Emiratis

He pushes this thing which is often referred to as the betrayal theory, that he wasn't woken up early enough that morning and had he been so, he would have ordered a much more forceful response and sort of nipped this in the bud very quickly.

So those reports about the early warnings from the Emiratis that, as you pointed out, were in Haaretz, but also some of the reports suggesting the Egyptians also weighed in here, that has had traction.

It's worth pointing out that Benjamin Netanyahu's responded very aggressively to that and has even launched lawsuits against those media outlets for publishing it, saying that they are libelous.

And again, it's more of the anti-BB camp just trying to smear his good name.

Whether it's Iran, Yemen, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, they'll all be coming, one after another.

For the UAE's leaders, the 9-11 attacks, perpetrated by a group of extremists that included two Emiratis, were a realisation of their darkest fears about violent enemies lurking within, and helped fuel an obsession with Islamism that persists to this day.

The UAE has been linked to covert funding and political support for far-right political parties in Europe, who are seen to share Abu Dhabi's perspective on this issue.

The US war on terror was also a moment of opportunity, enabling the Al Nahyans to present themselves to Washington as an island of stability within an otherwise forbidding region.

By the end of the decade, it had struck a landmark security deal with the former US counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, who was instrumental in lobbying Congress for more intrusive surveillance programs both at home and abroad.

Clark moved out to Abu Dhabi and set up a secretive UAE spying unit, which was given the codename Project Raven.

Initially billed as a vital cog in the war on terror, Project Raven morphed into a vast and pervasive digital wiretap operation, targeting not only Emiratis accused of terrorism, but many others merely suspected of being unfriendly to the UAE's dictatorship.

Although technically an Emirati initiative, much of the team running Project Raven were former US National Security Agency spies, Washington contractors, and senior White House veterans.

It was a sign of things to come.

And of course, it was a sign of all of these deals that have continued paying off both for the Emiratis, but of course, for the Trump family himself, because it's not just Jared Kushner.

As we may talk later in the conversation, Tara Kushner has his own private investment firms that have taken in billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia, from Qatar.

And yes, from the United Arab Emirates.

But it's not just Kushner, because then you also have the rest of the Trump family, their investments in things like World Liberty Financial, which is this crypto firm that is directly overseen by President Trump himself with his direct involvement.

And yes, as we now know, another Secret deal not long ago where the Emiratis bought, what was it, 49%? Almost a majority stake in this crypto firm that just so happens to directly benefit the sitting American president.

So yes, I would say it is a deal that has, unfortunately, paid off extremely well for all parties involved, though not necessarily for the rest of us.

It's interesting that you mentioned the family, right? Because when I see the Trump family, I see what other autocrats have done in the past, which is set up a revenue stream through each child.

did.

And it's a good thing you asked because when I develop flavors that are very Arabic, They, especially the Emiratis, they always ask like, how did you come up with this flavor? It's something that we grew up with and your childhood is so different from ours.

And I always joke because I don't have any answer.

I just joke to them that in my past life, maybe I was an Arab.

Yeah, that literally cuts across Cyprus and I think does touch on some of Greece's territorial waters with some of the islands and the like.

I think he's driving the Greeks and the Cypriots into the arms of the Emiratis and the Israelis.

And, you know, I mean, and I just think that, well, at some point he's going to push too

far.

Apparently, the Russians...

The Saudis, the Emiratis, the UAE all had access.

Looks like also Netanyahu had access.

Yeah.

According to a source quoted in the book, a shared pool of money for off-the-books diplomatic objectives is a common form of Gulf Arab government corruption.

The Emiratis and the Saudis do this once a year.

A billion or two is nothing for them, and if it gets them what they want, it's money well spent.

Of course, Jared and his attorneys are aggressively disputing this reporting, threatening to sue, etc.

...stealings while he's somehow representing us as our negotiator in the Middle East.

But on top of all the things we've already known, there's a news story out now saying that the Saudis and the Emiratis set up a billion-dollar slush fund for Jared Kushner.

What in the world is going on? And apparently this was all secret.

It's now coming out.

So Cole describes the bank accounts as account alpha and account beta.

So Bank Account Alpha was held at First Abu Dhabi Bank, the largest in the UAE, and it was overseen by MBZ's brother, Tahnoon bin Zayed, who served as the bank's chairman.

So beginning in 2017, the Saudis and the Emiratis transferred roughly $750 million into the Alpha account.

And this money would then be overseen and partially managed by Kushner and MBZ, who in their effort to strike a grand bargain to end Israeli-Palestinian conflict, believe the region's map needed to be redrawn.