Israel’s decisive defeat of Hamas in Gaza will facilitate regional peace with Saudi Arabia, whereas failure to achieve such a result is thwarting a deal, according to former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
Friedman, who served under former President Donald Trump when the Abraham Accords were signed four years ago, told JNS that U.S. pressure on Israel regarding the war was making the chances of regional peace more remote.
“Being a strong regional superpower that can manage its borders is what is admired in the Arab world,” he said in an interview with JNS. “The Saudis want to see a strong Israel defeating [the two countries’] common enemies.”
The Biden administration thought, he continued, “that by limiting Israel’s ability to prosecute the war they were preserving the opportunity for peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia; just the opposite. What makes the Arab world pay attention to Israel is Israel’s strength against the enemies their countries face as well. If you reduce that strength, you reduce the prospect of normalization.”
Motivated by hatred with or without the Saudis
The former ambassador, who conceded that no one could have imagined that the war against Hamas would drag on for nearly a year, downplayed assessments that terrorists carried out the Oct. 7 massacre to thwart an emerging deal with Saudi Arabia.
“They did it because they could,” he said. “Their motivation was hatred, with or without the Saudi initiative, and they did it because Israel let its guard down.”
Friedman voiced pessimism regarding a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, despite recent remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden and top administration officials that a deal was close.
“I am not optimistic that they will ever make a deal,” he said.
A second term?
Friedman, who is based in the United States but travels to Israel several times a year for his “spiritual health,” said the Oct. 7 attacks have made him want his old job back, should Trump be re-elected in November.
“There is unfinished business, and course correction after four years of the Biden administration,” he said.
A proponent of Israeli sovereignty over the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria with local autonomy for Palestinians, Friedman said Israel needs to change the deeply entrenched international paradigm of a two-state solution, which he called “fitting a square peg in a round hole,” by first changing its own mindset.
There must be a serious national discussion and consensus on the issue in Israel, he said, noting that it has been relegated to the Israeli far right, who he said have no credibility on the issue and don’t speak for the mainstream public at large.
“There is a vacuum on this issue ... and leadership is not in place to make this happen,” he said.
