The New York Times on Tuesday ignited a wave of backlash after revealing a framed photograph of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman displayed inside the New York City mansion of convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The article, which takes readers inside the late convicted paedophile’s seven-storey Manhattan home, features surveillance cameras positioned above his bed and in adjoining rooms, taxidermied animals, and provocative artwork, including a sculpture of a bride clutching a rope suspended from the ceiling in the atrium.

The criticism escalated as people connected the image to long-standing allegations of Gulf-Israeli collaboration.

Sam Youssef, author and editor of American and International Affairs, asked: “Do you now understand why Arab rulers kneel to Netanyahu and the Mossad?”

  • PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    They’ve always been compromised. It’s a backwards culture (not everyone is part of it but the heads of state certainly are) that only has wealth because of oil. Otherwise they’d be living still like they did in the 1800s.

    • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      only has wealth because of oil

      And that’s why they fund troll farms and fascist politicians to oppose renewable energy and to lie about the climate crisis. Their economy is far from diversified, and without oil, they’ll be back in tents within a decade, if the TCNs don’t organize and overthrow the reactionary parasitic bastards first.

    • TurkishKebab@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      19 hours ago

      “Otherwise they’d be living still like they did in the 1800s.” It was much better in the 1800s, because the saud family didn’t rule anywhere but in the desert wastelands