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Last month, Palestinians were left wondering, as a Saudi newspaper took Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s side in a dispute with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

By Ben Lynfield, JPOST

An unprecedented call by a Saudi lobbyist in Washington for a “collaborative alliance” between Israel and Saudi Arabia has prompted an angry response from fellow Saudis.

Writing last week in the Washington, DC publication The Hill, Salman al-Ansari, founder and president of the Saudi America Public Relations Affairs Committee, invoked history, economics and strategic reasons in support of why the two countries should forge a strong alliance.

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The “prevailing political discourse might indicate that it is not only in the interest of both countries to form a collaborative alliance, but in the interest of the greater Middle East and their global allies as well,” he wrote.

Angry tweets soon followed, and Saudi writer Badr al-Rashed wrote a point-by-point rebuttal of Ansari in an article, titled “The deceptions of normalization with Israel,” for the London- based website al-Araby al-Jadeed.

The opposition to Ansari appears to show that while figures in the Saudi elite may be shifting away from the traditional view of Israel as an enemy, popular sentiment against normalization remains strong.

Rashed wrote that Ansari is even worse than other advocates of normalization, in that he “completely ignores the Israeli occupation, in addition to not mentioning the crimes of killing and siege that the Israelis commit against the Palestinians every day.”

Ansari’s article was published three months after a Saudi delegation of academics and businessmen, led by retired Saudi general Anwar Eshki, garnered criticism from the Arab world for openly visiting Israel and meeting with officials and MKs. There was speculation that the trip reflected a quiet development of discrete ties between the countries, based largely on their common enemy, Iran.

Last month, Palestinians were left wondering, as a Saudi newspaper took Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s side in a dispute with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Saudi Gazette criticized Abbas for not accepting an invitation from Netanyahu to address the Knesset.

While Eshki was careful during his visit to call on Israel to end its rule of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by adopting the Saudi peace initiative, Ansari made no mention of the Palestinians or the initiative at all. He wrote that it is not just shared enmity towards Iran that should bring Israel and Saudi Arabia together, but also “a mutually beneficial economic partnership.”

“To illustrate this, history tells us that Arabs and Jews were some of the strongest partners in trade, culture and mutual security, living in relatively peaceful coexistence for centuries, whether they were in the Middle East, North Africa or even Spain,” he wrote.

“When talking about fairly recent history, it is common knowledge that Saudi Arabia and Israel have committed to rational and balanced foreign policies over the past 70 years, never seeking any provocative or hostile actions against each other. It’s also important to note that there are hundreds of Jews hailing from many corners …read more

Source:: Israpundit

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