JEWISH WORLD

4 JEWISH WORLD • AUGUST 11-17, 2023 By ALON PINCUS L et’s start with the bottom line: curb your exaggerated enthu- siasm. As enticing and lucra- tive as “The United States meditated an Israeli-Saudi peace agreement” sounds – and it does – political reali- ties make it impossible and unattain- able under current conditions. Now let’s get heretical and con- sider the following premise: Such a deal would be very good to have, even dramatic, but it would not be transformational for any of the sides in this particular triangle. In fact, the costs incurred may out- weigh the potential effectiveness. From 40,000 feet, geopolitics makes a lot of sense. You are [mis] led to believe that you have a broad and clear perspective. So, from 115 Middle Neck Rd. Great Neck, NY 11021 516-594-4000 The award-winning independent Jewish newspaper of Long Island Publisher & editor-in-chief Jerome Wm. Lippman Assistant Editor Jeff Helmreich Features Editor Barbara Weinblatt Travel Editor Tania Grossinger Contributors Douglas M. Bloomfield, Shira Dicker, Lawrence J. Epstein, Marcelle Sussman Fischler, Ezra Goldstein,, Sandy Portnoy, Joseph R. Rackman, Erica Rauzin, Walter Ruby, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Barbara Schultz, Jacob Stein, Carol Steinberg, Harold S. Steinberg, Andrew Wohlberg, Nora Yood Karl Grossman Production Editor Laura Katz Staff Photographers David Karp, Sender Schwartz Traffic Manager Karen Chasin Director of Advertising Bernice Witten Account Executives Joyce Ehrlich, Enid Feldman, Dave Levin Lee Lichtman, Joyce Rudnick, Judy Schnelwar For Israel Advertising Information International Media Placement P.O.B. 7195, Jerusalem, Israel 91071 (02) 6252933 Fax (02) 6249240 Art Director Deborah Gruenberger Marketing Consultant Adam Simms Circulation Manager Patricia Locklin Counsel Steven D. 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Periodicals postage paid at Great Neck, NY. POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to L.I. Jewish World, P.O. Box #220297. Great Neck, NY 11022-0010. Includes the Long Island Jewish Press, founded 1942, serving Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. Local Offices: 1441 President Street Brooklyn, N.Y. 11213 311 W. 37th Street New York, N.Y. 10018 Friday, August 11 Candles 7:40pm Sabbath ends 8:41pm Friday, August 18 Candles 7:30pm Sabbath ends 8:20pm CANDLE LIGHTING interests, an unwillingness to pay the political price required and con- flicting political considerations. At first glance, the logic and beauty of such a deal is compelling, and the benefits seem tangible: the United States further stabilizes the Middle East, projects diplomatic power and presence in a way that actually makes it easier to proceed with disengaging from the region and expanding its presence and pri- orities in the Indo-Pacific. Saudi Arabia gets a defense pact with the United States, reportedly also asking for a NATO-like “Arti- cle 5” on collective security (which means U.S. assurances that it will actively defend the Kingdom). The Saudis get F-35 jets and, most im- portantly, a civilian nuclear reactor with a uranium enrichment fuel cycle. Israel, meanwhile, gets a continued on page 21 By NEVILLE TELLER I n Ankara on July 26, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Er- dogan hosted Palestinian Au- thority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a behind-closed-doors meeting. Although nominally secret, details of the discussion appear to have been leaked to local media. Re- ports emerged that Hamas and the Fatah-dominated PA – at daggers drawn for decades – had agreed to hold talks aimed at reconciliation. The word “reconciliation,” often used in this context, is a misnomer. It implies that at one time two par- ties were unified, that they then split from each other, and are now being brought back together. In the case of Hamas and Fatah, nothing extremist groups are in bitter con- flict with one another, sometimes along the traditional Sunni-Shi’ite divide. The Hamas-Fatah conflict is very little concerned with religious could be further from the truth. From its earliest days, Hamas saw itself as a rival to Fatah. In the Islamist world – fierce, bloody, and fratricidal – many of the doctrine and not at all with basic political objectives. Both organiza- tions are Sunni Muslim and both are pledged to restore to Islamic rule the whole of Mandate Palestine – in- cluding the area currently occupied by the state of Israel. Fatah is a child of the Mus- lim Brotherhood, which gained a strong foothold in the Gaza Strip following the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. The Hamas organization came into being in 1987, soon after the start of the first intifada master- minded by the Fatah leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat. Calling itself the Islamic Resis- tance Movement, Hamas aimed to create an Islamic alternative to Arafat’s secular nationalist move- ment. Its first communiqué, issued on December 14, 1987, spelled out Unity Between Hamas & The PA? Only if one or the other changes direction PERSPECTIVE ANALYSIS continued on page 19 to provide the necessary high-res- olution picture, fail to reveal and integrate all the complexities and exorbitant costs of such a deal. This is where the triangle might collapse under the weight of incompatible 40,000 feet, a transactional deal between the United States, Sau- di Arabia and Israel seems like a no-brainer, a pact that serves the mutual interests of all three parties. But 40,000 feet will always fail A U.S.-Saudi-Israel Deal An unholy trinity of incompatible interests A ‘win-win-win’ deal for the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel will be far from simple, given Riyadh’s sky-high price for normalization with Israel. Their fundamental disagreement is over the strategy for achieving their common purpose, and their struggle is for power within the Palestinian body politic. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (center) meets with Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas (left) and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, recently. U.S. President Joe Biden visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah last July.