Israel’s Pressure Game with Saudi Arabia Just Crumbled in Five Moves

Israel have got the final say in a US-Saudi deal, because guess who's really in charge? But the Saudis are having none of it... Right, so you’d think a country that builds the jet, pays for the jet, and signs off every nut and bolt on the jet would get to decide who actually flies the thing, but apparently not, because the moment Saudi Arabia asks for an F-35 the whole decision jumps across the Atlantic and lands in the one place that’s already said it won’t give an inch on Palestinian statehood. Israel has told the Trump administration the sale only goes ahead if Riyadh normalises with them it seems, and you don’t need to squint to see what’s happening. Saudi Arabia keeps its condition — no normalisation without a Palestinian state — and Israel keeps its own — no Palestinian state ever — so instead of solving the contradiction they’re trying to force it, using an American aircraft as their lever. And when a US jet turns into Israel’s bargaining chip, you can see exactly who’s steering the cockpit can’t you? Right, so the United States makes the jet, albeit along with several other countries making parts, but it sets the rules on who gets access to what component, and you would think that would mean the United States decides who gets an F-35 and who doesn’t wouldn’t you? But the moment Saudi Arabia steps forward and asks for the aircraft, the whole question shifts, because it isn’t Washington now making the call it seems, it isn’t the Pentagon, it isn’t Congress. It’s Israel. And Israel is not even bothering to hide what it’s doing here. We’ve got the likes of Axios reporting Israeli officials telling Trump’s people, in plain terms, that the F-35 sale to Saudi Arabia has to be conditioned on Riyadh fully normalising with Israel, and you don’t need to be an expert in anything to see what that is. That’s coercive conditionality. Dress it in polite language if you like. Strip the wording down and Israel is turning a US led weapons platform into a pressure tool to break a political red line that Saudi Arabia has held for two decades, which is that normalisation only happens once there is a credible path to a Palestinian state. And when you’ve reached the point where an American jet is being used to force the collapse of a foreign policy position that Israel cannot defeat at the negotiating table, you are not watching diplomacy anymore. You are watching leverage being applied because the politics don’t go Israel’s way. This is blackmail they are resorting to now is it not?