Saudi Arabia's 2002 proposal promised that all Arab nations would formally recognize Israel as a nation and sign peace agreements with Israel if they withdrew from the Palestinian Territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (which Israel captured during the Six Day War in 1967), and allowed the formation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. As recently as this past November, Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel should again ‘consider’ the Saudi offer.
But since Israel's military campaign in Gaza earlier this month, attitudes in the Arab world towards Israel have hardened. Two of the four Arab states that have formal relations with Israel - Qatar and Mauritania - suspended them. Turkey suggested that Israel's UN membership be suspended because of the UN sites in Gaza destroyed or badly damaged by the Israeli military. According to Al-Faisal, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently sent a letter to Saudi's King Abdullah recognizing him as the leader of the Arab and Muslim worlds - then asked him to lead a pan-Arab jihad against Israel over the Gaza conflict.
Al-Faisal's message is that while Saudi Arabia has no plans for jihad, it is getting tougher and tougher to keep a lid on the ill-will of the Arab world towards Israel, so the window for the Saudi peace deal is rapidly closing. Al-Faisal said that Pres. Obama is inheriting a “basket full of snakes” with the Israel-Palestine conflict, and urged him to take a more even tone in the peace talks than Pres. Bush, who was seen as being whole-heartedly behind Israel, ever did.
Al-Faisal makes it pretty clear what could happen if Obama fails to finally secure a comprehensive peace deal in the region.
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