Israel hopeful of mending fences with Saudi Arabia

LAHORE: Although talks about normalization of Saudi-Israel ties are ongoing through various channels for the last one decade or so, a few recent developments have certainly suggested that both sides are now quite interested to shun their differences with all seriousness and come closer to each other despite a bitter past.

Quoting a Jerusalem-based Israeli media house The Jerusalem Post, Middle East Monitor has stated that Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen is very optimistic that Israel and Saudi Arabia will normalise relations before March next year.

This not-for-profit organization based in London has quoted Cohen as saying: “Israel is interested in advancing a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia. This is an attainable agreement… the Saudis are interested in it, as well. However, such an agreement will not be part of the Abraham Accords and would include other countries as well.”

Meanwhile, the Foreign Policy magazine has recently asserted: “The New York Times reports that the Biden administration is making a long-shot bid to get Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations. Among other things, this step requires overcoming Saudi concerns about Israel’s continued maltreatment of its Palestinian subjects and getting Israel to accept Saudi Arabia’s desire for an advanced civilian nuclear program.” The journal has further stated, “At first glance, pushing Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relations seems like a no-brainer. US leaders have long wanted Israel’s neighbors to accept its existence and reach a permanent peace. That impulse (and the related goal of reducing Soviet influence in the region during the Cold War) helped inspire the Carter administration’s shepherding of the 1978 Camp David Accords and subsequent Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, as well as the later US effort to broker peace between Israel and Jordan in 1994. Unfortunately, subsequent efforts to achieve a two-state solution within the framework of the Oslo Accords were dismal failures, in good part because the United States was not an evenhanded mediator and acted as Israel’s lawyer instead.” The Foreign Policy magazine has gone on to write: “In fact, there are two big reasons why this sudden push makes little sense right now. First, the danger of a serious conflict between Israel and any Arab states is already vanishingly small. The days where Israel had to worry about being surrounded by large, hostile, and more populous Arab coalition—with some members armed and trained by the Soviet Union—are long gone. Let’s not forget that the supposedly outnumbered and vulnerable Israeli David won every one of the wars fought against the mostly mythical Arab Goliath. Today, Israel has the most powerful military in the region, and it is the only one country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia isn’t going to attack Israel under any circumstances, and neither are Jordan, Iraq, or Egypt. Syria is still technically a belligerent, but the battered Assad regime won’t lift a finger against Israel either. Second, in making this push, Biden and Blinken are spending scant political capital on two of the least grateful clients in America’s portfolio. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a history of treating U.S. presidents with contempt, and his relationship with Biden has been frosty.” Another Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and now published in both Hebrew and English languages, had reported about six years back on July 14, 2017 that as per reports appearing in Arabic-language media, there had been several meetings between Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Israeli officials, adding that one of these parleys were held on the sidelines of the Arab summit in Jordan in March 2017. The media outlet had divulged through sources that Saudi and Israeli officers had been regularly meeting in a joint war room serving as a coordination center for Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

It had revealed: “Israel is attempting to make history by trying to organize direct flights for its country’s Muslim citizens to travel to Makkah as part the Haj pilgrimage,” an Israeli minister told Bloomberg. ....Such trips would save Israel’s Muslims a 1,000-mile bus journey across Jordan and the Saudi Arabian desert. Approximately 17 percent of Israel’s population is Muslim and around 6,000 make the pilgrimage to Makkah every year.”