[Salon] Saudi normalisation: still on, despite genocide - ArabDigest.org Guest Post

Saudi normalisation: still on, despite genocide Summary: the Saudis have signalled that normalisation is still on despite the ongoing genocide. As frantic diplomatic activity continues at the UN over the Gaza genocide, in the never never land that is regime media Saudi Arabia’s firm, clear and unyielding position in support of the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights is driving forward international efforts for peace and justice. “We are witnessing successive accomplishments on all regional and international levels in the wake of Saudi Arabia’s spearheading of this political activity” Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Hussein al-Sheikh was quoted as saying by regime mouthpiece Asharq Al-Awsat. “Riyadh is employing its Arab, Islamic and international weight through calm diplomacy and in partnership with brothers in the Arab world and friends around the world to mobilise all this activity to isolate Israel and condemn its behaviour, on the one hand, and support Palestinian rights on the other,” he said. On Wednesday a spokesperson for the Saudi embassy in the US told CNN that the country’s position is that establishing relations with Israel is contingent on ending the war in Gaza, recognition of a Palestinian state and establishing an irrevocable and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution. Regarding a timetable, the Kingdom is working diligently to achieve these goals as soon as possible. Given the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza, Netanyahu’s adamant resistance to the creation of a Palestinian state and his apparent determination to launch an offensive on Rafah, accomplishing any of these goals does not appear to be imminent and so the Guardian reported that the Saudis are now pushing for a more modest Plan B which would not include normalisation but would not depend on any agreement with Netanyahu either. The Plan B deal would see the Saudis get what they want - a NATO-like defence pact, civilian nuclear reactor and high-level sharing in the field of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies - while the US would get its strategic partnership with the Kingdom cemented and encroaching Chinese and Russian influence would be halted. “There should be room for a less-for-less model, so the relationship with the US need not be held hostage to the whims of Israeli politics or Benjamin Netanyahu,” said Firas Maksad, senior director for strategic outreach at the Middle East Institute. Whether the Biden administration – let alone Congress – would accept such a less for less deal is far from clear. From right to left: Sheikh Mohammed Al-Issa, secretary-general of the Mecca-based Muslim World League; Abdullah bin Al-Sheikh Al-Mahfouz bin Bayyah, head of the Emirates Council for Sharia Fatwa and the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies and the Al-Muwatta Foundation in Abu Dhabi; Sheikh Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, Chief Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and President of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques; an Israeli official. “Without Senate approval, this is a non-starter, and without the Israel piece of this, a Senate approval is non-starter,” said Matt Duss, a former foreign policy adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders now the executive vice-president at the Center for International Policy. South Carolina Republican Lindsay Graham - who has become an unlikely diplomatic ally to White House officials negotiating with Saudi leaders – was more bullish. “I don’t think anybody on the Republican side is going to undercut the deal,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” Graham continued “If we can get a deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, it ends the Arab-Israeli conflict, it isolates the Iranians, it creates some hope for the Palestinians, it provides security in a real way to Israel.” New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman argued that Israel is now facing a historic choice between “Rafah or Riyadh”, meaning an invasion that would not only result in a humanitarian catastrophe in front of an increasingly hostile world but also fail to "eliminate Hamas" and achieve the much heralded "total victory" Netanyahu has vowed to deliver; or, conversely, Israel could choose to end the war, help introduce an Arab peacekeeping force to govern Gaza, begin a process of normalisation with Saudi Arabia and Qatar and engage a revitalised Palestinian Authority in a process that would ultimately lead to a Palestinian state that would become a central part of a U.S.-led regional security alliance to counter Iran. This, in essence, is Biden’s plan: an Arab peacekeeping force in Gaza, a U.S.-Saudi defence pact, and an integrated "security architecture" that would include Israel, the Americans, the European Union, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the PA. But as the Washington Post reported on Monday it faces plenty of obstacles, not least reticence among the Arab nations U.S. officials envision will help oversee the devastated territory in Washington’s “day after” blueprint. “Whoever goes there, if they are seen or perceived to be there to consolidate the misery that this war has created, then they will be seen as the enemy,” said the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman al-Safadi. “I think nobody would want to be part of that configuration.” “Of course, we’re willing to play a role fully in whatever [form] it takes,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry . “But that role and what we will accept in terms of risks and rewards will be subject to the overall evaluation of the end result and whether it is consistent with our aims.” What happened this week was not a change in the Saudi position, just a reiteration of what the Saudis previously said in February after US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby suggested that Riyadh was prepared to normalise relations before there is a ceasefire in Gaza and without progress toward Palestinian statehood. What is most remarkable about all this is that Israel / Saudi normalisation is back on the table given that the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza continues in full swing. As we wrote in our newsletter of February 9, the real reason for all this is MbS’s desire to help Israel as well as deflecting accountability for the ongoing genocide and the funnelling of the Palestinians back into a make-believe world otherwise known as apartheid or the status quo ante. Saudi-Israeli relations are already more than normalised. Putting it on the agenda again now represents a last ditch push by the Saudis to get a deal with Biden before November’s election while tossing a political lifeline to Netanyahu to try and stop him sinking further into the Gazan quagmire, as war crimes prosecutions loom and Israel faces defeat both on the battlefield and in the forum of public opinion around the world. The real question now is not whether Saudi and Israel are going to establish diplomatic relations or even whether there is going to be a two state solution. The real question now is for how much longer can the Zionist project survive before it collapses into the dustbin of history as other colonial settler regimes have done in the past?