No sign of the ultimate deal as Donald Trump leaves Israel
DONALD TRUMP arrived in Israel on May 22nd with a surprising message concerning the situation in the Middle East. Going in to dinner with the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, he said he had discovered on the first stop of his trip in Saudi Arabia that “there’s a lot of love out there”. Dutifully, he set about spreading that love with promises of a “coalition” in which both Israel and the Sunni Arab states would co-operate with America in a joint struggle against radical Islamist terrorism and the influence of Iran.
The tacit alliance between Israel and the Saudis, which do not have diplomatic relations but both see Iran as their mortal enemy, is of course not new. But Mr Trump, whose Air Force One plane took a rare direct route from Riyadh to Tel Aviv, is eager to bring the secret partners out into the open as part of the grand alliance he had outlined a day earlier to an assembly of Sunni Muslim leaders. The Saudis have signalled their willingness for...Continue reading