The US Push for Saudi Recognition of Israel

August 23, 2024

Washington is endeavoring to cement Israel as the preeminent military-economic linchpin of a U.S.-led regional order, writes Tariq Dana.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyay in Tel Aviv on Monday.  (State Department/ Chuck Kennedy)

By Tariq Dana
Al-Shabaka

Washington has long aspired for Saudi Arabia to embrace Israel officially.

The bipartisan Israel Relations Normalization Act, passed by Congress in March 2022, underscored this objective, mandating the State Department to further Arab normalization with Israel based on the Trump-era Abraham Accords.

Among all possible partnerships, Saudi Arabia holds particular weight for both U.S. and Israeli interests.

The U.S. is endeavoring to cement Israel as the preeminent military-economic linchpin of a U.S.-led regional order. Within that order, Israel will serve as the hub for an anti-Iran coalition involving Saudi Arabia and other Abraham Accords partners.

Thus, understanding Saudi-Israeli rapprochement as a calculated initiative to cultivate new security alliances amid increasing global power rivalries is critical.

A U.S.-Saudi defense pact, which lies at the heart of ongoing normalization talks with Israel, speaks directly to this aim.

The pact would commit the U.S. to defend Saudi Arabia and expand Saudi access to U.S. weapons. In doing so, the arrangement would strengthen U.S.-Saudi military relations and simultaneously help to thwart Riyadh’s security cooperation with China.

Regional interests notwithstanding, the U.S. has conditioned any such agreement with Saudi Arabia on the latter’s normalization with Israel. Hence, the message to Saudi Arabia is clear: an Israeli alliance is a prerequisite for U.S. protection. 

Masking the Abandonment of Palestine

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, arriving in Riyadh on June 7, 2023, on the second part of his trip to Saudi Arabia. (State Department/Hisham Mousa)

The Saudi regime is ostensibly making a number of Palestine-related demands as part of the normalization negotiations.

Riyadh’s stipulations reportedly include a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a “pathway” to Palestinian statehood.

The timeline for statehood is not clear, however, and the Israeli regime would certainly place conditions on the agreement that would allow indefinite postponement of such a move.

Saudi Arabia’s attempt to tie Israeli normalization with Palestinian statehood is undoubtedly designed to provide political cover from those who may argue that the kingdom has abandoned the Palestinian cause.

In reality, normalization with Israel would be a continuation — not the start — of the Saudi’s desertion of the Palestinian struggle and its de facto acceptance of the Israeli settler-colonial status quo.

Indeed, the fruits of the Saudis’ decades-long informal relationship with the Israeli regime can currently be seen through its crackdown on domestic solidarity with Palestine and amplification of anti-Palestinian propaganda in its media coverage of the genocide.

The new Saudi school curriculum has even gone so far as to scrub the name “Palestine” from maps in school textbooks.

Despite this systematic effort to reshape public understanding of Israeli settler colonialism, the Saudi regime faces an uphill battle in trying to sway its population.

A recent survey by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies found that 95 percent of the Saudi public consider the Palestinian cause as a central Arab issue.

A 2023 poll by the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy likewise indicated that 96 percent of Saudi citizens are opposed to normalization and believe Arab countries should cut all ties with Israel.

Joining the Abraham Accords

U.S.-Israeli delegation boarding the first direct El-Al flight to the U.A.E. from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, Aug. 31, 2020. (Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, CC BY 2.0)

If a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal goes ahead, it will likely be incorporated into the expansive Abraham Accords framework. Saudi Arabia’s formal entry into this scheme carries far-reaching and dangerous ramifications for Palestine and the broader region.

Indeed, the kingdom’s immense financial clout and symbolic weight in the Arab and Muslim worlds could catalyze a domino effect. Through economic incentives or political pressure, Saudi participation may compel other Arab and Muslim nations to join this growing alliance.

Even if a formal Saudi-Israeli normalization deal remains pending until after the next U.S. president assumes office in 2025, Saudi Arabia’s determined push to legitimize a widely-condemned regime stands as a pursuit utterly divorced from global realities.

And while much of the world has awoken to Israel’s genocidal and colonial aims, Riyadh’s dogged willingness to proceed with such normalization obliterates any pretense of rational and strategic calculations, let alone solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Tariq Dana is assistant professor of conflict and humanitarian studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, and an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University in Qatar. 

This article is from Al-Shabaka.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

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