Jul 28, 2016

This week, the Saudi Foreign Ministry clarified that a delegation headed by retired Gen. Anwar Eshki that visited Israel July 22 did not represent the views of the government in Riyadh. In response to a question by pro-Saudi newspaper Al-Hayat, the Foreign Ministry said that the Saudi government “has no ties to Eshki and the likes of him.” “The likes” of Eshki was a reference to Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, who in recent years has met openly with former senior Israel Defense Forces officials Yaakov Amidror and Amos Yadlin, both retired generals. The Saudi general and prince have granted generous interviews to Israeli media outlets, maintain ties with Israeli peace organizations and sit alongside Israeli delegates at international conferences around the world.

Eshki himself recently told Israeli publication Yedioth Ahronoth, “My government did not ask me to conduct negotiations, and the Israeli side was not given such a mission or authorization either. … I don’t need permission because I am not a government official and not in any official capacity. If I were in an official capacity, this would not have happened. I define all the meetings I had with the Israelis as private and noncommittal conversations.”

Nonetheless, Middle East scholar Matti Steinberg, who documents the steps taken both to promote the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and to undermine it, suggests reading between the lines of the Saudi Foreign Ministry’s reaction. There, he identifies a “half-hearted admission” that the government does indeed sanction the visit, given that the Saudi Interior Ministry specifically bans travel to Israel (as well as to Iran, Iraq and Thailand).

“There’s no doubt that the visit was authorized and quietly initiated by the Saudis behind the scenes,” said Steinberg, formerly a special adviser to heads of the Shin Bet security service. “I think that Egypt, too, within the framework of President [Abdel Fattah] al-Sisi’s initiative, was in on the secret.” One can also assume that without a green light, the retired general would not have met openly with the top official of Israel’s foreign service, Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold, and with Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the most senior IDF officer in the West Bank.

Eshki was quick to shake off the bear hug bestowed on him by members of the political opposition he met in Jerusalem. “Israel will not be able to establish relations with the Gulf states, and Saudi Arabia foremost, before it signs a permanent agreement with the Palestinian Authority,” the retired general said in a July 24 interview on Israel's Army Radio. “There will not be peace first with the Arab states, but rather with the Palestinian brothers first.”