telling the media straight out that there's more at stake than Kashoggi. Bigger things are happening in the region because of this new ruler, and this guy was our enemy in life and I really don't want him to succeed against us in death. So I understand the position of the author here, would be great if he joined and explained his POV, based in reality I hope and not idealism.
Rachel, October 24, 2018 11:14 PM
Khashoggi was a US resident
He owned a home in Northern Virginia and was a Washington Post columnist. He may have been staying outside the US prior to his murder, but that’s not surprising given his occupation. He had gone into exile from Saudi Arabia because he knew he was in danger there. Almost no one would have thought he was in danger entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Turkey. Using diplomatic immunity as a cover for a black site to murder a citizen of the consulate is a horrible breach of diplomatic relations.
Anonymous, October 25, 2018 9:02 AM
He was in Istanbul as far back as February
If you google "Khashoggi: the deal of the century will disappear" on Middle East Monitor (in which he is quoted, by the way, saying "we [Arabs] need to remind the Israelis that Jerusalem is ours"), he is placed in Istanbul on February 21, 2018. I have no idea if he was only there briefly or was actually residing there, but he seems to have been resident in Turkey for some time prior to his murder. This is a small point, but it just highlights the effort to make him seem like an American in order to increase sympathy for him, when in fact he had expressed a number of anti-US sentiments.
(5) david k., October 23, 2018 2:03 PM
What's special about Khashoggi?
I'm surprised at the attention Khashoggi's death is getting when shutting down the voices of opposition is daily practice in muslim countries, Erdogon himself is one the worst but we never heard a peep out of anyone when closed down opposition media offices and rounded up tens if not hundreds of reporters and no one knows what came of them, what's the difference here?
(4) Sherry Bauman, October 23, 2018 2:00 PM
Excellent--when we ever learn?
Money and oil - somehow we can't step away from it. Forget Iran, it's used as a cover. We're so focused on money and oil --now more on the money side.
(3) Anonymous, October 23, 2018 1:59 PM
Right you are
You sre SO right on. Adter 9/11 one would hope that the US & its people learned a lesson, but it doesn't seem so. How mamy more must die - pathetic
(2) David Berkovitz, October 23, 2018 1:54 PM
So on the mark
Without ethical and moral principles the world reverts to nothingness, or worse, selfish acts of evil. Mr Jacoby has captured this profound concept. I hope Mr Trump reads this column- i doubt it. Hope im wrong.
(1) Alan S., October 22, 2018 12:42 PM
Another superb column by Jeff Jacoby.
Such an excellent article. Sadly, this column will only be applauded by people that know to put morality and ethics above selling military hardware or even civilian aircraft.