Once again, Israel tries to ignore the Saudis' clear statements and hints about normalization with Israel through the talks with the Americans.
Protests in Libya against Foreign Minister Eli Cohen's meeting and normalization with Israel//Israel Hayom, news
The Saudis made it clear to the Americans that there would be no normalization with Israel without a solution to the Palestinian issue, and Israel preferred to ignore it and say that normalization with Saudi Arabia would come without a solution or concessions on the Palestinian issue. The Israelis also said in the talks that the Saudis do not really intend to resolve the Palestinian issue, and all their statements and statements – even the reaffirmation of the Arab initiative at the Arab League's Jeddah conference – are lip service to Arab and Islamic public opinion.
In Israel, as in the United States, the Saudis' statements are misread, and they don't really think that the Saudis mean every word they say – and here comes Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and tells the American Fox News interviewer that a solution to the Palestinian issue is a fundamental condition for normalization. Nevertheless, Israel preferred to look for other statements, reporting that bin Salman did not explicitly say "the establishment of a Palestinian state" but rather said "easing the lives of the Palestinians."
Israel claims that the Saudis do not really intend to find a solution. Demonstration in Gaza (archive), photo: AP
Some Americans told the Israelis that they were under the impression that the Saudis were not insisting on the Palestinian cause, but Biden stressed to Netanyahu the importance of resolving the Palestinian issue in the eyes of the Saudis. For them, this is a fundamental condition for progress toward peace. At the beginning of his meeting with Netanyahu in New York, Biden even declared that progress was being made toward a two-state solution.
This time, too, Israel decided to ignore it – and continued to tell the people of Israel, as well as the entire world, that political and security sources say they are quite close to normalization. While Netanyahu and Biden are trying to draw a map for normalization, a solution to the Palestinian issue and an end to the conflict, the Saudis are publishing an updated official map of Saudi Arabia that says "Palestine" instead of "Israel." The map in question was presented and approved in the past two weeks by the official Saudi authority for maps and borders. By the way, the map includes the two islands of Tiran and Sanafir, which Egypt transferred to Saudi Arabia about three years ago with Israeli consent, because both islands have Israeli warning facilities, according to the Camp David agreement between Israel and Egypt.
Another thing that Israel tries to ignore is that there is a king in Saudi Arabia named Salman bin Abdulaziz, and it is very difficult to see that Salman's entire legacy will be expressed in normalization with Israel. King Salman is one of the fathers of the Arab initiative, and there is no way the matter will be off the Saudi agenda as long as Salman is still alive.
The crown prince declared: If Iran has nuclear weapons, so will we. Iranian uranium enrichment facility (archive), photo: AP
Another (and no less problematic) Saudi trap presented to the Israeli prime minister on the road to normalization is uranium enrichment on Saudi soil. This is an issue to which it is very difficult to imagine that Israel would agree without guarantees and American involvement, especially since the crown prince declared that if Iran has nuclear weapons, he too will aspire to obtain such weapons, and he has no great problem obtaining such nuclear weapons, since the Pakistani nuclear program is funded by Saudi Arabia.
If Benjamin Netanyahu had listened to what the Saudis told him ten years ago, and had taken the necessary steps – which would have been easier at the time than today in terms of the composition of the government and the Knesset, and he knows exactly what I mean – he could be proud today of the greatest achievement of an Israeli leader after Begin and Rabin, and even more than both combined, and indeed could be considered a very great historic achievement, as bin Salman noted in his interview on Fox News.
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