https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/03\/world\/middleeast\/saudi-arabia-mohammed-bin-salman-israel.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmiddleeast&action=click&contentCollection=middleeast®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia\u2019s powerful crown prince has said that Israelis \u201chave the right to have
\ntheir own land\u201d and that formal relations between Israel and the kingdom could be
\nmutually beneficial.
\nThe comments by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in an interview
\npublished on Monday reflected the distinctly warmer tone toward Israel adopted
\nrecently by the de facto ruler of a powerful Arab country that once opposed Israel\u2019s
\nright to exist.
\nSaudi Arabia and Israel still have no formal relations, and Saudi leaders have
\nhistorically criticized the Jewish state for its treatment of the Palestinians and for
\nlimiting access to Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
\nBut the kingdom\u2019s stance toward Israel has changed with the rise of Prince
\nMohammed, who is 32 and is seeking to overhaul Saudi Arabia\u2019s economy and its
\nplace in the world. His words on Monday were actually less harsh toward the
\nPalestinians than reports of his previous statements.
\nInstead of seeing Israel as an enemy, Prince Mohammed has come to view the
\nJewish state as an attractive regional economic and technological hub as well as a
\npotential partner in the kingdom\u2019s cold war with Iran. And part of that is recognizing
\nIsrael\u2019s right to exist, preferably in the context of a peace deal with the Palestinians.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that each people, anywhere, has a right to live in their peaceful nation,\u201d
\nPrince Mohammed told Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. \u201cI believe the Palestinians
\nand the Israelis have the right to have their own land. But we have to have a peace
\nagreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations.\u201d
\nThe establishment of formal relations, he said, would benefit both nations, and
\ntheir neighbors.
\n\u201cIsrael is a big economy compared to their size and it\u2019s a growing economy, and
\nof course there are a lot of interests we share with Israel \u2014 and if there is peace,
\nthere would be a lot of interest between Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council
\ncountries and countries like Egypt and Jordan,\u201d he said.
\nPrince Mohammed has a close relationship with the Trump administration, and
\nespecially with the president\u2019s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, whom the
\npresident has deputized to try to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
\nThe details of Mr. Kushner\u2019s peace plan have yet to be released, but it is widely
\nbelieved that they are being coordinated with Prince Mohammed to try to get buy-in
\nfrom the wider Arab world.
\nSmall signs of a thaw between Israel and the kingdom have emerged recently.
\nSaudi Arabia allowed a commercial airline flight to Israel to pass through its airspace
\nlast month, and many in the region suspect that covert contacts between the two
\ncountries have grown, although the kingdom denies this.
\nReflecting a divide in the Saudi leadership over how to approach Israel, Prince
\nMohammed\u2019s father, King Salman, emphasized Palestinian rights in a phone call
\nwith Mr. Trump, the Saudi state news service said on Tuesday.
\nThe king restated \u201cthe kingdom\u2019s steadfast position towards the Palestinian
\nissue and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to an independent state with
\nJerusalem as its capital,\u201d the king said. He made no mention of Israel.
\nIn the interview, Prince Mohammed also played down the extent of antiSemitism
\nin Saudi society, which has historically been reinforced by government
\nclerics and textbooks.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur country doesn\u2019t have a problem with Jews,\u201d Prince Mohammed said,
\nadding that the Prophet Muhammad married a Jewish woman and that many Jews
\nwork in the kingdom.
\nBut like Christians and followers of other non-Islamic faiths, they have not been
\nallowed to build houses of worship or to practice their religion openly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/03\/world\/middleeast\/saudi-arabia-mohammed-bin-salman-israel.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmiddleeast&action=click&contentCollection=middleeast®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront Saudi Arabia\u2019s powerful crown prince has said that Israelis \u201chave the right to have their own land\u201d and that formal relations between Israel and the kingdom could be mutually beneficial. The comments by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in an interview published on Monday reflected the distinctly warmer tone toward Israel adopted recently by the de facto ruler of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1561,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions\/1561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}