Does the US still care about human rights?

That’s the question President Biden’s trip to the Middle East raised. He met “bilaterally” with “pariah” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UAE President Sheikh Zayed, and Egyptian President Sisi:

The purpose was to reset the relationship with Saudi Arabia as well as amp up cooperation with the UAE and Egypt. The signal was clear: human rights abuses in these and other Middle Eastern countries will not be allowed to obstruct diplomatic, security, an economic cooperation with the US.

Human rights demoted, not forgotten

Some have interpreted this signal as meaning the US will forget about human rights. That just isn’t possible. US history is the history of extending equal rights to ever wider categories of people. Our institutions could not forget human rights if they tried. The State Department will continue to issue its annual report, which will document abuses worldwide. Even Israel gets its comeuppance there, though not in the strident terms many would like.

But what the annual report says has not generally been the basis for US relations with other countries. Biden was the exception, not the rule, in claiming human rights would be the wellspring for American foreign policy. He has now walked that back, as the politicians say. I’m reminded of Abraham Lincoln’s reputed response when asked why he did not in the Emancipation Proclamation free the slaves in states that supported the Union: “I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.”

The Middle East is about geography, energy, and money

The reasons the US cares about the Middle East are basically three. Its geography makes it a vital bridge among Europe, Africa, and Asia. Mostly we fly over it these days, but shipping needs to go through it. The Suez Canal gives Egypt an importance it would otherwise lack. Most of the world’s oil and gas reserves lie in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia and Iraq. While the US today is a net oil and gas exporter, the prices of oil are set in a global market. That is increasingly true for gas as well. Oil and gas have given the Gulf monarchies vast quantities of hard currency, which is an important factor in world financial markets.

So what happens in the Middle East doesn’t stay in the Middle East. American presidents understand this and therefore generally favor stability in the region, even at the expense of human rights. Several have tried to reverse the order of things, by claiming greater respect for human rights would favor stability. President Obama gave that a try in his 2009 Cairo speech, before the “Arab spring.”

Stability first

But the Arab spring did not work out well. Egypt restored its autocracy in a coup. Libya fell into civil war. Syria’s dictatorial regime has brutalized the country’s population. Bahrain reverted to autocracy with help from Saudi Arabia. Even Tunisia, which appeared to be on a democratic path, has now suffered a setback. Its elected president has suspended parliament and proposes a new constitution that would vastly increase his own powers.

Apart from Bahrain, there was no real attempt at Arab spring in the Gulf. The Saudis are reforming from the top, with Vision 2030 (not a human rights approach) in mind. Qatar is a bit farther along the same path. It has elected municipal governments and now also a partly elected consultative assembly. Oman is an absolute monarchy, though a mild mannered one under most circumstances. Kuwait is a constitutional monarchy with a human rights record above the regional norm.

Mutual complaints will continue

So the Americans will continue to criticize even their friends in the Middle East, but their friends will criticize the US as well. One of the most common responses is “Look at Black Lives Matter,” which means America has not yet come to terms with its Black population. That is true, though no excuse for Middle Eastern governments throwing people in jail for saying what they think and even murdering them when they come for a visa.

A better founded Middle Eastern response is “Look at American unwillingness to criticize Israel for abuses against Palestinians.” Those are daily occurrences. It is not just the May killing of Shireen Abu Akleh at issue, but systematic discrimination against Arabs both in the occupied territories and in Israel proper. It is time Biden took off the blinders. Or does he need Israel more?