JNS
Foreign-policy expert: ‘Israel and Saudi have already normalized’
September 22, 2023

Having watched Mohammed bin Salman’s recent interview when the Saudi Crown Prince told FOX News that peace with Israel is “getting closer every day,” coupled with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Friday-morning address to the U.N. General Assembly, Jonathan Schanzer decided to “go out on a limb.” “Israel and Saudi have already normalized. When the formal agreement comes is anyone’s guess,” wrote Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “It will be a thrill to see. But that signing ceremony matters less when ties are already deep and maturing,” he wrote. Netanyahu’s talk at the United Nations was reportedly carried live on Saudi television—the first time that has occurred with an address by an Israeli prime minister. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Saudis putting aside Arab Peace Initiative amid Israel normalization talks Saudi Arabia is quietly setting aside the Arab Peace Initiative that it sponsored more than 20 years ago, and is readying for the possibility of normalizing relations with Israel without first securing the establishment of a Palestinian state, three officials familiar with the matter have told The Times of Israel.