October 5, 2023
Hoover Institution | Stanford University
Talk of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel has been heating up in recent weeks, with American officials visiting Riyadh to hammer out the terms of an agreement and Saudi and Israeli leaders sounding optimistic. But how close to such a deal are we really? Joshua Teitelbaum, a professor of Middle East history at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and an expert on Saudi Arabia, offers his insights on the prospects of normalization. What are the Saudis looking to get out of such an agreement? Why is the United States being asked to provide the inducements? What are the obstacles that stand in the way of normalization and might they be too great to overcome in the near term?
