Middle East: The Responsible Statecraft Institute revealed the secrets of Israel's defense of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, after mounting US and international criticism of him over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi three years ago.

“Elements of Israel’s network went to great lengths to defend Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, including Josh Block, then-CEO of the lobbying group The Israel Project,” it said.

Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and others have long sought to sway Washington’s policies in the region in favor of their respective interests.

For the Arab countries, their interests have long centered around maintaining absolute authority domestically while repressing the street, upholding the regional geopolitical status quo, and keeping the United States deeply engaged in the Middle East as the security guarantor of the prevailing order from which they benefit. 

For Israel, in addition to maintaining the regional status quo, it is currently seeking a high-level, top-down “normalization” with Arab states that in part sidelines Arab popular opinion and the plight of the Palestinians.

In these normalization agreements, first pursued under the Trump administration, Israel may also benefit from an evolving security hedge against a common rival: Iran.

Though the U.S.-sponsored normalization deals represent the coordinated efforts to influence American foreign policy predating the wave of “normalizations” between Israel and Bahrain, Morocco, UAE and Sudan. Israel is even trying to woo countries that still do not formally recognize Israel, notably Saudi Arabia.

In November 2018, Saudi Arabia hosted a delegation of Christian evangelical leaders led by Joel Rosenberg (they had been welcomed to the UAE earlier). 

A similar delegation that included Rev. Johnnie Moore (then-co-chairman of President Donald Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board) visited the kingdom once more in September 2019. 

In January 2020, the secretary-general of the Saudi-financed Muslim World League, Mohammad al-Issa, led a delegation of senior Islamic scholars accompanied by representatives of the American Jewish Committee in an unprecedented visit to the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

Josh Block, then-CEO of the lobbying group The Israel Project, for example, took to Twitter and called Khashoggi a “radical Islamist terrorist ally who was close to Osama bin Laden, ISIS, Hamas and wanted to overthrow the Saudi ruling royals, who oppose Sunni terrorists, sponsored by Turkey and Qatar, as well as Iran’s Shia terrorist armies and allies.”

In conclusion, Arab autocrats throughout the Middle East have sought to harness the power and influence of Israel’s network in D.C. in order to help ensure their own domestic authority and regional positions. Access to this powerful network is particularly desirable as Washington continues to debate whether to draw down its commanding military presence in the region.

Source: Responsible Statecraft