It was the first time an Israeli airliner made a public flight from Israel to the United

Arab Emirates.

At the time, this was a huge deal. Israel was on the path to a diplomatic treaty with a

major Arab country. Emirates had agreed to normalize relations with Israel.

But to get from Israel to the United Arab Emirates, you have to cross Saudi Arabia,

and so the Saudis opened their airspace to the Israelis. Now, this might seem like a small thing,

but that flight was a step toward an even bigger diplomatic goal. Formal relations between Israel

and Saudi Arabia, arguably the most influential Arab country. It was the kind of symbolic gesture

that Israel has been seeking for decades. A breakthrough like diplomatic relations is still

many months away or more if it happens. But there has been steady momentum in that direction

that's being touted by those who wanted to happen, especially Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

I think that we are about to witness a pivot of history, maybe.

Felicia Schwartz is a correspondent for the Financial Times and she's been doing a deep dive into

the intensive shuttle diplomacy of the last few months with senior US officials going to Saudi Arabia.

There is this growing closeness between Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbors, some of it out in the

open, some of it not, like Israel and Saudi, and I think policymakers want to take advantage of

that and use that as a new kind of lever. The US and Saudi Arabia are negotiating a three-way

deal involving the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. That would be kind of the crown jewel of Israel's

ambition to be regarded as a kind of equal significant power in the region, but also helping the

Americans to create a Middle East that subscribes to its worldview where all of its close partners

can cooperate with each other in the open. President Biden says a deal may be underway. He would

get to preside over an historic agreement before he runs for re-election, but Saudi and Israeli

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