The Palestinians want a lot of money and more power over the land in the West Bank if the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel work together.
Officials from the Palestinian Authority (PA) met with Saudi representatives in Riyadh on Wednesday for discussions.
They were also going to meet American officials.
Many people believe that for a long time, Americans have been working towards an important agreement to make Israel and Saudi Arabia have more normal and friendly relations.
It means that Washington would support and financially back it, and it would involve an important agreement on security that the Saudis are trying to make with the US. However, there are many obstacles that make it difficult to reach these agreements, and they may not happen anytime soon.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that we shouldn’t expect any immediate announcements or significant advancements in the near future.
But, because there is potential for big changes in the relationships between countries in the Middle East, people are still wondering about the specific details of any agreement. American diplomats have been traveling to places like Riyadh, Amman, and Jerusalem to talk and negotiate with officials there.
US President Joe Biden will probably view a Saudi-Israel agreement as a significant achievement in his foreign policy. He sees it as an opportunity to impress voters before the upcoming election next year.
Saudi Arabia is a powerful country among the Arab and Muslim nations. It has never officially acknowledged Israel since it was formed in 1948.
Last month, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that we are going to see a very important change in history.
However, any agreement would be highly disputed and cause disagreement among people.
Saudi Arabia wants advanced weapons from the US and a nuclear program that includes uranium enrichment in exchange for recognizing Israel.
Israel wants to have good trade and defense relationships with the Gulf superpower and become more connected to the region. This is because they have been trying to integrate themselves into the area, which other Arab countries have also recently done.
These agreements mostly deal with keeping things safe and assisting in buying and selling goods. In 2023, Saudi Arabia also wants to be part of this, according to Diana Buttu, a former legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team during peace talks with Israel.
In order for an agreement to be successful, it must include significant compromises from Israel that benefit the Palestinians.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who essentially runs the country, has to calm down the people of Saudi Arabia – who have traditionally not liked Israel and are very supportive of the Palestinian cause.
Meanwhile, President Biden also needs to show that he has made important progress for the Palestinians in order to receive support from his Democratic Party. A lot of people in the party don’t like the idea of giving benefits to Saudi Arabia because of their bad human rights record and their involvement in the war in Yemen. They also don’t like the idea of giving a reward to Israel’s current government, which they think is making things worse in the West Bank and causing a lot of problems in Israel too.
A group of important Palestinian officials, including two men who are very close to President Mahmoud Abbas, met with the Saudi national security adviser in Riyadh. The officials are Majed Faraj, the intelligence chief of the Palestinian Authority, and Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
They gave a list of things they wanted in order to participate in the American-supported process. This happened during a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf last week in Amman. The Palestinian official said to the BBC that they have some things they want, such as certain requests or requirements.
Moving some areas of the West Bank, which are currently controlled completely by Israel (called Area C under Oslo peace agreements in the 1990s), to be governed by the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli settlement growth in the West Bank coming to a full stop.
Saudi Arabia is starting to give money again to the Palestinian Authority (PA) after reducing and stopping it completely three years ago. They will give around $200m (£160m) every year.
The US consulate in Jerusalem, which was closed by President Donald Trump, will now be reopened. This consulate is a diplomatic office that works with the Palestinians.
Starting again the discussions between Israel and the Palestinians that were put on hold by former Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014, with the help of the US.
These changes are very important – the Americans think that the Palestinians are asking for too much. But the unofficial Palestinian stance on Saudi-Israel normalisation is very different from their official position. The official position is that they completely reject normalisation unless it leads to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
This text talks about the Arab Peace Initiative, a plan from Saudi Arabia in 2002. The plan offered to recognize Israel if Israel gives back the territories it took and allows Palestine to have their own state in the West Bank and Gaza, with its capital in East Jerusalem.
MsButtu says that the current approach shows that the Palestinian leadership is in a difficult situation.
“Palestinians mostly do not want to participate in any of these normalization deals because the support from the Arab world is the only thing we have left,” she explained.
We were told that we cannot fight back using violence. We are informed that we cannot use the law to ask for the occupation to stop. “We are being told that we are not allowed to participate in boycotts, divestment, and sanction actions. ”
The Palestinian Authority is now considering whether they should try to make their demands heard and achieved or continue to ignore them like they did in 2020. Regardless of what they choose, Ms. Buttu believes they will fail either way.
In 2020, three Arab nations – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco – made agreements to have normal relations with Israel. These deals were arranged by the United States, led by President Trump. Another country, Sudan, also promised to work towards having a friendly relationship with Israel that same year. But things stopped because people in the country disagreed, and then there was a military takeover the next year.
This was considered a big change in the relationship between old enemies in the Middle East. It included improvements in diplomacy, trade, and security connections. But people who criticize the situation pointed out that the United States also offered tempting benefits, such as giving Arab autocratic governments access to high-quality weapons made in America.
At the time, the Palestinian Authority was excluded from talks because it refused to have diplomatic relations with the United States. This was in response to President Trump’s peace plan that heavily favored Israel and his decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem. The PA thought that the normalisation deals were a betrayal of unity among Arab countries.
Instead, another important Palestinian leader suggested that engaging with the Saudis at this time could be a way to remind Riyadh about the Arab Peace Initiative’s main goal – which is the creation of a separate Palestinian state. This way, the Palestinians wouldn’t be left out of the entire process.
However, if the Palestinian leadership decides to get involved, it may face major risks because they are already disliked by their own people. This is especially true if the benefits of getting involved are seen as unimportant or insignificant.
After the UAE-Israel normalization in 2020, most Palestinians believed that the deal was a betrayal of their cause and only benefited Israel.
If Israel gives in to the Palestinians, the ultranationalists in Mr. Netanyahu’s group will likely say no, which will make it even harder to reach an agreement. Earlier this year, Mr. Netanyahu ignored the concessions made by the Palestinians, considering them just as something to mark off a list. He believed these concessions would not be included in any meaningful discussions between the United States and Saudi Arabia.