Twelve Likud MKs wrote an open letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning him against making any concessions to Saudi Arabia in US-brokered normalization talks, Israeli media reported.
The Israeli newspaper The Times of Israel reported that the letter was sent two hours before the meeting between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
“We will agree to peace only in exchange for peace,” the letter reportedly said, amid reports that Saudi Arabia is demanding major concessions to the Palestinians.
In the letter, the Israeli MKs wrote there can be “no concessions on the homeland.”
“We give you our backing to present a strong position ahead of your meeting with the US president and world leaders that Israel stands by its rights irrespective of attempts to make peace with Arab nations,” the letter also read.
Among the signatories are Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, along with former ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, according to The Times of Israel.
Following many leaks in US but also Israeli media of secret meetings between top Saudi and Israeli officials under US auspices, the Saudi newspaper Elaph on Sunday, September 17, reported that “Saudi Arabia has informed the US Administration to stop any discussion related to normalization with Israel”.
Prior to that report, the impression given by US-Israeli media was that negotiations over the supposedly imminent normalization evolved entirely on specific Saudi asks that had nothing to do with Palestine.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, however, in more recent reports, has said that the Palestinian issue would play a central role in any future normalization agreement with Israel.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
