re: #18 LudwigVanQuixote

Reality is in short supply.

Diplomacy is now and always has been based on convenient fictions. It is currently convenient politically and economically, since the Arabs have oil, I mean really, would anyone give a damn what they said if they didn’t, to pretend that the emperor has no clothes.

This will obtain until we get off of oil.

There is no other way. If we want real peace in the middle east we have to develop alternative energy sources.

The population of Saudi Arabia today is some 29 million. There’s been a huge run up in that number and it’s ongoing; 38% of those are 0-14. So you have an exponentially increasing population fed by purchases of food from abroad, paid for with money from the extraction of a finite resource that’s running low.

Saudi Arabia has to get on the solar energy bandwagon before the oil wagon runs dry. They couldn’t feed themselves by conquering Israel even if that were militarily feasible. They can’t get on the solar energy bandwagon without some technical assistance; cutting edge physics is not their strong suit. They need a partner, preferably a local partner with experience in solar energy and a feel for cultural nuances of the middle east.

Israel.