Zionist media is reporting that Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has mourned the late Saudi monarch, King Abdallah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud who passed away aged 90 early on Friday morning, praising his regional policies.
This despite the fact that Israel and Saudi Arabia do not have diplomatic relations.
The king “was an example of grounded, considered and responsible leadership, with a deep religious tradition,” Rivlin said in a statement.
Former president Shimon Peres also hailed the late king, lamenting his passing as “a real loss for the peace of the Middle East”.
“He was an experienced leader and a wise king. He had the courage … to stand up and introduce a peace program for the Middle East,” said Peres, in reference to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
“I’m not sure that we could have accepted all the items in the peace process but the spirit, the strength and the wisdom invested in it” led to a process that serves still as “a powerful base for making peace,” the former Israeli president told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The peace initiative put forward by Abdallah offered Israel blanket recognition from 22 Arab states in return for an independent state for the Palestinians.
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Saudi Arabia and Israel
Saudi Arabia’s Palestine policy has been described as half-hearted at best and complicit in Israel’s crimes at worst.
With its huge resources, Saudi Arabia bills itself as one of the largest providers of aid to the Palestinian people. Since 2002, it has given more than $480 million in monetary support to the Palestinian Authority, and has supported Palestinian refugees by contributing to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
As for Tel Aviv, Israel and Saudi Arabia do not have diplomatic relations. However, both countries are allies of the United States and oppose the expansion of regional influence by Iran.
News reports have surfaced indicating behind-the-scenes diplomatic and intelligence cooperation between the countries.
A charter member of the Arab League, Saudi Arabia has supported Palestinian rights to sovereignty, and called for withdrawal from the West Bank and other territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
But in recent years, Saudi Arabia has changed its viewpoint concerning the validity of negotiating with Israel. It calls for Israel’s withdrawal from territory occupied in June 1967 in order for peace with the Arab states; then-Crown Prince Abdullah extended a multilateral peace proposal based on withdrawal in 2002.
During the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, it was claimed that Saudi Arabia was supportive of Israel’s actions in the conflict, and that officials from Mossad and the Saudi intelligence agencies met regularly.
As for Israel, after the Arab revolutions, Israel views the Saudi government as “guarantor of stability”.
