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By: World Israel News Staff
The likelihood of a historic normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel is steadily increasing, and the Jewish State is engaging in extended negotiations with the Palestinians regarding their demands for the agreement, according to a senior government official.
National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi said at a conference on Monday morning that Israel is reaching out to the Palestinians via Jordanian intermediaries and that the discussions mark the “first dialogue of its kind in about a decade where representatives of the parties talk very openly about what they want.”
“This time [the PA] will not let these agreements slip from under their hands,” Hanegbi said at the anti-terror conference, held at Reichman University in Herzliya.
“We are in favor of a ‘significant Palestinian component’, provided that there is no harm to Israel’s security,” he added.
Hanegbi did not elaborate as to what that entails, such as significant land concessions or the creation of an independent Palestinian state – demands which have been previously floated by the Saudis as preconditions for normalization with Israel.
The lawmaker said that the chances of the agreement coming to a fruition had improved in recent weeks.
“The Americans first defined reaching an agreement as a longshot, a few weeks ago they defined its chances as 50:50,” Hanegbi said.
“In the last weeks and days, we think that the American definition is that these are significant chances.”
Referencing threats from the PA to file formal complaints over alleged human rights violations by military personnel at the International Criminal Court, Hanegbi warned that such a move would result in Israel taking punitive measures against the body.
“The day a decision is made in a legal forum against a fighter, commander or officer of ours – we will sever political and security ties with the Palestinian Authority immediately,” he said.
“We will not ask the IDF soldiers to protect them from Islamic Jihad or Hamas,” he continued.
“PA officials also live in Judea and Samaria, and IDF soldiers also maintain the existence of the Palestinian Authority. If we don’t do it – their fate will be like in Gaza where they were thrown from the roofs. You have been warned.
Last week, WIN reported that the Palestinian Authority (PA) presented a list of demands for Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States to fulfill for it to accede to a deal that would see Riyadh establish diplomatic relations with Jerusalem while receiving a NATO-like defense pact from Washington and a civilian nuclear program.
In a meeting with Saudi National Security Adviser Musaed al-Aiban, top PA officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas’ handpicked heir-apparent, Hussein al-Sheikh, discussed their desires, which hewed closely to those leaked over a week ago from a meeting they held with US Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf in Amman.
According to a BBC report citing a “senior Palestinian official familiar with the discussions,” these included concessions from all three countries:
Ramallah is also demanding the U.S. force Israel back to the negotiating table, starting off from the point talks broke down in 2014 in Annapolis, Maryland, when, for example, Israel was reportedly willing to give up sovereignty in the Jordan Valley as long as the IDF could have a presence there for an unidentified period of time in order to ensure Israel’s security.
