Getting the Saudi-Israel Formula Wrong

If one is mixing chemicals, getting the formula wrong can produce disastrous results.

It is the same with international diplomacy. For decades the left was wrong about the Soviet Union and China, believing that what the U.S. did or did not do would have a positive influence on communist dictators who jailed and executed opponents of their regime, and still do. Though the Soviet Union is no more, Russia’s Vladimir Putin behaves like his predecessors, Mikhail Gorbachev being a possibly milder version.

The Biden administration is once again employing the wrong formula in the Middle East. On a recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel would have to make considerable concessions to the Palestinians if a deal brokered by the U.S. with Riyadh were to succeed. Many observers believe that had Donald Trump been re-elected that deal with the Saudis would have been made because Riyadh wants to shore up its defenses against what it considers a threat from Iran. The Abraham Accords seemed a major motivator for Saudi Arabia to join other countries making peace with Israel.

Now that Secretary Blinken has reverted to an old and failed formula, promoted by President Barack Obama and

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