Israel rules out any concessions to Palestinians to secure Saudi normalization amid fierce criticism from leftists

Press TV  reports that Israel has ruled out of any concessions to Palestinians to secure normalization with Saudi Arabia:

Members of the far-right Israeli regime led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say they will not make any concession to the Palestinians as part of a potential deal for normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia.

“I can say that Israel will not give in to anything that will erode its security,” Tzachi Hanegbi, an adviser to Netanyahu, told public broadcaster Kan on Monday.

The adviser said Israel had not been involved in the US-Saudi negotiations in recent weeks. “I can identify with what the United States president said in an interview a few days ago, where he said that the road is still long but that he thinks there will be a possibility of progress.”

Also on Monday, a member of a key party in Netanyahu’s coalition rejected such concessions. Minister Orit Strock said, “We certainly won’t agree to such a thing.”

To understand what is stalling the process of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel, a goal that the Biden administration has set as top priority to broker before the year ends, one needs to understand that Saudi Arabia is hinging its normalization with the Jewish state upon the establishment of a Palestinian state. This demands a resumption of the so-called peace process — which is based on a delusion. Every governing Palestinian charter is rooted in the “resistance,” that is, the obliteration of Israel. The Palestinian National Charter states: “The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time” (article 19), and that “Israel is a constant source of threat vis-a-vis peace in the Middle East and the whole world” (article 22). The Palestinian goal is really a one-state solution, involving the complete destruction of the Jewish state. Whenever Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or any other regional Islamic group attacks Israeli citizens, Israel is left with no choice but to defend its rights and existence with retaliatory defensive strikes.

No matter what, Saudi Arabia has stood firmly in defense of the Palestinians and made a Palestinian state a condition of normalization. The Biden administration has stood with the Palestinians as well. It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia has repeatedly demonstrated and enunciated its stance with respect to advancing Palestinian interests with no concern about any threat to Israel, calling for a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders (aka the “Auschwitz borders”). It is also noteworthy that Saudi Arabia already recognizes a State of Palestine as one of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member states, which is why the OIC says it has 57 member states when it really has 56. Another possibility: World Israel News reported that “Saudi Arabia may be willing to normalize relations with Israel if the issue of applying sovereignty over most of Judea and Samaria is pushed off for four years.” The Jerusalem Post also reported that “as the US intensifies its efforts to bring about peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, pressure on Jerusalem to make concessions to the Palestinians has also grown in recent days.”

One report from the Times of Israel — which referenced New York Times writer Thomas Freidman’s disparaging descriptions of the Netanyahu government as “Jewish supremacists and religious extremists” — stated in defense of Biden that “what the US really wants is a complete severance of the growing ties between Saudi Arabia and China, and between the Saudis and the Iranians.” China, meanwhile, mocked Biden’s “embarrassing Saudi trip” last year, saying that it proves American influence in the Middle East is “declining.” Yet the Biden administration is still making attempts to negotiate a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia which would be catastrophic for Israel. In June, Biden went on a tirade over the Netanyahu government, calling it “‘one of the most extreme’ Israeli governments he’s ever seen” as Biden’s frustration grew over his urgency to see Israel normalize relations with the Saudis.

The Biden administration and the Left distinctly favor the Palestinians, and thus aid the Palestinian “resistance” (jihad) against Israel. America and the global Left have also consistently underestimated the nature of Islam and its expansionist goals. This puts America at a disadvantage in negotiations with Islamic countries. One must remember that the entire Middle East, except Israel, was captured by means of jihad. Saudi Arabia remains loyal its Sunni Wahhabi roots, and to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation with respect to the Palestinians, which includes advancing the idea that the Al Aqsa compound, as Muslims refer to it, is exclusively for Muslims. In fact, Saudi Arabia finds it a “provocation to all Muslims around the world” when Jews visit the Temple Mount.

From Israel’s point of view, Asia Times reported that “the most significant existential threat remains Iran,” which the Biden administration continues to court. The administration is much more concerned about China. One of Israel’s veteran China experts, Professor Yitzhak Shichor, recently wrote, “Washington seems so obsessed with China that it seems a psychological, perhaps psychiatric, disorder.” China, on the other hand, is unconcerned with Biden as it advances its own Communist goal of global domination. The Saudis aren’t concerned, either. When asked in June during an Arab-China business conference about his reaction to the criticism and concerns of the United States (and West) about the bilateral relationship between the Saudis and China, Saudi’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman stated: “I actually ignore it because … as a business person … now you will go where opportunity comes your way.”

The Left will continue its attack on the Netanyahu government, trashing it as “far right” and “extremist.” But Netanyahu’s defense of his country’s existence and the security of its citizens has been unwavering. Netanyahu recently remarked:

In the diplomatic sphere, we were told for a quarter of a century that ‘There will be no peace with the Arab states if you do not first make an agreement with the Palestinians.’ But it is impossible to make an agreement with the Palestinians if they want us to disappear in this agreement.

Whatever the goals of China and Saudi Arabia may be, Israel also has its own goal: survival. The Netanyahu government will continue to defend Israel despite any criticism, most recently, over its ruling out of any concession to secure normalization with Saudi Arabia.