BY MARTÍN KOPPEL
A large bomb destroyed a U.S.-run military training center November 13 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The attack, the first such bombing in that country, highlighted the political volatility throughout the Middle East today.
The events in Saudi Arabia added to the political shock waves caused by the recent assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. In Tel Aviv, the soon-to-be installed prime minister, Shimon Peres, is moving quickly to consolidate his government.
The huge blast, which ripped through the Saudi National Guard headquarters near a busy shopping center in the country's capital, killed at least six people and injured dozens. Among the dead were a Filipino and five U.S. citizens, including two soldiers.
Two Saudi opposition groups reportedly took responsibility for the attack, Tigers of the Gulf and the Islamic Movement for Change, which has previously criticized the ruling Saudi monarchy and U.S. military presence.
The U.S. government and capitalist media responded with renewed condemnations of "Islamic fundamentalism" and reaffirmations of support to the Saudi regime. President Bill Clinton vowed "to increase our efforts to deter terrorism, to make sure that those responsible for this hideous act are brought to justice." He declared the explosion was a "brutal reminder" that the United States was vulnerable to terrorism at home and abroad.
The Clinton administration said it was sending a dozen FBI agents to Riyadh to investigate the blast.
Washington runs a U.S. Army Materiel Command at the base to train the 80,000-member Saudi National Guard to operate U.S.-supplied weaponry. The program operates on a contract with the Virginia-based Vinnell Corp., which supplies trainers that include Special Forces and "retired" CIA officers.
The nervousness of U.S. and other capitalists was evident in the big-business coverage of the events there. "The attack focused the spotlight on the vulnerability of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter and the keeper of Islam's holiest shrines," a New York Times news report stated. It added that the Saudi regime, "long considered one of the most stable in the region, has remained a close ally of the United States for half a century."
A Wall Street Journal feature, titled "Saudi Bombing Raises Fears of Civil Strife," noted that "in the past, the ruling family [of King Fahd] bought off dissent with petro- dollars. But the kingdom has faced a severe cash shortage in recent years, because of lower oil prices, the huge expense of the Gulf War, a Saudi defense buildup and bad fiscal management."
Both working people and the middle classes in Saudi Arabia have been squeezed by recent cutbacks in social services, layoffs of public employees, and rising prices. The economic crisis has multiplied popular discontent toward the monarchy, which rules without a legislature and has banned political parties, imprisoned opposition leaders, and stifled freedom of expression and assembly.
The weakened Saudi regime, one of the pillars of U.S. imperialist interests in the Middle East, has become increasingly dependent on Washington for its survival. The U.S. rulers are concerned about growing popular resentment there to the U.S. military presence, which right-wing nationalist groups have effectively played on in their opposition to King Fahd.
Meanwhile, in nearby Israel, the government is attempting to quickly recover from Rabin's assassination and consolidate a new administration. Acting prime minister Peres, expected to be formally installed in office very soon, is putting together a new cabinet.
Peres is pushing ahead with troop withdrawals from the West Bank, in accordance with the agreements signed in September with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Israeli troops pulled out of the town of Jenin November 13 and turned it over to Palestinian forces, touching off jubilant celebrations by residents waving Palestinian flags. Under the pact, Tel Aviv is to turn over control of most West Bank cities by the end of the year.
Likewise, preparations for the first Palestinian elections, slated for January 20, are under way. The PLO and its rival Hamas have announced they will meet in Cairo in November to finalize an agreement to end Hamas attacks on Israeli targets and open the way for its participation in the elections.
All the capitalist parties in Israel have been working overtime to create an atmosphere of "national unity" to counteract the uncertainty caused by the assassination. Labor Party leader Peres met with opposition Likud chief Benjamin Netanyahu, and both agreed to smooth over frictions between the parties. In the previous week, the ruling party had sharply accused its opponents of contributing to the killing through their support to right- wing Jewish settlers in the occupied territories.
Confessed assassin Yigal Amir and six other ultrarightist Jews opposed to the accords have been arrested in connection with Rabin's killing. The government has since imposed official secrecy on the murder investigation.
In the wake of the assassination the Labor government has won greater public support for its current policies. Three out of four Israelis polled recently said they support the government's negotiations with the Palestinians. Only half did so before the killing.
The November 4 assassination of Rabin - the first murder of an Israeli leader - stunned not only most Israeli Jews but many Palestinians, who have little sympathy for a regime that has brutalized them for decades. "For many Palestinians it was a shock," reported Michel Warschawsky, director of the Alternative Information Center, in a phone interview from Jerusalem. "They didn't expect that in Israel, a supposed democracy for Jews, such an assassination was possible," even if the Zionist regime was founded on violence against the Palestinian people.
"It has increased a feeling of fear of destabilization," Warschawsky noted.
In contrast, in refugee camps in southern Lebanon, Palestinian guerrilla groups opposed to the PLO cheered Rabin's assassination. A November 5 political rally in Beirut by the Party of God, which looks to the Iranian government, turned into a celebration of Rabin's death.
Likewise, while the PLO and the governments of Egypt and Jordan condemned the assassination, the regimes in Libya and Iran applauded it. The regime of President Hafez al- Assad of Syria, which has sought negotiations with Tel Aviv in recent years, is maintaining a studied silence.
Meanwhile, in one of the Peres regime's first actions, Israeli warplanes launched unprovoked bombing attacks November 13 on Palestinian refugee camps south of Beirut - another reminder that the war in that country is not over.