Saudi Arabia’s influential Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud who is understood to have the ears of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. (Photo credit: WEF)

There’s a narrative that is taking shape amongst legacy think-tanks and analysts, that says Hamas attacked under the influence of Iran, because they didn’t want Saudi Arabia and Israel normalising relations.

These false narratives are peddled by legacy think-tanks, and analysts who have a narrow knowledge of the overall geopolitical reality.

They are deaf to things that doesn’t fit their narrative.

Saudi Arabia, has on numerous occasions, and very explicitly, said that they will not normalise with Israel unless the Palestinian issue is resolved, concluding with the Palestinians having a recognised sovereign state.

In the Arab culture they don’t say things for propaganda reasons, they say it how it is and they mean precisely what they say.

This point was reiterated by Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan at a session in the World Economic Forum in Davos, on January 17, 2023.

Where he said, I paraphrase: “We (Saudi Arabia), will keep supporting the more harsher elements of the Palestinian movement, until there is a peace deal between Palestine and Israel, and until there is a Palestinian state”.

These statements have now been underscored by Saudi suspending any normalisation talks with Israel.

On numerous occasions, Netanyahu and his government had said, Israel was not willing to discuss the Palestinian issue as part of the package of Saudi-Israel normalisation.

Those who argue that Hamas acted under the influence of Iran, or that they acted in order to thwart the Saudi-Israel normalisation, fail to understand one basic point – Saudi-Israel normalisation would have made no difference to the Palestine-Israel equation.

Saudi does not materially back the Palestinians. Iran, Qatar and others do.

Even if the Saudi-Israel normalisation occurred without a single word on the Palestine-Israel equation, then nothing really changes in that equation.

Iran, Qatar and others, would have continued to back the Palestinians, the Palestinians and Hamas would have continued their efforts for self-determination, and there still would have been no “peace in the Middle East”.

The Palestinian component is the most important component for “peace in the Middle East”.

The Saudis and the entire Arab world have been telling Israel this for decades – Israel simply refuses to listen.