For decades, Saudi Arabia has been an advocate of Palestinian statehood rights and a critic of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Saudi Arabia’s commitment to Palestine has defined the geopolitical contours of the Middle East for decades. But now that the Iran nuclear deal has been struck and as the war in Syria ravages on, those political lines are being redrawn, bringing together unexpected bedfellows: Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Marketed as a “pathbreaking public dialogue between senior national security leaders from two old adversaries,” May 5, 2016 will feature a high-profile public meeting in Washington DC between officials from Saudi Arabia and Israel. Prince Turki bin Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief and one-time ambassador to Washington, and retired Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Major General Yaakov Amidror, former national security advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will be speaking together at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel organization funded by AIPAC donors, staffed by AIPAC employees, and located down the hall from AIPAC headquarters.
Saudi Arabia has never engaged in diplomatic relations with Israel since the Nakba in 1948, and at one point even led efforts to boycott of the state of Israel. And although this is not the first meeting of its kind (Saudi Arabia and Israel had a former official speak at a Council on Foreign Relations panel last year), it is definitely the highest profile meeting and it is taking place.
While having like-minded human rights abusers such as Saudi Arabia and Israel mingle and meet publicly might come as no surprise to most of us, this event is still bad news: it signals a new era of normalization by the official sponsor of the Arab Peace Initiative.
The Arab Peace initiative, also known as the “Saudi Initiative”, is a 10-sentence proposal for an end to the Arab–Israeli conflict. It was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002 and re-endorsed at the 2007, and it is supported by all Palestinian factions, including Hamas. The initiative calls for normalizing relations between the Arab world and Israel in exchange for a complete withdrawal by Israel from the occupied territories (including East Jerusalem). Until now, it has been the most viable blueprint for a two-state solution. The deal also addressed the issue of Palestinian refugees and called for a “just settlement” based on UN Resolution 194.
So, at this political moment when Netanyahu is not showing any willingness to withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territory and some of his ministers are calling for the official annexation of the West Bank, Saudi Arabia seems to be giving up on its historic commitments. By normalizing relations with Israel without demanding a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Saudi Arabia is diminishing its leverage in negotiating a two-state solution.
In a way this meeting marks the official demise of the Arab Peace Initiative, but more importantly, as the last standing mechanism for a regionally negotiated resolution, it is yet another indicator that a two-state solution is officially dead.
teeth grinding news. and that photo reminds me of how much and why i can’t stand elliot abrams — that shit eating grin.
and trump, the day he essentially clinches the gop nomination, announces he supports the expansion of the settlements.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/278534-trump-israel-should-keep-building-west-bank-settlements#.Vylbz98B_tQ.twitter:
Two Middle Eastern serpents together at last. Neither can be trusted, and both with devious agendas. SA has been responsible for extremism, and known in some Asian nations for influencing the Muslims there to become more extreme in their views, and apparently even send crates of abayas, for women to start wearing it. Just like their new buddy the occupier of the ME, they are also known for interfering, supporting questionable elements, and causing trouble, in some parts of the world. I suppose their hatred/envy for Iran must have brought these two sweethearts together.
Shame on Saudi Arabia for throwing their own under the bus, and failing the people of Palestine.
I agree with the writer that we can now forget about a 2SS, and any hopes for peace, for the Saudis have, with this meeting, endorsed an occupation, and accepted the illegal settlements.
Damn them all.
This rapprochement does not surprise me, when Lieberman was Foreign Minister he bragged about the good relationship Israel had with certain GCC countries.Now that Iran has been brought in from the cold, Saudi Arabia and Israel fear Iran’s growing military and economic power will make it the regions hegemon. They are right, the question is what are they going to do about it, they both share an interest in seeing Syria [the low hanging fruit] in the ‘arc of resistance’, regime changed, to that end Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been bankrolling the Jihadis for years and Turkey with US blessing has facilitated the transfer of arms and fighters into Syria. Israel Ambassador Oran was quoted as preferring the Jihadis in power rather than Assad, it is a documented fact that Israel set up field hospitals to treat injured Islamist fighters. So it makes sense for the Saudis to do a deal with Israel, they would cut off the heads of their own Grandmothers to stay in power, so throwing the Palestinians under the bus would be nothing to them. The Saudis calculated [wrongly] that Syria would be overthrown followed by Hezbollah, leaving Iran isolated. They have failed on all fronts, the Syrian army backed up by all sections of Syrian society together with Hezbollah and the Russian air force are winning against the Jihadis [something the US for all its bluster failed to do for years on the cynical notion of, my enemies enemy is my friend] it is only a matter of time before Syria recaptures all its lost territory, leaving Israel and Saudi Arabia to face a resurgent and more determined ‘arc of resistance’. Hence the rapprochement.
The South Side Gang makes a truce with the North Side Gang.
I wonder if the bed the “Jewish State” has hopped into with “intolerant Islamic state” Saudi Arabia is big enough to accommodate Mali and African “hell-holes”. Wouldn’t want them to get jealous. :-(