Murphy of Arabia

Senator Chris Murphy’s magical Mideast tour is his opportunity for lobbying Saudi and Qatari potentates against President Trump. In the process, one of the Democratic party’s top advocates of wrongheaded foreign policy is praising some of the world’s worst human rights violators. Once-honored principles are tossed by the wayside to promote the goals of endangering America’s ally, Israel, and appeasing an enemy, the Islamic Republic of Iran. “It’s important for the crown prince to not just hear from the Trump administration, but to hear from people who want a different path for Saudi Arabia in the region and in the world,” Mr. Murphy said at Riyadh. That path, it turns out, includes stabbing Israel in the back. “We are not going to get a permanent end to this war without the Saudis’ help. We’re not going to get a Palestinian state without the Saudis’ help,” the senator told his Saudi hosts. To achieve these goals Mr. Murphy is willing to forget Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s sins, which the senator once thought were an alliance deal breaker. “I’ve been a vocal critic of Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Murphy said at Riyadh. He was more than a critic, though. “You have to do something to deserve to be an ally of the United States,” the Senator said in 2019, alluding to the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. The Khashoggi affair shook Washington. President Biden attempted to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah”state. Little attention was paid at that time to neighboring Qatar, where foreigners were working in slavery conditions to erect stadiums for soccer’s 2022 World Cup. In this week’s Doha visit, Mr. Murphy found nary a word of criticism over his hosts’ human rights violations that persist to this day. Instead, the Connecticut senator heaped praise on a hostess, Sheikha Hind Al Thani, who heads the influence-peddling Qatar Foundation. American universities at Doha, Mr. Murphy said, “promote U.S. values in the Middle East.” Isn’t it the other way around, though? The foundation’s financial support of American universities is one reason for the “from the river to the sea” chants on our campuses. Whose values are promoted here?On October 7, 2023, Hamas leaders, at their posh Doha palaces, praised Allah for that day’s “victory.” The atrocities committed by Qatar-funded terrorists on that day launched a region-wide war. The October 7 architect, Yahya Sinwar, “will live, and they will be gone,” the Qatar Foundation’s founder, Shaikha Moza, whose daughter now hosts Mr. Murphy, wrote on X. “Qatar is and will remain an essential ally,” the senator gushed to his Doha hosts.The Pentagon blocked Mr. Murphy from visiting Qatar’s Al Udeid, America’s largest Mideast air base, where he planned to condemn the Iran war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in contrast, accommodated the Connecticut senator’s trip, even though it seems to violate the 1799 Logan Act. That law is all but forgotten now, as politicians of both parties lobby abroad against America’s foreign policy. Why is this trip, then, different from all others?Some Democratic Party 2028 presidential hopefuls believe that undermining America’s alliance with Israel will help get them to the White House. Those include Mr. Murphy, Senator Chris Van Hollen, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ro Khanna, and others. Politicking at Doha and Riyadh, Mr. Murphy’s appeals to Arab prejudices is undermining the prospect of widening the Abraham Accords — and hopes for peace.

Murphy of Arabia

Murphy of Arabia

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