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Monday, October 27, 2025
Normalization with Saudi Arabia is a top security interest for Israel, Golan says
Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.
Democrats’ chair Yair Golan says that normalization with Saudi Arabia is a “first-order Israeli security interest,” criticizing controversial comments made last week by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that sparked widespread outrage.
Smotrich said Thursday that he wouldn’t agree to a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia if it meant the establishment of a Palestinian state, disparagingly saying the Saudis could “keep riding camels.”
Riyadh has long insisted that it will only normalize ties with Israel if Jerusalem agrees to establish a time-bound, irreversible pathway to a future Palestinian state, which Smotrich and other members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government vehemently oppose.
Speaking to the press before a faction meeting, Golan says that Israel’s diplomatic, military, and economic standing would benefit from an agreement with Saudi Arabia, but that “Smotrich prefers to nurture a terrorist organization in Gaza that threatens Israel rather than a demilitarized and supervised Palestinian state.”
Netanyahu, for his part, allows this because Hamas rule in Gaza is his “political insurance policy. Hamas in Gaza keeps [Netanyahu’s] extreme partners in the government, and him at its head,” the left-wing leader says.
The Times of Israel Community.