The assertions come following a series of sometimes complementary and sometimes seemingly contradictory statements by top Israeli officials in recent months as the normalization trend lurched forward. Confronted with the assertions, the Foreign Ministry had no official comment.
Last week, Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said that a deal could come with the Saudis in the next few years, but not before 20th January 2021 – nor did he publicly specify by the end of 2021.
This came following Cohen’s statement on 2nd November 2020 that a deal with the Saudis could be close, though he qualified his prediction in light of uncertainty at the time about who would win the US election as well as future Iran policy.
On 23rd November it was widely reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had recently met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) as part of a joint visit to the Kingdom along with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
A flood of confirmations and denials – Netanyahu himself publicly refused to comment - appeared to make it clear that the visit had happened and was viewed as a sign of relations moving forward, but was supposed to have been kept secret.
Incidentally, the Post has learned before that MBS has previously secretly visited Israel.
Back on 25th October 25021 Channel 12 had reported that Mossad Director Yossi Cohen had privately said to those around him that the Saudis were waiting until after the US election, but that they could potentially announce normalization as a “gift” to the winner.
The implication from the report was that such an announcement could even come almost immediately after the election.
However, the Post reported later that the Channel 12 report either misunderstood or did not fully flesh out what the Mossad’s Director had said. In actuality, Cohen’s comments in closed conversations in October had been more nuanced.
Speaking a week before the US election, the Post learned that the spymaster had said that if US President Donald Trump won, there could be an almost immediate announcement.
Yet – if as the polls correctly predicted – now President-elect Joe Biden won the election, although the Saudis would still want a normalization deal with Israel, there would not necessarily be a clear timeline.
Cohen had emphasized that the Saudis did not want to give a gift to Trump and then get nothing for it upon a Biden administration taking over the reins.
Rather, Cohen understood at the time that a Biden administration may want to link normalization with the Saudis to progress with negotiations with the Palestinians.
This was the opposite tactic of the Trump administration, which was trying to pressure the Palestinians to show flexibility in negotiations with Israel by moving ahead with normalization deals without them.
What is interesting about the latest information learned by the Post is that now, almost two months after the US election, there is once again higher confidence that there will be a deal with the Saudis by the end of 2021.
If before November 3, there was far more uncertainty from both Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen and Mossad Director Yossi Cohen about how the Saudis would conduct themselves with Biden, now there are top officials who have greater confidence on the issue.
Though some of this could be from informal signals sent between Israeli officials and Biden transition figures, some of the confidence may come from a renewed understanding of the Saudis’ intentions regardless of how exactly they are treated by the incoming administration.
Mossad chief Cohen first suggested the possibility of official ties with the Saudis in a rare on-record interview with Channel 12 in mid-September and has been secretly visiting there for years.
Former IDF chief Lt. Gen. (ret.) Gadi Eisenkot in 2017 publicly announced that Israel was sharing intelligence with the Saudis as the countries grew closer.
