MembersIsrael and Saudi Arabia: A Fresh Start?

This is intended to come about within the framework of [US President Donald] Trump’s ‘deal of the century.’” That according to the London-based Arabic news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, which covered the Saudi heir’s visit at the beginning of March. At the same time, according to i24NEWS, two Arab countries advised Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to either accept Trump’s plan, or to resign. Even the leaders of Hamas, who were recently in Cairo, had it made plain to them by Egyptian President Fatah al-Sissi’s advisers that they, too, should accede to the American scheme.

For a successful ‘deal of the century,’ the name Trump himself bestowed upon the plan, the Americans have promised Saudi Arabia huge investments. That makes the young heir to the throne a leading mediator in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. In various circles in Jerusalem, people are now assuming that the price for Trump’s public recognition of the city as Israel’s capital is the Jewish state’s commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state.