Richard Goldberg on the Future of Israeli-Saudi Relations
The Tikvah Podcast
Tikvah
4.6 • 620 Ratings
🗓️ 3 December 2020
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It has been widely reported that, in late November of 2020, the Israeli prime minister secretly flew to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with the kingdom’s crown prince. That these two leaders met at all is noteworthy; that they might have discussed the possibility of normalizing relations between the Jewish state and the wealthiest and most influential Arab country is momentous.
It is easy to see what Israel stands to gain from peace with the Saudis. But what’s in it for Saudi Arabia? What would they gain, and what would they risk losing?
Richard Goldberg, a Middle East expert and a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies tackles these question in his Mosaic piece, “What Saudi Arabia is Thinking.” In this podcast, he joins Mosaic Editor Jonathan Silver to discuss what brought the Middle East to this current moment, how the upcoming change at the White House is affecting Saudi thinking, and whether Israeli-Saudi normalization is truly on the horizon.
Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's been widely reported that in late November 2020, the Prime Minister of Israel secretly flew to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with the kingdom's crown prince. |
| 0:18.3 | That the two leaders met at all is of historic moment, |
| 0:22.2 | that they could perhaps be discussing plans to normalize relations between the Jewish state |
| 0:27.6 | and the wealthiest, largest, most powerful Arab nation would perhaps be the single most |
| 0:33.1 | consequential development in the region in decades. Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, |
| 0:38.4 | Jonathan Silver. For Israel to realize open, public, peaceful relations with Saudi Arabia would be |
| 0:44.8 | the consummation of long-held dreams of regional integration and recognition from her Arab neighbors. |
| 0:51.7 | For most of the listeners of this podcast, it's easy, even obvious, |
| 0:55.8 | to see why it's in Israel's interest to strengthen this relationship. But what's in it for Saudi Arabia? |
| 1:01.2 | What would they gain and what would they risk losing? To help us inhabit the mindset of Saudi |
| 1:05.9 | leaders, I'm joined today by Richard Goldberg, senior advisor to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a |
| 1:12.4 | former official of the U.S. National Security Council. Our point of departure is Rich's essay |
| 1:17.2 | What Saudi Arabia is Thinking, published in Mosaic on November 24th, 2020. If you enjoy this |
| 1:23.1 | conversation, you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify. |
| 1:28.6 | I hope you'll leave us a five-star review to help us grow this community of ideas. |
| 1:33.1 | I welcome your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes at podcast at tikfafund.org. |
| 1:39.0 | And of course, if you want to learn more about our work at Tikva, you can visit our website, |
| 1:43.1 | tikfafunds.org, |
| 1:44.3 | and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Here now is my conversation with Richard Goldberg. |
| 1:50.1 | Richard Goldberg, welcome back to the Tikva podcast. It is always great to be here, John. |
| 1:54.1 | So it's widely reported that recently Prime Minister Netanyahu visited Saudi Arabia, and that, |
| 2:00.6 | you know, objectively from the |
... |
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