From Michael Ledeen comes the sad news of the death, at age 88, of Max Singer. His passing was also marked by the Hudson Institute, the Wall Street Journal, and by Gil Troy in the Jerusalem Post.
Among Singer's many distinctions is that he was responsible for what the New York Sun, in a 2007 editorial, called "one of the most remarked upon" op-ed articles that "we've ever run." As the Sun editorial put it, Singer argued for splitting off the oil-rich Eastern Province from the rest of Saudi Arabia.
I own a bound volume of the New York Sun from April 16, 2002 to April 30, 2002, and when I heard of Singer's death I went to it to find a copy of his celebrated op-ed, which ran in the April 26, 2002 paper. Strangely enough, the issue is missing from the bound volume. Perhaps Saudi intelligence, or Wall Street energy traders, bought up all the office copies, including the ones intended for the bindery.
In any event, the op-ed piece is still remembered, and talked about, 18 years later, which can't be said of most opinion pieces. It's interesting to wonder how, had Singer's plan been adopted, subsequent events in the Middle East might have turned out differently. As the recent Trump peace plan demonstrates, Washington policymakers often have ambitions to redraw borders in the Middle East in imaginative ways that they think will be more advantageous to American interests. So long as Saudi Arabia's royal family deprives its subjects of full freedom, the kingdom and its oil will be on the carving board.
