I don’t believe Saudi Arabia controls US or UK foreign policy any more than Israel does. But the news that the British government squelched an investigation into bribery of Saudi officials– combined with a report in The Washington Post that the Saudis “basically summoned” Vice President Cheney for talks (and he went)– makes me wonder if adherents to the Mearsheimer-Walt thesis of a super-powerful Israel Lobby need to shift their focus.
I don’t know if the UK government would have halted a similar probe into bribery of Israeli officials– though that would have been just as wrong. But I think it’s safe to say that– barring a dire emergency– Cheney would not have dropped everything and flown to Jerusalem at the behest of Ehud Olmert.
