The future of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia

NPR’s Daniel Estrin speaks with journalists and experts about the possible normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

DANIEL ESTRIN, HOST:

In 2020, I was on an historic flight.

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UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: Captain speaking. I would like to inform you that we have just crossed the border to Saudi Arabia for the first time in the history of Israel airliners.

ESTRIN: It was the first time an Israeli airliner made a public flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates. At the time, this was a huge deal. Israel was on the path to a diplomatic treaty with a major Arab country. Emiratis had agreed to normalize relations with Israel. But to get from Israel to the United Arab Emirates, you have to cross Saudi Arabia, and so the Saudis opened their airspace to the Israelis. Now, this might seem like a small thing, but that flight was a step toward an even bigger diplomatic goal – formal relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, arguably the most influential Arab country. It was the kind of symbolic gesture that Israel has been seeking for decades. A breakthrough, like diplomatic relations, is still many months away or more if it happens. But there has been steady momentum in that direction that’s being touted by those who want it to happen, especially Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRIME MINISTER BEJAMIN NETANYAHU: I think that we are about to witness a pivot of history, maybe.

ESTRIN: Felicia Schwartz is a correspondent for the Financial Times, and she’s been doing a deep dive into the intensive shuttle diplomacy of the last few months with senior U.S. officials going to Saudi Arabia.

FELICIA SCHWARTZ: There is this growing closeness between Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors – some of it out in the open, some of it not, like Israel and Saudi. And I think policymakers want to take advantage of that and use that as a new kind of…