Last week, U.S. media reported that the head of the Mossad came to Washington in July and met with senior American officials about the possibility of establishing formal diplomatic relations between Jerusalem and Riyadh—also the apparent subject of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s recent visit to the kingdom. The response to these developments from some quarters, including pro-Israel ones, is that such an agreement might “throw the Palestinians under the bus,” as one headline put it. Hussain Abdul-Hussain strongly disagrees:
Saudi Arabia has come to recognize a basic truth about the Israel-Palestinian conflict: the Arab world can do little to help Palestinians unless they are willing to help themselves. Palestinian salvation starts from within and requires a clear vision of peace with Israel that Palestinian leaders have thus far spurned.
Last week, Palestinian factions held a conference in Egypt. In their final statement, the factions said that the Palestine Liberation Organization was the sole representative of all Palestinians and that its vision for a two-state solution was their only plan. Such a position guarantees that Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and many other armed factions will remain at odds with the Palestinian Authority. Palestinians still have no credible representative or interlocutor who can negotiate peace with Israel, let alone uphold any agreements with the Jewish state.
With all tools of confrontation against Israel exhausted, and with Palestinians’ inability to speak with one voice and agree on one vision, Arab countries are left with two choices: either continue boycotting Israel, at a considerable economic cost and without a clear objective or outcome, or normalize with the Jewish state.
Neither an Arab boycott nor Arab peace with Israel will affect Palestinians. The Arabs have tried boycott and war for 75 years and have achieved little. Perhaps signing [an agreement] and reasoning with Israel over the best way to mitigate Palestinian misery can help.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/can-saudi-normalization-with-israel-hurt-palestinians/