Biden Administration Presses Israel for Palestinian Concessions in Saudi Mega-Deal

The Biden Administration is urging Israel to make significant concessions to the Palestinians as a prerequisite for a monumental deal with Saudi Arabia that would normalize relations between the two nations. In talks last week with Ron Dermer, Israel’s strategic affairs minister, both US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Tony Blinken emphasized the need for Israeli concessions, Axios reported on Friday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a challenging situation as moving toward concessions could risk his coalition government, composed largely of far-right parties. Blinken asserted that Israel was “misreading the situation” if it expected to proceed without such concessions and emphasized that Saudi Arabia would require “significant deliverables” concerning the Palestinians for the deal to materialize.

Sullivan also noted the administration aims to get broad Democratic congressional support for any mega-deal, which could be complicated by critical views of Saudi Arabia or Israel among Senate Democrats. Talks remain ongoing, with Netanyahu possibly being invited for a White House meeting in September to discuss the issue further.