According to a report by the Hebrew news agency Tasnim, Zvika Klein asserted in an article published in the Jerusalem Post and Maariv that Saudi Arabia successfully obtained F-35 fighter jets and a nuclear program from the United States without paying any costs or making concessions to Israel. The question arises: why hasn\u2019t bin Salman been urged to hasten the normalization process with Tel Aviv?<\/p>\n
This article suggests that we allowed ourselves to believe this truth. After all the warnings, the shelters, and the deep sorrow, we convinced ourselves that something greater than the ruins was being constructed. As the last Israeli captives returned home, a ceasefire was established, and the intensity of the conflict diminished to the point where only the echoes of the October 7 defeat (Operation Storm of Al-Aqsa) could be heard, a quiet consensus emerged among Israelis across various political spectrums: an agreement with Saudi Arabia is the next step. This is inevitable. It is the reward at the end of the longest and darkest tunnel Israel has traversed.However, how wrong we were! The normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, that monumental diplomatic achievement which dangled before us like a carrot for nearly a decade, has not only been delayed but is now shrouded in ambiguity and doubt.<\/p>\n
The window for this event has closed for at least a generation. Today, analysts no longer discuss when this agreement will occur, but rather whether it will happen at all.<\/p>\n
What led to this situation? To understand this, we must discard the simplistic narrative that claims Saudi considerations stem solely from Gaza, or that bin Salman needs political cover, or that American pressure has been insufficient. These explanations are somewhat accurate, yet they fail to satisfy.<\/p>\n
The deeper and more structural truth is concerning for those who convinced themselves in the years following October 7 that Israel’s military transformation in the Middle East would ultimately be rewarded with what it has always sought: acceptance. The structure of the ‘grand deal’ has always relied on simple business logic: Saudi Arabia would sever its ties with Israel, and in return, Washington would offer a mutual defense pact, advanced weapon systems, and civilian nuclear cooperation. Israel was the key that opened Washington’s treasury to Riyadh. This framework is now obsolete, as Saudi Arabia has reaped most of the benefits without incurring costs.In late 2025 during bin Salman’s visit to Washington the Trump administration completed a comprehensive bilateral renewal of the Kingdom entirely separate from the normalization of relations with Israel. The White House fact sheet confirmed Saudi Arabia’s classification as a major non-NATO ally approved the sale of stealth F-35 aircraft and issued what was termed a ‘joint statement on the completion of negotiations for cooperation in civilian nuclear energy’\u2014the very civilian nuclear program that was supposed to serve as leverage over Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Hebrew media outlet claims that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman acquired fighter jets from the United States without making concessions to Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":617,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/617"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ghodsnama.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}