They have wanted the benefits of normalization without normalization itself. What is the going rate for selling out Israel? Under U.S. President Donald Trump, we now have an answer: roughly $1 trillion.
Trump arrived in office boasting he would expand the 2020 Abraham Accords and leverage America’s unrivaled influence over Saudi Arabia. Instead, he squandered that leverage, pocketed a headline-grabbing investment pledge and walked away empty-handed on normalization—all while handing Riyadh sweeping strategic concessions that directly undermine Israel’s security.
This was not diplomacy. It was capitulation. To understand the scale of the failure, one must grasp a basic truth about Saudi royals: They care about one thing and one thing only—keeping their heads connected to their shoulders. For decades, the ultimate guarantor of the House of Saud’s survival has been the United States. Even when America depended heavily on Middle Eastern oil, Riyadh needed Washington more than Washington needed Riyadh.
Yet the Saudis have mastered the art of manipulation. In every era, they have learned which threat to emphasize to extract American protection—the Hashemites one decade, Arab nationalists the next, communists during the Cold War and Iran after 1979. Israel has always been the convenient rhetorical foil, never the real concern.
The State Department Arabists, always fearing the loss of access to oil, coddled the Saudis even as they persisted in supporting terrorists, promoting radical Islam, discriminating against Jews and Christians, and compiling an abysmal human-rights record. Trump is less worried about oil, though Saudi control of the spigot can sink the U.S. economy, as former President Joe Biden learned when he decided the Saudis should be made pariahs. (Ed note: This is a hard hitting article, a must read.) (Read More.)
