Biden’s fanatical pursuit of Israeli-Saudi normalization is a dangerous delusion – Mondoweiss

Biden’s fanatical pursuit of Israeli-Saudi normalization is a dangerous delusion – Mondoweiss The Biden administration's reported efforts to broker a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel are cause for genuine alarm and could make the already horrifying situation for Palestinians much worse. Friedman’s latest piece on the subject revealed no facts that have not been discussed by many, including this author, for months. But while Friedman may have lost much of his stature in Washington in recent years, some older Washington hands — often those who are out of touch with the more recent state of play in foreign affairs — still see him as a prime pundit on policy. U.S. President Joe Biden falls into that category, and if any of the wild speculation Friedman put out was in any way based on something he might have heard from Biden, it is cause for genuine alarm. Friedman takes the normalization talks — which are being pressed by the Biden administration far more than by either Israel or Saudi Arabia — to new heights and presents them as a way to not only resolve the current crisis over Israel’s Jewish-only democracy, but even to finally put a stop to all settlement expansion. As we will see, Friedman’s idea is pure fantasy, but if it is even pursued in the smallest way by Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, it could make the already horrifying situation for Palestinians much worse.