On the surface, Israel and Saudi Arabia appear to be sworn enemies. They don't share borders, values, or culture, and for decades, Saudi officials have even made inflammatory claims about Jews. However, behind closed doors, the two countries have been secretly collaborating for years, driven by a shared pragmatism and the need to counter common threats.

Saudi involvement in the 1948 War of Independence

Even before Israel became a country, David Ben-Gurion was looking for potential allies, including Saudi Arabia. The Saudis were seen as pragmatists who didn't want other Arab countries to have too much power in the region, and the presence of a friendly state like Israel could potentially advance Saudi Arabia's interests. However, King Ibn Saud rebuffed every attempt to make contact and even sent troops to fight against Israel in its war of independence.

Yemeni Civil War

The first significant milestone in the secret relationship came in the early 1960s when civil war broke out in Yemen. Rebels had just overthrown the government, and the country was in chaos. Most of the countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Israel, were not fans of the rebels. Saudi Arabia quietly opened its airspace to the Israeli planes that dropped aid to the Yemeni government fighters. This was the first time that Saudi and Israeli interests aligned and it wouldn't be the last.

Khartoum Resolution, the "3 No's"

In 1967, the entire Arab League formally adopted the Khartoum Resolution, also known as the "3 No's": no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel. Behind the scenes, however, Israel was working overtime to build bridges with the Saudis. They passed on information about local attempts to overthrow the Saudi government and warned the Saudis about a plot to assassinate the Jordanian king.

Saudi pragmatism

The Saudis, known for their pragmatism, eventually realized that Israel was here to stay. In 1977, the Saudi king admitted that no one was trying to wipe Israel off the map anymore. The Israeli foreign ministry, however, remained silent, waiting for the Saudis to make the first move.

Failed Saudi proposal for peace

In 1981, the Saudi prince sent Israel a concrete proposal: if Israel withdrew from all the territories it acquired during the Six-Day War and handed over Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state, the region would be at peace. However, the Israeli prime minister rejected the offer immediately, citing concerns about Israel's security and the importance of Jerusalem.

The Gulf War anti-Sadam coalition

A decade later, the Saudis and the Israelis found themselves on the same side again, both being targeted by Saddam Hussein, who had invaded Kuwait. Saudi Arabia joined a coalition of more than 30 countries to pressure him to leave, and when Saddam shot at Israel, the Jewish state didn't retaliate, preventing the Arab states in the coalition from having to choose sides.

The Madrid Peace Conference

Later that year, the Saudis and the Israelis sat in the same room for the first time at the Madrid Peace Conference, a joint effort by the US and USSR to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. Though no peace came out of the conference, the relationship between Saudi and Israel was warming, and behind closed doors, they kept talking about joint projects that would bring in money if they could just nail down a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

2nd failed Saudi proposal for peace

In 2002, the Saudis repeated their offer from 1981: withdraw from all the territories won in 1967, give up Jerusalem, and the Arab world would make peace. Again, the Israeli government rejected the offer, citing concerns about security and the ongoing Second Intifada.

Anti-Iran coalition

It took another war to bring the Jewish state back to the negotiating table. When the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in 2006, Israel responded with a massive show of force. The war revealed that Hezbollah was stronger and more powerful than anyone had realized, putting both Saudi Arabia and Israel in the same precarious boat, directly threatened by the Islamic Republic of Iran. This shared threat finally brought the two countries together to discuss how to stop the Iranian regime.

The 2020 Abraham Accords

In 2020, the United States brokered a historic agreement between Israel and multiple Arab countries, two of which border Saudi Arabia: the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Though the Saudis weren't part of the deal, there were hints that they too might normalize relations with Israel, allowing the accords to go through and hinting that a normalization deal would come once Israel worked out its problems with the Palestinians.

Movement toward Saudi-Israeli normalization

In 2023, the Saudis openly stated that they were willing to normalize ties with Israel, indicating that the two countries were getting closer to making their relationship official. The only question was what it would take to seal the deal.

Motive behind October 7

Many analysts have suggested that Hamas's devastating attack on Israel in October 2023 was engineered to tank a potential deal between Israel and the Saudis, as the Arab world harshly criticized Israel's response to the terrorist group.

Gaza War condemnations

The war between Israel and Hamas has cost tens of thousands of lives, and the entire Arab world has harshly criticized Israel's response, with some countries condemning the "indiscriminate bombing of Palestinian innocent civilians in Gaza."

Defending Israel against Iran's attack

However, when Iran attacked Israel in April 2024, multiple Arab countries, including some with no public ties to the Jewish state, came to Israel's defense, passing on intelligence, allowing Israel to use their airspace, or even actively helping to track and intercept the Iranian missiles. This suggests that the Saudi-Israeli relationship may have deeper roots than previously known.

Is a Saudi-Israeli alliance on the horizon?

The relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel has been an open secret for years, with both countries recognizing the mutual benefits of an alliance. As the Iranian regime continues to threaten regional stability, the incentive for the two countries to make their partnership official has never been greater. The only question is when they will finally take the plunge and go public with their long-standing cooperation.

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The US administration of President Joe Biden ramped up its efforts to secure a normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, however, the number and magnitude of the challenges lying ahead do not always inspire optimism in officials closely familiar with the matter, according to a New York Times report on Saturday.

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The State Department's renewed efforts to pursue an agreement that would dramatically expand the scope of the Abraham Accords is, according to NYT, attributable to a phone conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The conversation is said to have taken place prior to Blinken's trip to Riyadh earlier this month.

The upper echelons of the Biden administration believe that normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel would represent an event of singular importance in the continued realignment of the Middle East, and could equally benefit Biden, who is seeking reelection next year.

According to the NYT, it would also make explicit that the government of one of the Arab world's most influential countries has made its support for a Palestinian independent state a lower priority.

"Biden has decided to go for it, and everyone in the administration now understands that the president wants this," Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, was quoted as saying. "When you're talking about Middle East peace, it takes three to tango."

However, the multiple roadblocks – not least the recent China-brokered reconciliation between the Saudis and the mullah regime of Iran, Israel's principle regional nemesis – en route to a deal mean that US diplomats tasked with facilitating communication and thrashing out the outlines of a rapprochement are at times less than optimistic about its likelihood, the report added.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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So what if the Israeli-Moroccan normalization agreement is not officially part of the Abraham Accords? In practice, the deal is no different. Ties between Rabat and Jerusalem were renewed within the same window of opportunity that opened up in September 2020.

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A particularly fascinating outcome of the agreement is the Muslim Moroccans' interest to learn Hebrew.

"We receive a lot of inquiries about Hebrew courses from individuals who want to learn the language, simply because Moroccans love languages and are known polyglots," said Einat Levi, a political and economic consultant at Israel's diplomatic mission in Rabat. "Business owners and service providers also express interest in learning Hebrew, because they understand that there is an economic opportunity for them" in Israel.

One can also see more signs in Hebrew across the markets and old cities of Morocco put up by local residents and shop vendors who are excited about the return of Israeli tourists.

In the Jewish quarter of the port city of Essaouira, which used to boast a thriving Jewish community, the local pharmacy now also displays a sign in Hebrew.

"The sign in Hebrew is a symbol of cultural renewal, invitation, and testimony to the close connection between culture and tourism, and more than that – it has an assertion of belonging," Levi said.

Tourism forecasts predict that hundreds of thousands of Israelis will visit Morocco each year, and expect Moroccan tourists to do the same in Israel. As such, Rabat is planning to launch Hebrew-learning courses for local tour guides as well as a new master's degree program at the International Institute of Tourism of Tangiers that would combine studies of Hebrew and Jewish heritage sites in Morocco.

Another interesting development is that Moroccan King Mohamed VI's coronation day in July was marked in Israel for the first time this year, in Yokneam, Acre, Netanya, Dimona, and elsewhere.

And although in the past, Israelis had no problem traveling to Morocco, and were even welcomed, when it came to official events – such as festivals and conferences – organizers were discouraged from inviting Israelis due to fear of criticism from the public and anti-Israel groups.

"Now the situation is different," Levi said. "There is a strong and clear official connection, and it makes it easier to conduct open and public Israeli activity in Morocco. This allows many Israelis of Moroccan descent to feel more complete."

Eyal Biram, CEO of Israel-is – an organization that connects young Israelis with millennials from around the world in order to converse with them about Israel, and to fight antisemitism – noted that "when we signed the Abraham Accords, Morocco was a little bit different than the project we conducted in the United Arab Emirates.

"The goal of the project, which we partnered in, is to bring young people from the Arab world to Israel, and it would not have been possible to do it without the Jewish angle. Morocco is an expression of the new-old Israeli story. From the aspiration of [becoming a] melting pot, we moved to the desire of many young Israelis to embrace their identities and cultures and formulate a new-old story for themselves."

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"The purpose of the US secretary of state's visit to Sudan is to encourage the transition to democratic rule and discuss relations with Israel," the report said.

It is believed that Khartoum is interested in striking a peace deal with Jerusalem in order to be removed from the list of countries that the US designates as state-sponsors of terrorism.

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