Saudi officials have announced that they are setting two conditions for normalization with Israel: replacing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and taking diplomatic steps that include a halt to Jewish construction promoted by Minister Bezalel Smotrich, according to a report published Monday morning in Israel Hayom.
According to the report, in recent weeks the Saudi government conveyed messages to senior officials in Washington indicating that it is willing to resume discussions on joining the Abraham Accords. The government in Riyadh is placing a series of conditions that are impossible for the current government to accept: replacing Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel’s prime minister after the elections, while simultaneously canceling the measures implemented by Minister Smotrich in Judea and Samaria over the past three years.
The report also noted that, according to American officials’ assessment, the Saudis are linking the two conditions, because they believe that as long as Netanyahu remains in power, he will continue to support the policy promoted by Smotrich in Judea and Samaria. Furthermore, throughout the war, several times Saudi Arabia considered officially recognizing Israel in exchange for significant Israeli concessions in Judea and Samaria. In particular, the Saudis expected Netanyahu to clearly declare his principled willingness to establish a Palestinian state in the future.
Smotrich himself responded to the report, saying: “I warn: I know for certain about international moves being advanced with figures on the Israeli left, including [former IDF Chief of Staff] Gadi Eisenkot and Yair Golan, that would reverse all the important steps we have taken in Judea and Samaria during this term and return us to the Oslo path and the cursed Arab terror state. If, God forbid, they come to power, a Palestinian state will be established that will endanger Israel’s security. It is either the right or Palestine."