JEWISH WORLD

JEWISH WORLD • AUGUST 11-17, 2023 21 Crown Prince (and later King) Ab- dullah. It called for normalization of relations in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied terri- tories (including the Golan Heights) and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalemas its capital. It was not easy to digest in the midst of the second intifada and less than year after the 9/11 attacks, but it was everything Israel had hoped for and wanted since 1967. In fact, Saudi Arabia has a his- tory of presenting such initiatives – going back to the 1981 Crown Prince Fahd plan that Israel reject- ed on delivery. Saudi-Israeli relations will at some point mature and evolve. But given the current circumstances and conditions, particularly in Israel, it is difficult to see this happening along the lines of this three-sided deal. Alon Pincus is former Israeli Consul General in New York City. upgrade of relations with Israel. Defense and intelligence cooper- ation, as well as tech companies doing business, has been quietly going on for quite some time. A s for Israel, acceding to a Saudi nuclear program is considered reckless by the defense establishment, given Riyadh’s relationship with nu- clear-capable Pakistan and China. But the big stumbling block would be the Palestinian factor. The phrase “The Saudis don’t really care about the Palestinians” seems to roll easily off Israeli tongues. Right. But they will insist, as will Biden and other Demo- crats, for a significant change in Israeli policy. Netanyahu is both incapable of peace agreement with Saudi Arabia – which was never really active in Arab-Israeli wars – that conceivably deters Iran and allows Prime Min- ister Benjamin Netanyahu to brag about his diplomatic prowess. It also demonstrates how, despite the criti- cism, he masterminds relations with the United States, distracts from his flagrant constitutional coup and vin- dicates his position that “It was nev- er about the Palestinians.” Win-win-win, right? Not really. It is far from being that simple or straightforward. In the United States, Democrats’ profound dislike and distaste for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is matched only by their feelings about Mr. Netanya- hu. Republicans aren’t enthusias- tic about Crown Prince Moham- med either – not after 9/11 or the state-sanctioned assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Nor are they fans of President Joe Biden getting a glitzy photo-op and major diplomatic accomplishment in an election year. And the appetite to provide the Saudis with a defense pact is perhaps limited to defense contractors, not to politicos who are suspicious of Saudi-Chinese rela- tions. The U.S.-Saudi relationship may be “too big to fail,” as Aaron David Miller rightly and repeatedly points out, but Saudi Arabia is no longer seen as a credible ally. For their part, the Saudis would love U.S. defense assurances, but don’t need a formal, ceremonious mutual security pact that would in- volve Saudi Arabia normalizing rela- tions with Israel, provided that Israel make concessions to the Palestinians that would preserve the possibility of a two-state solution. ... The president still has not made up his mindwhether to proceed, but he gave a green light for his team to probe with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia to see if some kind of deal is possible and at what price.” In other words, Biden is probing, has not made a decision, is fully aware of the intricacies and imped- iments, and did what any president would do: send top emissaries to survey the geopolitical landscape. The idea of upgraded Saudi-Israeli relations, even normalization and full diplomatic relations, is not new. Imag- ine that Israel would have accepted, or at least expressed a willingness to entertain as a basis for dialogue, the 2002 “Arab Peace Initiative” – a concise and clear plan presented by and unwilling to do so given his ex- tremist right-wing ruling coalition. The question remains: Why the U.S. urgency in examining the vi- ability of such a deal? Is it a means to force Netanyahu to change his coalition? He will not do so. Biden has been fooled by him before, as he was by Crown Prince Mohammed on oil prices. Biden is too experienced and savvy to fall for these two again. Little more than a week ago, Thomas Friedman wrote an op-ed in The New York Times titled “Biden is weighing a big Middle East deal.” In the wildly melodramatic world of Israeli media and politics, this was instantly misinterpreted as a sign that an Israeli-Saudi normalization deal was just around the corner. Angry pro-democracy protesters and political rivals instinctively saw this as Biden bailing out Netanyahu, enabling him to sidestep an unpop- ular, dangerous and failing consti- tutional coup and instead present some major diplomatic achieve- ment. Others construed this as if the United States had turned Sau- di-Israeli relations into a top foreign policy interest, while others who actually read the little that is known about the contours of such a deal ca- sually dismissed its feasibility. All of them would be well advised to re-read Friedman’s column. This is what he wrote that is relevant: “The president is wrestling with whether to pursue the possibility of a U.S.-Saudi Saudi Deal continued from page 4 Is a Lockheed Martin F-35 ghter jet Riyadh-bound in the future? In the U.S, Democrats’ loathing of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is matched only by their feelings about Mr. Netanyahu. The late Saudi King Abdullah in 2010. In 2002, he submitted the Arab Peace Initiative in a bid to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian con ict.