According to The Financial Times (Biden makes his big Middle East push: a Saudi Arabia-Israel pact), the Biden administration is finally prepared to bring out its “blockbuster plan to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”
According to the plan, Saudi Arabia is going to open formal relations with Israel––which would open the floodgates for all those other Arab and Muslim countries dying to do business with the Jewish State; the US will give the Saudis what they’ve been asking for, namely security guarantees and a civil nuclear program; and Israel will make concessions on Palestinian statehood.
On that last part, in July, NY Times pundit Thomas Friedman revealed that neither Saudi Arabia nor Israel cares a hoot about the future of a Palestinian State, and the only one pushing for the 2-state solution as a condition for peace between Riyad and Jerusalem is President Joe Biden.
“When I interviewed President Biden in the Oval Office last week,” Friedman wrote, it turned out that in addition to meddling in Israel’s internal affairs and judicial reform legislation, “The president is wrestling with whether to pursue the possibility of a US-Saudi mutual security pact that would involve Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel, provided that Israel make concessions to the Palestinians that would preserve the possibility of a two-state solution.”
But later on, it appeared that Saudi King Salman got wind of the deals his heir apparent Mohammed bin Salman was cooking behind his back, and issued a condition that any rapprochement with the Israelis must include a path to Palestinian statehood.
Except that, as many in Western media have suggested, Israeli concessions do not a Palestinian State make, and no one is expecting PM Netanyahu to offer more than vague promises, while on the ground Israeli security forces continue to engage in street battles with Arab terrorists in Samaria.
Biden needs this peace to beef up his chances in the November 24 election, when he will likely face Donald Trump, the architect of the Abrahamic Accords. The FT reported that at a meeting with Prince bin Salman, Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated the US was open to Saudi nuclear and security demands, and Blinken then called Netanyahu on the phone.
According to an official White House July 29 release, “National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on July 27, 2023, to meet with Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and senior Saudi officials to discuss bilateral and regional matters, including initiatives to advance a common vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous, and stable Middle East region interconnected with the world.”
It was Sullivan’s second visit to Riyadh since May.
In a campaign stop in Freeport, Maine, in late July, President Biden told his audience: “The world is changing in a big way. And we want to promote democracies — democracies. Watch what’s happened in the Middle East. I got criticized for going to Saudi Arabia, remember? Well, guess what? I got them to prevent overflights for — for — for Israel. So, they — there’s a rapprochement may be underway.”
And if you’re concerned about what those Israeli concessions would mean to about half a million Jews in Judea and Samaria who have just been told about thousands of permits being issued for housing starts in the liberated territories – not to worry. According to the FT, an Israeli official “downplayed the chances of settlement freezes,” because Israel does “not see territorial compromises happening.”
