Haaretz: The godfather of Saudi-Israeli secret relations

The historical famous face in the Saudi royal family, the former ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the former head of the Saudi intelligence, prince Bandar bin Sultan, is described by the Israeli media as “the godfather of secret relations with Israel”.

In 1983, he was appointed Saudi ambassador to Washington, after studying at Johns Hopkins University, and since then he began gradually strengthening relations with Israel, according to a report by Haaretz newspaper.

Haaretz reported that initially, indirect contacts were established with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and these contacts were made primarily through leaders of Jewish organizations in the United States.

Bandar bin Sultan told his interlocutors in Israel that the reason for strengthening relations was due to his desire to understand how these organizations operate and their influence on the branches of the US government.

Haaretz indicated that Bandar sought to establish a Saudi influence network, and thanks to his abilities, he was able to build close personal relationships with many US presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan, and especially with George H.W Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Haaretz confirmed that the lobby he founded in Washington helped stop the Israeli state’s opposition to many Saudi arms deals with Washington.

Saudi Arabia tried to resolve the Palestinian issue before introducing the Arab Peace Initiative in 2002.

In 1981, the then Crown Prince, Prince Fahd, announced a peace plan.

That plan included eight points, including complete withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967, and recognition of the right of Palestinian refugees to return or receive compensation for the loss of their lands.

Also, it included the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem, ensuring freedom of worship for all, and dismantling all Israeli settlements.

This plan was the basis for improving relations with Israel, and Prince Bandar, who was appointed Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States two years after the plan was announced, played the main role in strengthening these relations.

Meetings between Prince Bandar and Israeli officials began in the early 1990s, and his first meeting was with the head of the Mossad at the time, Shabtai Shavit, in Washington after the Gulf War and the election of Yitzhak Rabin as prime minister.

Over the course of 30 years, Saudi officials have met with Mossad chiefs and Israeli prime ministers, including Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu, in places as diverse as Europe, Jordan, Egypt, and even within Saudi Arabia in recent years.

In 2005, Bandar was appointed head of the Saudi National Security Council, then assumed the position of head of the Saudi intelligence service in 2012, holding the two positions alternately until 2015.

During that period, Bandar participated in secret and public diplomatic operations related to many issues in the Middle East, such as Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Russian intervention in them, in addition to the Palestinian issue and Israel.

Bandar held additional discussions with the then head of the Mossad, Meir Dagan, and met with Ehud Olmert in Amman to discuss issues related to Iran and attempt to obtain Saudi approval to use Saudi airspace for Israeli warplanes in the event of an attack on Tehran.

The most important meeting, starting in 2011, Prince Bandar maintained direct contacts with the head of the Mossad at the time, Tamir Pardo, and several meetings took place between them in Europe, but the most important meeting was in August 2014, after the end of the escalation of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.

This meeting was the first time that Israelis working in official positions arrived in Saudi Arabia, after the Israeli representatives traveled on a private plane that stopped for a short period in the Jordanian capital, Amman, then they continued their way to Bandar Palace in Jeddah, and there, with the approval of King Abdullah, the two sides spent many hours discussing a far-reaching initiative aimed at bringing peace to the Middle East.

This meeting drew a road map to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, based on previous peace initiatives, but this time Israel was given the option of making changes to the plan, coinciding with a famous statement by the Saudi Foreign Minister at the time, Saud al Faisal, who accused Hamas movement of responsibility for the destruction of the Gaza Strip, and called for coexistence with Israel, according to Haaretz newspaper,

The Arab Peace Initiative in 2002 was one of the efforts made by Saudi Arabia for a peaceful settlement in the Middle East.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then Saudi Arabia ambassador to the United States, proposed organizing meetings for Arab foreign ministers and the Prime Minister of Israel at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2014, to discuss the proposed road map.

Bandar received support from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who traveled to meet Bandar in Europe to discuss the details.

Despite these efforts, communications declined and he resigned from his position in 2015 after losing the support of the new King Salman, according to Haaretz.

Haaretz pointed out that Bandar was replaced as the most important person in the Kingdom, not only in terms of his connection with Israel, by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who represents the new generation in Saudi Arabia, and with the latter, relations continued to flourish through the Mossad, and he met with Netanyahu and the head of intelligence at the time, Eli Cohen and then National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat.

Later on, prince Bandar’s legacy continued as his daughter, Princess Reema entered the political scene after she was appointed as ambassador to the United States with the rank of minister in February 2019, and becoming the first woman to hold the position of ambassador in the history of Saudi Arabia.

The ambassador appeared more widely when she received US President Joe Biden upon his arrival in Saudi Arabia in July 2022, a visit that resulted in an agreement to open its airspace to all air carriers, including Israeli ones.

After that, in her famous statements, the Saudi ambassador said that concluding an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is in line with Vision 2030, adding, “We want to see Israel prosper as much as we want to see Palestine prosper”.

It’s noteworthy that the recent war in Gaza has cast a shadow on the paths of Saudi-Israeli normalization, which believed to be stopped, as the recent Saudi announcement.