As the United States works to foster ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, we can finally publicly speak about the senior Israeli security and political officials who have visited the Gulf country over the years.
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Such visits have been taking place for over a decade. All were conducted in secret, except for then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to the city of Neom to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also joined the trip. Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia in a private jet, as did most Israeli officials who traveled to the kingdom.
On the Israeli side, the person who organized the meeting and accompanied Netanyahu was then-Director of Mossad Yossi Cohen. He is not the only Mossad chief to visit Saudi Arabia, as Meir Dagan and Tamir Pardo had done so in the past, as did other lower-ranking Mossad officials.
The same is true of the Israel Defense Forces. Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited the Gulf country when he was IDF chief of staff. Meetings with defense officials of various rankings with Saudis were also held in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
Several National Security Council directors also visited Riyadh, including Cohen, who headed the organization between 2013 and 2016, and Meir Ben-Shabbat. National Security Council officials met with Saudi representatives in other countries as well, mainly in the Gulf and Europe.
The purpose of the meetings was to strengthen the security coordination between the two countries that face common threats, especially from Iran. Saudi Arabia is frequently attacked by Iranian proxies – the Houthis in Yemen – with missiles, and most recently, drones. The ayatollah regime is also responsible for the 2019 attack on Saudi Arabia's Aramco oil installations.
Since around 2015, Israel has helped Saudi Arabia prepare and better handle challenges posed by ISIS, which threatened the stability of Sunni regimes throughout the region.
Saudi Arabia was not the only country that received such assistance despite not having official diplomatic relations with Israel. Various publications have revealed that Israel had similar practices with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain prior to the signing of the Abraham Accords in August 2020, as did other countries who chose not to join the normalization agreement.
Such efforts to aid Saudi Arabia partly rely on Israel's technological advantage. According to various reports, Cohen reportedly opened the door to NSO Group, which sold its Pegasus surveillance technology to Riyadh. Subsequently, the kingdom also purchased cyber technology from other Israeli companies, directly and indirectly.
The NSO made headlines in 2018 after the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed at Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Media reports linked the event to the use of Pegasus, allegations the NSO has consistently denied.
Israel has also been accused of encouraging the sale of such technology to non-democratic regimes that use it to track political opponents, human rights activists, and journalists. Following another round of publications implicating the NSO, Israel limited the conditions for the sale of such cyber tech, including to Saudi Arabia. The NSO had limited its sales to the Gulf country even earlier.
Khashoggi's assassination continues to be a source of tension between Washington and Riyadh to this day. Bin Salman has been effectively boycotted by the US, although it seems a shift in the ties between the two countries is underway, possibly because President Joe Biden seeks to strengthen the regional alliance against Iran, after talks over the renewal of the 2015 nuclear deal stalled.
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Biden is even scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia in June, after his trip to Israel. Journalist Barak Ravid has recently reported on the multiple trips that took place between Israel and Saudi Arabia in an attempt to lead to a breakthrough in the ties between the two countries. To achieve this, Washington will need to soften its stance on Bin Salman, a crucial figure when it comes to a potential normalization deal.
Bin Salman, who sees Israel as a stabilizing regional power, has been supporting these ties in recent years. It was even reported that he was prevented from joining the Abraham Accords by his more conservative father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
Israel would benefit tremendously from a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. The main reason for this has to do with security – strengthening the axis that opposes Iran and its proxies and other radicals in the Middle East, as well as creating more leverage against the Palestinians. There is also an economic aspect – the desire to promote deals between wealthy Saudi and Israeli businesses.
Many direct and indirect meetings have taken place between Israeli and Saudi businessmen and entrepreneurs. Saudi Arabia is showing great interest in acquiring Israeli technology, especially in security and agriculture. Some negotiations are even expected to turn into deals, and perhaps some have already, and Israel hopes the matter will accelerate if the US succeeds in bringing about a significant shift in the two countries' ties.
