Saudis defend state rights by condemning Hizbollah’s ‘miscalculated adventurism’
By Khalid al-Dakhil

Nothing reflects the Arab condition like the present spectacle.

The sixth Arab-Israeli war is being waged on the Lebanese–Israeli border. No Arab
State is involved in this war. Lebanese Hizbollah is the only party to this war on the Arab side, and indeed it is Hizbollah that ignited the war. In doing so Hizbollah was representative of no Arab state – not even the Lebanese state, whose nationality it bears and in whose government it participates.

In addition – and as usual – an Arab media war has got under way over the war.

There are numerous reasons why this situation has such enormous significance.

The most important reason is that this is the first Arab-Israeli war that has been waged in the absence of any Arab state. Instead, the Arab states – in particular those which were once called the ‘frontline’ states in the Arab-Israeli conflict – have found themselves in the thick of a war about which they were never consulted or had any idea was going to happen, before it erupted. That is with the exception of Syria, since Hizbollah would not have dared engulf the region in a war without Syria’s agreement, Hizbollah being Syria’s most important ally in Lebanon, and Syria being Hizbollah’s most important regional ally after Iran.

Very good essay on reasons why Saudi Arabia did not leap to the support of Hezbollah, from Saudi Debate. Read the whole thing.