Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s (MBS) talk of normalisation still occupies a significant amount of space in Saudi-Saudi politics, even though almost four months have passed since the ongoing war on Gaza began on October 7 and continues to this day.
In recent days, MBS has been reaching out to Israel, offering a two-state solution in exchange for normalisation with the occupation, in total disregard for the ongoing war, bloodshed, and massacres.
The media men of MBS, who were pushing for the end of all financial, medical, and psychological support campaigns for Palestine, now say they are acting in the interest of Palestinian protection.
They even expressed readiness for normalisation “as long as Israel takes proactive measures to establish the parameters of a viable “two-state solution” and sketch out a future for an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
Turki Al-Faisal, in an interview with the state-run Al-Ikhbariya channel on December 31, 2023, said, “Riyadh’s position emphasizes that the solution must begin with the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem and enjoying all the characteristics of a state.”
On January 9, 2024, Prince Khalid bin Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the UK, told the BBC in a radio interview that Riyadh is still open to establishing ties with the Jewish state as long as it is part of an overall two-state solution.
For his part, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said the kingdom could recognise Israel if a comprehensive agreement were reached that included statehood for the Palestinians, ambitious talk as the war between Israel and Hamas shows no sign of easing.
“We agree that regional peace includes peace for Israel, but that could only happen through peace for the Palestinians through a Palestinian state,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan told a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
During the same forum, Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States, said: “The Kingdom did not put normalization at the heart of its policy. But it puts peace and prosperity at the heart of its policy.”
Israel slaps MBS
The Israeli occupation rejected all of the Saudi demands for normalization, including the two-state solution, in spite of all of the Saudi concessions made at the expense of its religious status. Saudi Arabia’s purported mediations to end the Gaza War were also rejected.
During a press conference in the US, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the prospect of Palestinian statehood after the war in Gaza, and vowed to resist the United States on the matter.
Netanyahu said that Israel “must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River.” The decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he claimed, are “not about the absence of a state, a Palestinian state, but rather about the existence of a state, a Jewish state.
Political analysts claim that the Saudi government, acting on orders from MBS, complied with Israel’s demands to crush Palestinian resistance, demolish Palestinian people’s homes, and drive them into starvation, poverty, and homelessness in exchange for nothing. Additionally, it is pursuing normalisation on the orders of America and Britain without achieving any gains.
