Israel officials aligned with those of Saudi Arabia: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Lawrence Davidson, a professor at West Chester University, to discuss recent remarks by Israeli officials who spoke approvingly about the aggressive Saudi policy toward Iran.

Read a rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: This is quite a public talk of praise and relations possibly between Saudi Arabia and Israel. How do you feel about that?

Davidson: Well, one of the things I would point out is that the people who did this, the Israelis who made these statements and there were many of them who did, are all Netanyahu people. If we remember back when Netanyahu was demanding a military attack on Iran, many of Israel’s intelligence and defense people said that this was wrong-headed and that there was no real threat from Iran. Those people have been silenced or replaced by folks who agree or can be controlled by Netanyahu.

So, these statements are reflective of the current government in Israel who has essentially made Iran their number-one enemy and that then lines up with the present Saudi monarchy and that too has seemed to be ideologically or religiously motivated to make Iran its enemy number-one as well and they have then sort of manipulated the [Persian] Gulf states to go on with this and so it is a lineup of present leadership. Leaders change and the whole orientation can change.

So in both cases, I mean in the story that came along about the Israeli statements, one of the references was that many of these Arab leaders, if you want to call them that, had to remain anonymous on this because of the feeling that working with Israel would cause negative public opinion to really increase and no doubt it would.

So I think that in both cases you have got people who probably little less in Israel than in say Saudi Arabia or other places like that who do not see it this way and that there is even worry of a public reaction in the Arab world against working with Israel, so they have to keep it quiet. So I think this is just ..., really references the present governments in these countries and that it is not a long-term orientation.   

Press TV: Would it be fair to say that the biggest loser out of all this would be the Palestinians?

Davidson: Well they are always the biggest losers, I mean certainly. What this whole underground relationship between particularly the [Persian] Gulf states and maybe Egypt too and Israel, what it says is that these particular governments in the Arab world have simply washed their hands of the Palestinians and really they do not care anymore what happens to them and that they are refocusing now on Iran rather than Israel and ... repression of the Palestinians.

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