The enthusiasm in Israel for the normalization agreement with the UAE has caused some to lose their heads. The Jerusalem Post published an editorial on August 19 claiming that there was no reason for Israel to worry about the proposed sale by the U.S. to the UAE of the top-of-the-line Stealth fighter jet, the F-35, because the UAE – who could ever have thought otherwise? — has no intention of using them against Israel, but only against their common enemy, Iran. So chillax, Israelis, the UAE is truly, madly, your BFF. That was what the Jerusalem Post, and many others, want us to believe. Some suggest that Israel had to give the UAE something – and dropping its opposition to the sale of the F-35s is that something. Apparently, Israel’s decision to halt the extension of its sovereignty over part of the West Bank doesn’t count. Meanwhile, Israel’s military are appalled at the prospect of that sale of F-35s to the UAE
Now come the Saudis to rain a bit more on the parade. The former head of Saudi intelligence, and former ambassador to the United States, the stony-faced Prince Turki al-Faisal, a very powerful man in the Saudi royal lineup though for now he holds no official position, has just published an article in Asharq Al-Awsat, insisting that Saudi normalization of ties with Israel will come only after a Palestinian state is established, “with Jerusalem as its capital.” And in order to create that state, Israel must withdraw to the “1967 lines” — that is, to the 1949 armistice lines that, given the modern and gigantic arsenals the Arabs now possess, would be impossible to defend.
Prince Turki al-Faisal’s remarks are here.
Saudi Arabia’s price for normalizing relations with Israel is the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, a senior member of the Saudi royal family reaffirmed on Friday.
Prince Turki al-Faisal was apparently responding to US President Donald Trump who said on Wednesday he expected Saudi Arabia to join a deal announced last week by Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize diplomatic ties….
“Any Arab state that is considering following the UAE should demand in return a price, and it should be an expensive price,” he wrote in the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has set a price for concluding peace between Israel and the Arabs – it is the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as capital, as provided for by the initiative of the late King Abdullah.”
“That 2002 Arab League plan offered Israel normalized ties in return for Israeli withdrawal from all territories – the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – captured in the 1967 Middle East war, and a Palestinian state there.
“But Prince Turki also voiced understanding for the UAE’s decision, noting that Riyadh’s close ally had secured a key condition – a halt to Israeli annexation plans….
In other words, Turki al-Faisal wants the Arab world to know, the UAE’s example is not to be emulated. The Arabs should demand an “expensive price” from Israel for doing it the great favor of normalizing ties. The Saudi position remains exactly what it was in 2002, when the Saudi King Abdullah’s “peace plan” was adopted by the Arab League. That plan was for Israel to be squeezed back within the 1949 armistice lines, with a nine-mile wide waist at its narrowest point, from Qalqilya to the sea. Israel would have to remove all of its settlements, which now means uprooting nearly a half-million Israelis from their homes in the West Bank, and another 220,00 from their homes in East Jerusalem. Israel would, in the 2002 plan of King Abdullah, again have to give up the Old City, which would mean Jews would no longer be able to pray at their holiest site, the Western Wall, just as they had been prevented from doing between 1949 and 1967.
The Saudi demand entirely ignores – does not mention, does not recognize – the claim Israel has to the entire West Bank, which was part of the territory assigned, according to the Mandate for Palestine, to the future Jewish National Home. Prince Turki al-Faisal has no use for the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine, which was based on the widespread recognition, by the civilized powers, of the 3500-year continuous Jewish presence in, and attachment to, the Land of Israel.
Prince Turki’s demand ignores, too, the meaning of U.N. Resolution 242, unanimously passed on November 22, 1967, according to which Israel was allowed to retain territory it won in the Six-Day War if needed so that it might have – in the Resolution’s key phrase — “secure [i.e., defensible] and recognized boundaries.” He appears to believe that U.N. Resolution 242 means what the Arabs tried to make it mean, and failed. They kept demanding that the main author of that Resolution, Lord Caradon, insert a phrase to call for an Israeli withdrawal from “the territories” or, still worse, from “all the territories” that Israel had won “in the recent conflict” (the Six-Day War). Lord Caradon most emphatically rejected those Arab attempts, and U.N. Resolution 242 calls only for an Israeli withdrawal “from territories” it had won in that war. Israel was entitled to hold onto any territory it needed to ensure it had — let’s repeat it one more time — “secure [i.e. defensible] and recognized boundaries.” Both Israeli and American military men have long concluded that for security reasons Israel must hold onto the Jordan Valley, that sits athwart the invasion route from the east. The chief settlement blocs also provide another sort of security, insufficiently recognized: all Israelis, men and women, serve in the IDF and have undergone military training. Israelis in the settlement blocs can be quickly mobilized, in case of need, should major hostilities break out in the West Bank.
Those who thought that the UAE ‘s recent move would lead to the Saudis having a change of heart, who were convinced that the Saudi Crown Prince would follow his good friend the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi in normalizing relations with Israel, that the Saudis surely must have recognized by now the benefit, to them, of a strong Israel – i.e., an Israel not forced to withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines — in confronting their common enemy Iran, now have to think again. Sudan, Oman, Morocco – yes, it would be nice for Israel to have “normalization of relations” with all of them. But it is Saudi Arabia – stony, dour, unrelenting Saudi Arabia – that really counts in this calculus. Perhaps it is time to curb our enthusiasm.
Keys says
Never trust a muslim !
How could anyone possibly trust an entire country of them ?
TruthWFree says
Agreed! They must do what their allh god, AKA Satan, exhorts…to fight and kill Jews.
Martin says
video – MEMRI – Kuwaiti Imam:
All Arab Peace Agreements with Jews Are Null and Void because You Cannot Abolish Jihad
Kuwaiti Imam Sheikh Naji Al-Kharas said in a Friday, August 21, 2020 sermon that was uploaded to his YouTube channel that all the Arab peace agreements with Israel and the Jews, including the Camp David Accords, the Oslo Accords, and the Jordan-Israel peace agreement, are null and void because they “abolish the Jihad.”
He elaborated that it is impermissible to sign a permanent peace agreement with the enemy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg98NGYetFs
gravenimage says
Yep.
Clifford Fodor says
It’s not impermissible to sign a permanent peace agreement with the enemy (Israel). It’s simply impossible for them to honor it.
gravenimage says
Curb Your Enthusiasm: Saudi Arabia Wants Israel to Pay an ‘Expensive Price’
……………..
My enthusiasm was already pretty curbed. This certainly comes as no surprise. The UAE had already made Israel not securing Judea and Samaria a condition of this “friendship”.
I hope Israel refuses to cave any further. She was doing fine going her own way–but the offer of friendship with Muslim nations–no matter how illusory–is very strong for civilized Israelis.
curious george says
gravenimage
Your concerns are valid.
To quote somehistory:
The Apostle Paul wrote, “Whenever it is that they are saying “peace and security” sudden destruction will be instantly upon them as pangs of distress upon a pregnant woman. And they will not escape.”
There are very troubling times ahead for the Nation of Israel and for that matter the rest of the world.
gravenimage says
+1
somehistory says
The bad guys always get a lot…in any “deal.” And the nation of Israel gets threats, intimidation, demands, loss of legal standing to follow their own governmental decisions that are meant for the good of the people who live and work there, raise their families and expect some consideration and respect.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “Whenever it is that they are saying “peace and security” sudden destruction will be instantly upon them as pangs of distress upon a pregnant woman. And they will not escape.”
In recent months, the government of saudia arabia seemed to want to be “friends” with Israel…due to a “common enemy.” In the minds of moslims running the governments of so many nations, there is a “common enemy” in the ME and that is Israel.No “deal,” no piece of paper, no “agreement” is ever going to change that. moslims are not to be trusted.
As the song asks, “When will they ever learn?”
And the U.S. is constantly selling weapons directly to moslims….who all would like to see a moslim takeover of the U.S.
Willie Nelson sang it, “Turn out the lights; the party’s over.’
curious george says
somehistory
+1
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:12
somehistory says
+10
abad says
+2
The Political Oracle says
Let Saudi Arabia provide for the wellbeing of the Palestinian muslims. Saudi Arabia should open up part of its country to Palestinians and let Riyadh be their new capital. Saudi Arabia will play only an antagonistic role in any peace deal that is far away by now. Saudi Arabia must not be talking to the UAE because the UAE believes that Palestine should be accountable for its own destiny. That destiny is the PA working directly with Israel on a peace plan and state actors like Saudi Arabia not interfering with and meddling in those foreign affairs.
abad says
Bingo. Moslems in israel can and should move to Saudi Arabia. They can walk over there.
abad says
*Israel
clive delmonte says
Nobody wants a “friend” who is as reluctant as Saudi Arabia. There seems little point in listening to a rehearsal of their impossible demands. We must, perforce, leave the Saudis alone with their Iranian fellow Muslims and wait to see how their relationship develops. Israel and the US will eventually be able to talk to the survivor of that encounter.
Faqi Hussain says
Israel should stand firm and not give up any more territory or go back to old boundaries. Jeruslalam should be the capital of the state of Israel – end of story. Stand firm.
warren raymond says
“….the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital…?
Will never happen. It’s like demanding Mecca must become Christian or Jewish. It’s just absurd.
gravenimage says
Much worse, in fact, Warren–Jews and Christians would not violently turn on the Saudis–but the “Palestinian” Muslims have been doing just that with Israeli Jews and Christians.
Expat88 says
Prince Turki doesn’t speak for the Saudis right now because even though he is important, he doesn’t have an active role in those decisions. It is not suprising that he has such opinions, as no one was more antisemitic than his father, King Faisal. The Emiratis don’t always listen to their Saudi neighbors because they don’t like being bullied, (which has happened in the past). Bahrain, Oman, and Sudan could follow the UAE and still go for diplomatic relations, so this development might not even matter.
Giacomo Latta says
‘ And in order to create that state, Israel must withdraw to the “1967 lines”
As if demands on Israel would end there.
gravenimage says
So true–it’s not as if Muslims were peaceful towards Israel pre-1967, either. The goal has always been to destroy Israel.
OLD GUY says
Said it before Saudi Arabia is no friend of the US. While it is beneficial to Saudi Arabia to respond in away to gain advantages they will say what it takes with no intentions of following through. Can’t trust them. I hope the men and women of our military don’t have to pay the price with their lives for the profit of the aircraft companies.
Vipeka says
Children of Jacob don’t trust them. Don’t ever give back your biblical land.
John Z says
the USA should now realize that Saudi Arabia should not be able to purchase weapons from the USA We should remove all our troops from their and let them stand on their own against all the evil around them