Nicholas Kristof: Jared and the Saudi Crown Prince go nuclear?

Why would we help Saudi Arabia build a bomb? View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Saturday, March 2, 2019 [NYTimes.com/Kristof »]( [Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia escorting Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in Riyadh in 2017.]( Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia escorting Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in Riyadh in 2017. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Jared Kushner slipped into Saudi Arabia a few days ago for a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and I’ve been trying without success to get the White House to tell me whether they discussed a boneheaded proposal to transfer nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia. Of all the harebrained and unscrupulous projects backed by the Trump administration, this stands out. It could put Saudi Arabia on a path to nuclear weapons, and it represents a monumental conflict of interest for Kushner. It’s just bizarre that Trump would work to denuclearize North Korea and Iran while helping to nuclearize Saudi Arabia. [My Sunday column]( is about this reckless policy, which is compounded by conflict of interest (the company that would sell the nuclear power plants bailed out the Kushner’s real estate company last August). [Here’s what you need to know](. Trump’s efforts to denuclearize North Korea did not, of course, go so well this last week. The Hanoi summit collapsed, and although there are conflicting accounts it seems that Trump wasn’t willing to lift substantial sanctions in exchange for North Korea dismantling the nuclear complex at Yongbyon. That was the right call. But in a larger sense, the failure was in holding a summit without sufficient advance preparation. A veteran diplomat once said that the job of presidents at a summit is to pull rabbits out of hats, and the job of diplomats ahead of time is to stuff the rabbits into hats. That’s what didn’t happen this time, and I analyzed the failure — and the risks ahead — [in this essay](. It was also disheartening to see our president flatter Kim Jong-un as a “great leader” and “friend” who was not responsible for what happened to American student Otto Warmbier. On my 2017 visit to North Korea, I confronted the North Koreans about Otto [in this clip]( and if an American journalist can do it while on North Korean soil, an American president can do so at a press conference. Look, I believe in engaging countries like North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran, but there’s no need to fawn over them and degrade our own values. North Koreans risk their lives to listen to foreign news broadcasts, and Trump’s emergence as spokesman for Kim is an insult to them. Actually, the biggest nuclear risk in the last week did not involve North Korea or Iran or Saudi Arabia, but India and Pakistan. I’ve occasionally been involved in war games that model real-life conflicts, and those involving India and Pakistan are particularly scary because they often escalate into a nuclear exchange (India is always tempted to try a preemptive strike to take out Pakistan’s nuclear capacity, and Pakistan is on a hair trigger because it knows this — a dangerous combination). After Pakistan shot down and captured an Indian pilot, tensions were very high. But while I haven’t been a fan of Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, he and the Pakistan military handled the episode wisely and on Friday returned the pilot. That seems to defuse the immediate crisis, but Pakistan also has to move against terrorist groups like JEM and LET that operate on its soil. And it’s worth noting that Hindu extremists in India and Pakistani Muslim extremists empower each other and destabilize the region. Jared Kushner is in the news now because of reports that [Trump overruled intelligence officials]( and ordered that he get a top-secret clearance. But that will fade. The bigger long-term risk is that the U.S. will help put Saudi Arabia on a path toward nuclear weapons in a way that will destabilize the region for many decades to come. It’s difficult to think of a more disastrous foreign policy than America’s toward Saudi Arabia. [Read my take](. So Long, Farewell Bibi Netanyahu may finally be nearing the end of his political career, after Israel’s attorney general stated an intention of indicting him for bribery. Bibi has said he won’t step down if indicted, but this would increase the chance that Benny Gantz wins the April elections. Bibi has been prime minister in all for 13 years and is a historic figure in Israel, but I’ve been following him since he was an unusually articulate deputy foreign minister, and I think he has had a pernicious influence on Israel and the region. He has made a two-state solution less likely, and he has poisoned the well of Israel-American relations, so that Republicans strongly back Israel and Democrats are more skeptical. Paradoxically, the strongest constituency for hardline Israeli governments in the U.S. is not American Jews, but American evangelical Christians. I don’t know what to think of Benny Gantz, but I won’t mourn the last of Bibi’s reign. How to Save Lives Suicide rates are at a 30-year high in the United States, and Americans sometimes shrug and think there’s nothing we can do about this. In fact, research (including some randomized controlled trials, the gold standard of evidence) show that outreach and counseling, plus reducing access to guns, can help save lives. [Here’s a good summary.]( ADVERTISEMENT You can connect with me on [Facebook](. If you have friends who might enjoy this newsletter, forward this email or tell them they can [sign up here](. Send feedback or tech questions to kristof-newsletter@nytimes.com. Recent Columns [After the Trump-Kim Failure]( The president was right to walk rather than accept a bad deal, but look out ahead. [‘He Is a Racist, He Is a Con Man, and He Is a Cheat’]( Nixon was bad, but nothing compared to Michael Cohen’s portrayal of “gangster” Trump. What I’m Reading in The Times [After Cohen, Republicans Are Now Trump’s Fixers]( By TIMOTHY EGAN G.O.P. lawmakers who started by making excuses for the president’s most repulsive personal traits have now moved on to bedrock principles. They are headed for a reckoning. [Netanyahu Stoops to Survive]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The Israeli prime minister enters into an alliance with a radical right-wing party to save his political career. ADVERTISEMENT NEED HELP? Review our newsletter [help page]( or contact us [for assistance](. 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