Is Saudi Arabia afraid of Israel?

David Blacher, Student of International Relations and ancilary inputs to political zeitgeist


I don’t think “afraid” is either the right or useful word to include in a discussion of the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel. In fact, a case may be made that the two countries are working together (albeit with proper diplomatic deniability) to build a framework for a regional settlement. Israeli minister Dore Gold is in regular conversations with retired Saudi general, Anwar Eshki - this doesn’t occur in a political vacuum.

Also, it is a long established fact that the Saudi’s have given the Israeli Air Force overflight permission if they chose to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities. Add to this the placing on the table by King Salmon of his “2030” plan, to which Israel has not agreed, but sees it as a starting point for further talks.

Remember, just as in the stock markets, what everyone in the world of international relations seeks is stability and predictability. While we may not like the internal political realities of either country, we can say with a high degree of surety that these two countries are fully aware that their national interests are closely aligned, and are taking cautious preliminary steps to achieve them.

In the Middle East, everyone is afraid of everyone. This includes Israel.

Saudi Arabia is afraid of Israel, and Israel is afraid of Saudi Arabia, and they are both afraid of Iran, and Iran is afraid of both of them both collectively and individually.

Of course, in official speech, no one is afraid of anyone - they are all strong, and independent and in the right and God is on all of their sides!! But that’s political talk. If that were the case, the situation would not be as it is today, and political officials would not do the things they do.

Each one of them says that they have a strong enough military to take on the other if needed, but the fact is, no one can - not without help.

You would say that Israel is backed by the West, but international politics are complicated and Israel knows how complicated it is. You might say that Saudi Arabia is alone, but it is not as helpless as you think.

I’m not saying that you have a balance of power - power is not balanced, at least not in the traditional sense. but it is skewed in so many directions that it sort of balances out.

However, things are playing out as we speak, and maybe in the near future the scales will be tilted towards somebody. If you ask this question again at that time, I may have a different answer.

Neither.

Saudi Arabia and Israel are not adjacent and have no territorial or other points of contention.  The biggest rivalry for influence that Saudi Arabia has is with the nations nations of Syria and Iran.  Israel was (prior to the Syrian Civil War) a big target / antagonist of these two nations so as long as Israel continues to exist, the focus of their religious enemies is not on Saudi Arabia. 

They are not friends but not enemies either. 

Saudi Arabia certainly respects the power and expertise of the IDF and the fact that Israel probably has nuclear capabilities.  That is not the same as fear.

Over the last year, there has been increased sharing of intel between Saudi Arabia and Israel, that let to the capture of some senior radicals on the border of Jordan and Saudi. While Saudi Arabia is worried especially about Extremism in the form of IS and of late has begun to distance from MB and Hamas, Israel is more happy with Fatah in control of the Palestine region, than Hamas. So in there there is a common objective. Though both are very cautious about the re-emergence of Iran, and that could see blocks emerging in west asia, with Saudi and Iran has the centerpoint


The House of Saud (as opposed to the hoi-polloi) and Israel have a lot of common ground on threats, the most obvious being Iran.  The Saudis also don't really care about the Palestinians, that angle is played up for domestic consumption.  There are definite back-channel coms between them, even rumours (plausible ones) of deals to use remote airbases in the desert in case the IDF was going to hit Iran.  A country has no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent (or at least persistent) interests.

As long as they leave Israel alone, they have no reason to fear them.

Israel has never gone to war except to counter an invasion or the imminent threat of one. Israel simply wants to be left alone. It could care less about the Islamic nations surrounding it, so long as they leave Israel be.

The Saudis are much more concerned about Iran and non-state entities like Daesh/ISIS than they are with Israel. On those issues, they actually have common ground with the Israelis.