Ha‘aretz is reporting some encouraging news, in that a senior US official believes an unspecified number of Arab states have agreed to make overtures to Israel, perhaps as a prelude to normalizing relations with Israel.

Presently, only two Arab countries recognize Israel: Egypt and Jordan.

The official, according to the article, does not specify which Arab counties may have pledged to extend some olive branches to Israel, but Saudi Arabia is not one of them.

The Czar reminds you that the Obama administration believes the US is one of the largest Arab countries.

The Czar would like to see this as great news, but the fact remains as long as Saudi Arabia fails to face the reality that is Israel, not much else matters. The article does not mention Iran, but really—Iran wants Israel dead, and is not an Arabic country.

So who does that leave? Well, possibly Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, who tend to be pro-US and distant cousins of Jordan. Jordan has been a massively stabilizing influence, and has not suffered from its now about 15-year-old recognition of Israel. But Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE are small players who take their primary foreign policy nods from even more distant GCC cousins…Saudi Arabia.

Also highly unlikely is Yemen, who is still largely living in the 19th Century, and Bahrain, who uses Saudi oil financing to raise revenue because they, like Yemen, managed to be the only two Arab countries with no oil.

Lebanon and Syria seems unlikely due to extremely local and relatively recent “sensitivities”.

The most likely bet is Iraq, which is like getting a date offer from a recently divorced older neighbor. You have to think someone put her up to it and that the offer is not all that appealing to either party.

More fearful is that the current US State Department is confusing Muslim with Arab, and is including Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, or some other -Stans (TJICistan?) who have not yet gotten around to waving to their Israeli neighbors from across the street.

Look, this is potentially great news…but the facts seem underwhelming. And the refusal to reveal the list makes us quite suspicious.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.