I liked this question, because a lot of people don’t realize the exact nature of the relationship between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Q: What are the general dynamics of the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia?
My response:
Let’s put it this way: no Arab country can be seen to be truly friendly with Israel or they’d lose face. But Saudi Arabia is, at this point, a natural ally for Israel because of the shared fear of a nuclear Iran and a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. There are back channel discussions about how to deal with the threat, but it must be kept hushed up.
The same could be said of countries like Egypt and Jordan, with whom Israel has peace treaties. The Egyptian and Jordanian peoples do not like the Jews, to put it mildly. Still, relations on a diplomatic level are good for what they are.
Israel understands that it has to be this way for now and is happy for the cooperation, such as it is. None of us want the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, Hezbollah or the Iranians to threaten the region.
It would be nice to think that someday there could be a true peace. It seems, however, very far away, with the entrenched Muslim attitude of strong repugnance for the Jews such as it is today. It’s sad for us in Israel. But we take what we can get.
