In the past few years, even as Washington has become increasingly wary of Beijing, Riyadh has signed a series of multi-billion-dollar trade and investment deals with Communist China. Currently China is a major importer of Saudi oil, and it is eager to invest in the kingdom as part of its massive infrastructure project in the Middle East and Africa. Therefore, writes Ilan Berman, the Saudis do not share American concerns about growing Chinese influence:

Today, officials in Riyadh are quick to portray China as a benign—indeed, benevolent—geopolitical and economic actor, and just as eager to downplay the potential pitfalls of closer engagement with Beijing. Behind that depiction lies a sober calculus: that Chinese capital is needed to grease the wheels of the rapid economic and political changes now taking place within the kingdom. . . . Yet it is equally clear that China’s deepening presence could leave an indelible mark on the House of Saud in at least two ways.

First, it has started to threaten the kingdom’s moral standing in the Muslim world. That’s because, despite the position of religious authority that has been carefully curated and cultivated by the House of Saud over the past century, Saudi officials are failing to speak out forcefully against the Chinese government’s abuses of their coreligionists in the western province of Xinjiang. To the contrary, when they have weighed in on the subject, Saudi leader have tended to strike a deferential attitude toward Beijing’s policies. . . . In February 2019, the Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Sultan went so far as to mount a defense of these policies, saying that China “has a right to carry out anti-terrorism and de-extremization work for its national security.”

Second, the kingdom’s growing proximity to China could adversely impact its older and more enduring partnership with the United States. Today, worries over China’s changing global role are a rare subject of bipartisan agreement in a polarized Washington. . . . Yet . . . this mounting unease is still poorly understood and largely unappreciated within the kingdom.

That, however, is a potentially grave mistake. The 75-year-old relationship between Riyadh and Washington is today at a unique inflection point. Changes in the region, and in the kingdom itself, make a “paradigm shift” in ties necessary, Saudi opinion-shapers say. But these same factors also require that Riyadh take Washington’s concerns about China seriously if the partnership is to prosper.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.