WASHINGTON: The Palestinian attack on the Zionist entity has dealt a se severe blow to momentum to secure a landmark US-brokered deal between Zionists and Saudi Arabia, analysts say. On Saturday, Palestinian fighters in the besieged Gaza strip fired thousands of rockets as scores infiltrated occupied lands, leaving Zionists in total shock. As rocket fire continued, Hamas announced its operation, calling on all Palestinian factions and their allies to rise up. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Zionist entity was at war.
Just weeks earlier he had brushed aside the Palestinian issue during a speech at the United Nations and said normalization in 2020 with three other Arab nations in the so-called Abraham Accords had "heralded a new age of peace.” Netanyahu also said Zionists were on the cusp of a bigger prize — recognition by Saudi Arabia, guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites. President Joe Biden, eager before next year’s US election for a major diplomatic win, has pushed for a deal, and more talks were expected in coming weeks — despite skepticism from some of Biden’s fellow Democrats about the proposed security guarantees to the conservative kingdom, whose rights record has long been under scrutiny.
"It was always a tough hill to climb, and that hill just got a lot steeper,” said Brian Katulis, vice president of policy at the Middle East Institute in Washington. The Palestinian attack on Saturday "makes it harder to sweep those complicated issues under the rug the way the 2020 Abraham Accords did,” he said. Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has spoken recently of progress with the Zionist entity but also insisted on movement on the Palestinian cause, seen as a priority for King Salman.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry returned to familiar language Saturday, saying in a statement that the kingdom had been warning of an "explosive situation as a result of the continued occupation and deprivation of the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights.” Aziz Alghashian, a Saudi expert on Saudi-Zionist relations, said the statement was intended to dispel any notion that the kingdom would prioritize normalization at the expense of supporting the Palestinians. "This kind of situation has made Saudi Arabia go back to its traditional role,” he said.
"Netanyahu put another obstacle to these normalization talks because he said this is now a war. I don’t anticipate normalization is going to take place against the backdrop of war,” Alghashian said. A US official said it was "premature” to discuss the violence’s effect on normalization, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the conflict with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, by telephone. A Saudi readout of the call said Prince Faisal stressed "the kingdom’s rejection of targeting civilians in any way and the need for all parties to respect international humanitarian law.”
Public opposition
Netanyahu has cast diplomacy with the Palestinians as antiquated and described a future of friendship with Gulf Arabs, who share the Zionists’ hostility toward Iran’s clerical rulers. Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in the occupation’s history, has continued to pursue settlements, although the prime minister backtracked in 2020 on annexation in the West Bank as he sought to woo the United Arab Emirates, the lead country in the Abraham Accords.
Joost Hiltermann, Middle East director of the International Crisis Group, which looks to resolve conflicts, said Hamas may have acted in part due to fear of a "looming further marginalization of the Palestinian cause in Palestinian eyes” if Saudi Arabia recognizes the Zionists. With the Zionist authorities expected to respond forcefully to Saturday’s attacks, Arab states will likely feel obliged to take a harder stance in line with public sentiment, he said.
"If that all happens, then I would foresee a scenario where, just like we have a cold peace between (Zionists) and Jordan, between (Zionists) and Egypt, we end up with a cooling of the relationship between (Zionists) and the Emirates and probably a delay, at least, of any sort of deal between (Zionists) and Saudi Arabia,” he said. A survey shows just two percent of Saudis backed normalizing ties with Zionists, said Steven Cook, a senior fellow on the Council on Foreign Relations. – AFP