Edit: I just saw another post with the same article, but I'll leave this post just in case somebody can't jump the paywall.
As for the Saudi's actual reaction and the status of the negotiation talks:
First half:
Reporting from Washington and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Published Oct. 8, 2023 Updated Oct. 9, 2023, 8:19 a.m. ET
President Biden’s top aides scrambled on Sunday to reaffirm their commitment to the idea of of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, even as Israel prepares for the start of a full-scale war against Palestinian militants.
On several American talk shows, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken cast normalization as a choice between regional peace and the , the militant group in Gaza.
“It would really change the prospects of the entire region far into the future,” Mr. Blinken said on CBS News of Israel’s broadening of relations with Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the most powerful Sunni Muslim nation in the region. “Now, who’s opposed to that? Hamas, , Iran. So, I think that speaks volumes. And there are really two paths before the region.”
Mr. Blinken added an important caveat, which was that the drive for a diplomatic deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia could not be a substitute for a two-state solution to address the needs of the Palestinians.
But American officials have been unable to make headway on that for decades. So in both the Trump and Biden administrations, a in the Middle East has been promoting normalization between Israel and Arab nations, with Palestinian officials and representatives playing no real role in the talks.
The theory for some American and Israeli officials and Arab leaders was that such deals, in the form of the , would help isolate and suppress the Palestinian issue, which they saw as an intractable problem. Jared Kushner, former President Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law and a White House adviser who helped forge the accords, was a main proponent of that thinking.
To critics, that has been the crux of the problem, and one reason the United States and Israel were blindsided by the Hamas attack on Saturday. The crowds of civilians in Gaza cheering the Hamas fighters underscored the extent of anti-Israel hostility among Palestinians — hostility that American, Israeli and Arab officials have tried to ignore for years as they pushed normalization talks and what the Biden administration has called “regional integration.”
“Prior to the Hamas attack on Israel, there was bipartisan agreement, shared by most of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, that the question of Palestine no longer matters in the Middle East,” said Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East politics at Georgetown University. He added that he believed Arab leaders have relayed that same message in private because they dislike how their citizens mobilize around Palestinian issues.
“The masses of Arabs and Muslims had a different view of this equation — but who in D.C. cares about them?” Mr. Hashemi said. “All of the assumptions that informed U.S. policy toward the Middle East have now been upended by recent events. The question of Palestine is now back on the top of the regional agenda and the world agenda. I think this was the goal of the Hamas attack.”
In recent months, Mr. Biden and his top aides have attempted to negotiate with both Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel a complex three-way normalization deal by the end of the year. The new war will , but U.S. officials have been telling Saudi and Israeli officials in calls over the weekend that they are hopeful the discussions can continue.
They are also watching Saudi reaction carefully and gauging whether Prince Mohammed might change his stance, especially if the Israeli military kills many Palestinian civilians in a Gaza offensive, which would ignite outrage across the Arab world.
On Saturday, after the Hamas assault, the Saudi Foreign Ministry released a statement that did not explicitly denounce the attack and instead laid the blame on Israel, saying that the Saudi government had repeatedly warned “of the dangers of the explosion of the situation as a result of the continued occupation, the deprivation of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights and the repetition of systemic provocations against its sanctities.”
The statement took Mr. Biden and several of his top aides by surprise, people with knowledge of the events said, and it angered American lawmakers who have supported the negotiations.
One of those, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said in an interview that he had spoken with a senior Saudi official on Saturday and said, “If you want a normal relationship with the United States, this is not a normal statement.”
“You don’t want to be in the cheering section with Iran and Hezbollah,” he told them, as he recounted on Sunday.
As for the Saudi's actual reaction and the status of the negotiation talks:
First half:
U.S. Continues Push for Saudi-Israel Ties Even as War With Hamas Begins
By , andReporting from Washington and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Published Oct. 8, 2023 Updated Oct. 9, 2023, 8:19 a.m. ET
President Biden’s top aides scrambled on Sunday to reaffirm their commitment to the idea of of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, even as Israel prepares for the start of a full-scale war against Palestinian militants.
On several American talk shows, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken cast normalization as a choice between regional peace and the , the militant group in Gaza.
“It would really change the prospects of the entire region far into the future,” Mr. Blinken said on CBS News of Israel’s broadening of relations with Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the most powerful Sunni Muslim nation in the region. “Now, who’s opposed to that? Hamas, , Iran. So, I think that speaks volumes. And there are really two paths before the region.”
Mr. Blinken added an important caveat, which was that the drive for a diplomatic deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia could not be a substitute for a two-state solution to address the needs of the Palestinians.
But American officials have been unable to make headway on that for decades. So in both the Trump and Biden administrations, a in the Middle East has been promoting normalization between Israel and Arab nations, with Palestinian officials and representatives playing no real role in the talks.
The theory for some American and Israeli officials and Arab leaders was that such deals, in the form of the , would help isolate and suppress the Palestinian issue, which they saw as an intractable problem. Jared Kushner, former President Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law and a White House adviser who helped forge the accords, was a main proponent of that thinking.
To critics, that has been the crux of the problem, and one reason the United States and Israel were blindsided by the Hamas attack on Saturday. The crowds of civilians in Gaza cheering the Hamas fighters underscored the extent of anti-Israel hostility among Palestinians — hostility that American, Israeli and Arab officials have tried to ignore for years as they pushed normalization talks and what the Biden administration has called “regional integration.”
“Prior to the Hamas attack on Israel, there was bipartisan agreement, shared by most of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, that the question of Palestine no longer matters in the Middle East,” said Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East politics at Georgetown University. He added that he believed Arab leaders have relayed that same message in private because they dislike how their citizens mobilize around Palestinian issues.
“The masses of Arabs and Muslims had a different view of this equation — but who in D.C. cares about them?” Mr. Hashemi said. “All of the assumptions that informed U.S. policy toward the Middle East have now been upended by recent events. The question of Palestine is now back on the top of the regional agenda and the world agenda. I think this was the goal of the Hamas attack.”
In recent months, Mr. Biden and his top aides have attempted to negotiate with both Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel a complex three-way normalization deal by the end of the year. The new war will , but U.S. officials have been telling Saudi and Israeli officials in calls over the weekend that they are hopeful the discussions can continue.
They are also watching Saudi reaction carefully and gauging whether Prince Mohammed might change his stance, especially if the Israeli military kills many Palestinian civilians in a Gaza offensive, which would ignite outrage across the Arab world.
On Saturday, after the Hamas assault, the Saudi Foreign Ministry released a statement that did not explicitly denounce the attack and instead laid the blame on Israel, saying that the Saudi government had repeatedly warned “of the dangers of the explosion of the situation as a result of the continued occupation, the deprivation of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights and the repetition of systemic provocations against its sanctities.”
The statement took Mr. Biden and several of his top aides by surprise, people with knowledge of the events said, and it angered American lawmakers who have supported the negotiations.
One of those, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said in an interview that he had spoken with a senior Saudi official on Saturday and said, “If you want a normal relationship with the United States, this is not a normal statement.”
“You don’t want to be in the cheering section with Iran and Hezbollah,” he told them, as he recounted on Sunday.
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❗️ — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Every place Hamas terrorists operates from will turn into ruin
