Why Saudi Arabia Should Make Peace with Israel Now

I spent the weekend reading Ben Hubbard’s book “MBS,” about Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. Hubbard, the New York Times Beirut bureau chief, paints both a flattering and damning portrait of the crown prince. Flattering because it’s clear that MBS is a visionary who had the courage to take on the kingdom’s Wahhabi religious fanatics, who effectively controlled the kingdom since 1979. The liberal reforms the prince has made are extraordinary — allowing women to drive, opening movie theaters, permitting concert venues to show operas and slowly opening to the West. Damning because Hubbard alleges that MBS has not improved, and may have worsened, Saudi Arabia’s human rights record; the murder of Jamal Khashoggi — whom Hubbard exposes as having been largely run by a Qatari operative — being the prime example.

The net portrayal of MBS in Hubbard’s book? A flawed visionary who might just succeed in dragging Saudi Arabia kicking and screaming into the modern world and saving its economy from being based on the diminishing returns of fossil fuels.

But the most interesting part of the biography as it pertains to the Middle East is the portrayal of MBS as someone with zero animus toward Israel. In fact, Hubbard confirms that MBS sees Israel as a country that is technologically, economically and militarily a great potential ally. For years, the media has been rife with reports of security cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia. There even was a speculative report that MBS visited Tel Aviv last year.

This should be welcome news to the American Jewish community, who should accept the prince’s outreach to Israel and do everything in their power to encourage the prince to make peace with Israel prior to President Trump’s exit from office. MBS may wish to wait for a new administration and use a potential peace treaty with Israel as leverage for other Saudi needs. But this would be a mistake.

Trump’s coalition consists of two key demographics that are vital to America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia: pro-Israel Jews and evangelical Christians. Both groups wield enormous political influence and, should Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel, would go to bat for Saudi Arabia politically in the United States.

The same is not true of many of Biden’s core constituents for whom Israel is — falsely, of course — a human-rights abusing occupier. And although this is not true for Biden himself — he has always been, with the exception of his lobbying for Obama’s Iran deal, a great friend of the Jewish state — it is certainly true for so many of those around him.

If MBS made peace with Israel now, instead of letting it become a negotiation that goes on for years, he would lock in support and deep gratitude from these two vocal and influential constituencies.

If MBS made peace with Israel now, he would lock in support from two vocal and influential constituencies.

And make no mistake: Saudi Arabia is the whole ball game. Not only is Saudi Arabia the richest and most influential Arab country, but it is also quite literally the epicenter of Islam and the focus of world Islamic pilgrimage. In one sweep, a Saudi peace with Israel would have Muslims around the world thinking differently about Israel, even as extremists who hate Saudi Arabia and want to see it toppled would dig in their heals, thereby exposing just how far out of the mainstream they are.

In Israel, Saudi Arabia would gain a valuable ally against their existential enemy Iran, who has its sights fully fixed on the kingdom. Saudi Arabia, in fact, faces a far greater threat from Iran than even Israel does.

To be sure, anti-Semitic and genocidal Iran, with its illegal and secret nuclear program, is a direct threat to Israel’s existence. If it could, Iran would murder every Jew on earth, especially the six million congregated in Israel, which it repeatedly threatens to do. But Iran also knows that if it ever dropped a bomb on Israel, God forbid, they would face massive retaliation that would wipe them off the earth. So any nuclear attack on Israel — which could kill millions of Jews — would also be the end of Iran.

This is not the case with Saudi Arabia. The Iranians would not drop nuclear bombs on the Saudis. They would simply invade to take control of the oil fields and rescue their cratering economy. Saudi Arabia does not have an army strong enough to repel Iran. And unlike Israel, it does not have nuclear weapons that can be employed in a retaliatory strike. The Saudis would therefore have to rely on the United States, or an American-led coalition, to evict Iran, like the one President George H.W. Bush put together to evict the Iraqis from Kuwait.

There is scant American stomach for such an action, and no doubt, MBS is well aware of that.

But in a peace treaty with Israel, MBS would cement an economic, diplomatic and military alliance with the Middle East’s strongest nation, whose air force alone could decimate much of Iran’s critical air defenses and infrastructure.

I am not suggesting that Israel fight Saudi Arabia’s battles. I am suggesting that with a peace treaty between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the Mullahs in Iran would be well aware that they are now ringed by allies acting in concert to stop their aggression and their undisguised attempt at Middle East hegemony. They will think twice before they embark on any kind of military adventurism.

Would Joe Biden come to Saudi Arabia’s rescue? Now that America is the world’s foremost producer of oil, it’s much more doubtful.

But under Trump, a Saudi Arabia that has made peace with Israel would have two boisterous political friends: evangelical Christians and the pro-Israel Jews.

It shows you how far our world has come that we’re discussing American Jews, rather than American Muslims, potentially advocating for Saudi Arabia. Just a few years ago, Saudi Arabia was the center of extremist Wahhabi ideology that exported its fanatical dogma to the rest of the world, with millions funding madrasas and indoctrinating Muslim youth. Now, MBS, who purchased Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Salvatore Mundi,” is leading a cultural revolution in Saudi Arabia that is purging it of its soul-destroying censorship and is reaching out to the West. On November 22, he played host to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And if that isn’t revolutionary, nothing is.

In November 2017, when “the last Leonardo” was being auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York City, I happened to pass the auction house when it was open to spectators. I, who loves everything Leonardo and attended the 500^th Anniversary exhibition in the Louvre in Paris last winter, could have walked in and seen it. I thought I’d go the next day, not realizing the auction was set for the next afternoon. That was it. Never got to see it.

So I, and no doubt so many other Da Vinci enthusiasts, would welcome a trip to Saudi Arabia — having newly made peace with the ancient Jewish homeland and ushered in a new era of Middle Eastern understanding — to see glorious art, beautiful Arab culture and proof of the eternal brotherhood of all of God’s children.

Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” whom The Washington Post calls “the most famous Rabbi in America,” and is the author of “The Israel Warrior,” is the international best-selling author of 33 books. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @RabbiShmuley.