WhatsappThe Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is set to meet with President Trump tomorrow, and it is expected that the Saudis will request the ability to buy F-35s from the United States. There is just one issue: selling F-35s to the Saudis can potentially give not only the Saudis but possibly the Chinese access to weapons and technology that would put Israel into a weakened position vis-à-vis its adversaries.
For his part, President Trump would like the Saudis to agree to join the Abraham Accords and finally normalize their relationship with Israel. The Saudis have been reluctant to do so without a guarantee that a “palestinian” state will be formed sometime in the future. This is exactly why clause 19 exists in Trump’s 21-point “peace” plan. The theory goes that no one believes that the “palestinians” will ever be able to live up to clause 19, but Trump wanted it in there to lure the Saudis into the Abraham Accords.
While this strategy has some logic to it, the Saudis want more. They want Trump to openly push for a “palestinian” State. Israel is, of course, opposed to this.
One way Trump hopes to get MBS to sign onto the Abraham Accords is to use the F-35 sale to make up for the lack of a “palestinian” state. That being said, neither MBS nor Netanyahu wants normalization as much as Trump does. If the F-35 is enough for Saudi Arabia, Israel may go for it, but the Saudi street is far too radical to allow MBS to commit what they see as heresy for some state-of-the-art fighter jets.
Like all other US presidents before him who tried to bring in a new Middle East, President Trump will fall short of the utopian dream he believes is his duty to achieve.
