Today I have two special guests to talk about a real unfolding foreign policy failure happening right before our eyes. According to the most recent reports, the Biden Administration is closer than ever to signing a deal with Saudi Arabia that the White House thinks will eventually lead to Saudi-Israeli normalization a la the Abraham Accords that were first set into motion by the Trump Administration.
The deal reportedly on the table today would give the Saudis a security agreement, in which the U.S. would be obligated to defend Riyadh militarily if it were attacked.The U.S. would also agree to help the Saudi’s get a nuclear power program off the ground, ostensibly for civilian use. In exchange, the Saudis will think about normalization with Israel down the road and then maybe, just maybe, this will lead to a two-state solution for Israel Palestine.
But those are a lot of maybes. The Israelis, however, don’t seem so interested so it may just be that Washington’s gives all these things anyway to Saudi Arabia, a dictatorship that we know now had ties to the 9/11 hijackers and the killing and dismembership of Saudi-American journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, with little in exchange.
Here to talk about all this and more is Sarah Leah Whitson, an American lawyer and the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). Danny Davis is a retired Army officer who served in the first Persian Gulf War as well as the Afghanistan War. He is a senior fellow at Defense priorities and the host of the podcast Deep Dive.
More from Sarah and Danny
America is investing in Ukrainian Failure (Davis)
The two-state solution has failed. A true democracy is the Middle East’s only hope (Whitson)
Why are 600 Americans Still Languishing in Gaza? (Davis)
America Should Help Israel Defend Itself and Avoid Escalation (Davis)
It’s Time to Scrap the Abraham Accords (Whitson)
