The blow-up with Saudi Arabia reveals a new American strategic weakness

“W e are all Semites together,” the Saudi minister for foreign affairs smoothly replied, after President Richard Nixon informed him that while his envoy, Henry Kissinger, was Jewish, “a Jewish-American can be a good American.” Mr Kissinger was angry at the president but pleased the Saudi made no mention of oil during that meeting at the White House in October 1973, as the Arab-Israeli war raged. According to “The Prize”, by Daniel Yergin, Mr Kissinger concluded the Arabs were unlikely to use oil as a weapon against America, despite its support for Israel. But within three days, Saudi Arabia had stopped shipping oil to the United States, and other Arab states were following suit.