The US is also struggling to find that same balance, just as the Republican-controlled Senate delivered a setback to the president, voting to end funding for the four-year old Saudi-led fight against Yemen, to protest the Khashoggi killing.
The Senate vote comes at an inopportune time for the president. He would like to release his plan for Arab-Israeli peace within the next two months, and he needs Saudi Arabia to sell it to the Arab world.
The Trump administration, and to some extent the Netanyahu government, have put all of their eggs in the Saudi basket.
Jared Kushner, a senior advisor to President Trump and a main architect of the peace plan, has staked his reputation on the chemistry he has built with MBS. They reportedly see themselves as two young men with out-of-the-box ideas.
And Netanyahu is riding the wave, utilizing the contacts he and Trump have made, to open new doors to the Muslim world in Asia and Africa.
Making this new geopolitical alignment work calls for a leap of faith about Saudi Arabia — a country that has never given any reason to believe that it is ready to advance from a tribal theocracy that finances terror to a global leader that accepts the Jewish state.
It could happen, but it’s a big gamble and it’s a bet that must be hedged.
Last week, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff, told a conference at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies that Israel should tread carefully on the shifting sands.
“Yes, we can find common interests with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, but we should always remember that we rely on a completely different set of values,” Golan said. “We should not overemphasize this relationship.”
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 740)