MbS has allowed Israelis to “return to their homes” in the Kingdom for the first time in Saudi history [photo credit: X]
Israelis are also allowed to visit more than a dozen other Jewish
heritage locations in the Kingdom. In April 2022 the crown prince
amended the law prohibiting non-Saudis ownership in Mecca and Medina, opening the door to Israelis wishing to acquire property there.
His flagship project NEOM is another plank
in the Saudi-Israeli relationship which is situated only 160 km away
from Israel’s borders. Israeli firms are working on some of NEOM’s most
sensitive areas, including cyber-security. Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael told Israeli media the NEOM concept was presented to him years before the project even started.
MbS also took ownership of two strategic islands from Egypt to make
NEOM viable. Tiran and Sanafir are located at the entrance to the
Straits of Tiran and prior to his intervention Israeli shipping had been
denied access to their surrounding waters under the terms of the Camp
David Peace accords.
“The trigger for the formalisation of the alliance [between Israel
and Saudi Arabia] will not be security concerns but the economic
leverage of NEOM that requires Saudi control over the Strait of Tiran” wrote Samawal Foundations, an advisory firm that assists clients on opportunities born out of the Abraham Accords.
Since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7 MBS has doubled down on
his support for Israel. The secret police continues to crack down on any
kind of pro-Palestinian activity inside the Kingdom, even among
non-Saudis. And as we wrote in our newsletter of 1 November Saudi Arabia has also used the full power of its vast media empire to undermine the Palestinian resistance.
Behind closed doors, the collaboration goes even deeper with full
intelligence and information sharing and the Kingdom’s entire network of
regime-backed Arab and Islamic agents at Israel’s disposal in order to
penetrate Hamas and its allies.
MbS’s most public show of support for Israel since the war started
has been by repeatedly signalling that normalisation with Saudi Arabia
is still on the table, albeit conditioned on the creation of a vaguely framed “pathway” toward a Palestinian state.
But he has also helped Israel in many other ways. For example, in November Saudi Arabia hosted
an extraordinary joint summit of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC) and the League of Arab States, and a Saudi-African
summit. At both events the Saudis successfully used all their influence
to unify a collective position among the participants to make sure no
meaningful action was taken against Israel beyond some empty words.
Saudi Arabia is also actively collaborating with Israel to help evade the Huthi blockade by allowing goods to be transported by land across the Kingdom. As the Israeli transport minister
explained, since January cargo ships have been arriving at Jebel Ali
port in Dubai, offloading their goods and then transporting them by
lorry through Saudi Arabia into Israel through the Jordan river
crossing.
"This is an economic and historic breakthrough that exemplifies the
economic and trade cooperation between Israel and the Arab nations, in
the fight against the axis of evil," said Hanan Freidman CEO of Trucknet, one of the companies using the land bridge to Israel.
MbS’s deep commitment to Israel has not gone unappreciated. Pro-Israeli media has praised Saudi Arabia’s efforts and behind closed doors the crown prince is even more popular.
Despite his tangible and deep commitments to Israel, Western media
and Saudi “experts” still hold up normalisation between the two states
as the “holy grail” that were it to go ahead would have a profound impact on bringing peace and stability to the region.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the
Biden administration's strategy for post-war Gaza is to link
normalisation to the creation of a pathway for the establishment of a
Palestinian state.
But like Lord Cameron’s remarks
about the UK formally recognising a Palestinian state or the much
publicised disagreement between Biden and Netanyahu over a two state
solution, talk about Saudi normalisation is a distraction aimed at
fobbing off the public and preventing accountability for the ongoing
genocide.
The evidence shows Saudi-Israeli relations are already more than
normalised. The only thing left would be to open an Israeli embassy in
Riyadh which even the Israelis themselves do not want as they know it
would be the kiss of death for MbS, who is already widely regarded as a
traitor throughout the Arab world, along with the Egyptian, Emirati and
Jordanian leadership.
As former Israeli negotiator and soldier Daniel Levy said, the real aim of these initiatives is funnelling the Palestinians back into a make-believe world otherwise known as apartheid or the status quo ante.