In its response to Iran, Israel must weigh new regional cooperation - editorial

• Published date: 17 April 2024
• Author: JPOST EDITORIAL
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

For the first time in history, Iran launched an attack on Israel directly from its territory, employing drones and both cruise and ballistic missiles that have been under development for decades

These weapons served as a crucial element of Iran's strategic deterrence and enabled the projection of its power across the region. While Iran's nuclear program is still evolving, its extensive missile and drone capabilities elevated it to a regional powerhouse not to be overlooked. Take away those capabilities, and Iran appears far less menacing.

The head-spinning success Israel and its allies had Sunday morning in swatting Iranian projectiles out of the sky has shown that Iran's missile threat is not as dire and catastrophic as many thought. The ramifications of this will be felt for years in ways that may be hard to imagine today.

One way is that what happened Sunday morning might catalyze formal Israel-Saudi relations.

If indeed this is one of the unintended consequences of Iran's attack, it will be a sweet irony, considering that one of the outcomes the ayatollahs were hoping for after Hamas's October 7 attack was that a strong Israeli response would thwart an Israel-US-Saudi deal that was being earnestly discussed and promoted.

Though it now seems like eons ago, last September there was serious talk about a game-changing pact that would contain the following elements: The US would sign a NATO-like defense treaty with Israel and Saudi Arabia, sell state-of-the-art weaponry to the Saudis and assist in its development of a civilian nuclear program that would include the right to domestic uranium enrichment. The Saudis would normalize ties with Israel, help end the war in Yemen, and provide massive financial assistance to the Palestinians. And Israel would put a cap on settlement activity and pledge not to annex Judea and Samaria.

Soon after Biden met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN and discussed this plan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman acknowledged in a stunning interview with Fox News that his country was moving "closer" each day to a normalization deal with Israel and that the process is "for the first time a real one, serious."

A little over two weeks later, Hamas sent more than 3,000 terrorists across the border to murder, rape, kidnap, and pillage. Israel responded with justified ferocity...