The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on May 29 local time, condemning in the strongest terms that "the Israeli occupying forces continue to carry out genocide against the Palestinian people with impunity and continue to target the tents of unarmed Palestinian refugees in Rafah."

 

        Screenshot of Saudi Foreign Ministry social media: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia believes that the Israeli government bears full responsibility for everything that happened in Rafah and the entire occupied Palestinian territory. The international community should stop the massacre of the Palestinian people and hold the perpetrators accountable. The Times of Israel said that this may be the "strongest statement" issued by Saudi Arabia against Israel since the outbreak of the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

 

        Although the Biden administration has tried hard to downplay or even belittle the Trump administration's Middle East policy after taking office, it has actually followed the Trump administration's lead on issues such as Israeli-Palestinian peace and Arab-Israeli reconciliation. The most prominent evidence is that the US embassy in Israel is still in Jerusalem, and the Biden administration is still pushing Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, to normalize relations with Israel. Before the current round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out, Saudi Arabia and Israel had been negotiating to normalize relations.

         However, as the conflict continued, the negotiations reached a deadlock. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu also rejected the request to provide a path for the establishment of a Palestinian state during the negotiations. After the outbreak of this round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the United States pressured Arab countries to condemn Hamas together, which was led by Saudi Arabia and other countries. Moreover, the United States' painstaking efforts to normalize Saudi-Israeli relations are about to go wrong. The Financial Times quoted several US government officials as saying that the United States may lift the ban on the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks, which is seen as the latest signal that the Biden administration is seeking to improve relations with Saudi Arabia.

 

        After taking office in 2021, the Biden administration had a falling out with Saudi Arabia over so-called "human rights" and other issues, including suspending the supply of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, the largest arms customer of the United States, causing the relationship between the two countries to plummet. However, the sanctions against Russia triggered by the full escalation of the Ukrainian crisis and the need to stabilize oil prices and contain Iran have reminded the Biden administration of Saudi Arabia as an "important ally" again; after the outbreak of a new round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Biden administration has further convinced itself that it needs Saudi Arabia as its key regional partner. U.S. Secretary of State Blinken recently said that the United States and Saudi Arabia are "very close" to reaching a series of agreements on nuclear energy, security and defense cooperation.

 

        However, whether the normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations that the United States is trying to promote can be achieved depends on whether Israel is willing to take concrete measures to promote the establishment of a Palestinian state. In essence, the United States wants to use the dividends of bilateral defense cooperation with Saudi Arabia to promote the establishment of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but Saudi Arabia’s attitude is very clear: the United States’ “new Middle East strategy” aimed at achieving Arab-Israeli reconciliation cannot bypass the Palestinian issue. What’s even more embarrassing is that Israel has not given the United States any face at all.

        Blinken recently testified in Congress that Israel is unlikely to agree to Saudi Arabia's request to accept the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Washington Post commented that the Biden administration is stepping up a series of agreements with Saudi Arabia, but the United States is doomed to miscalculate because Israel is unlikely to agree to the conditions set by Saudi Arabia for the normalization of relations between the two countries. The article said that the reason why the Trump administration was able to promote the normalization of relations between Israel and certain Arab countries was because the issue of the establishment of a Palestinian state was not as urgent as it is now. But since the outbreak of the current round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on October 7 last year, the conditions for promoting further normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations no longer exist.

        The United States, the biggest "off-field protagonist", is to blame for the prolonged conflict between Palestine and Israel. The Israeli army recently launched a series of deadly air strikes on the Rafah refugee camp, causing hundreds of casualties and sparking strong condemnation from the international community. However, despite the continuous bombing of Rafah, the White House still does not believe that Israel has launched a "large-scale ground operation" against Rafah. Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator of the White House National Security Council, said recently: "We have not seen the Israeli army rush into Rafah - we have not seen them form a large column and attack multiple targets on the ground in some coordinated and maneuverable manner."

        Reuters sarcastically said that the White House provided the most complete definition to date of Israel's "major ground    operation" in Rafah on May 28. British Sky News reported that by most measures, Israel's actions have crossed the "red line"; but by Biden's own standards, Israel has not. The article pointed out that if Biden admits that Israel's actions have crossed the "red line", it means that he will fulfill his promise to stop sending weapons to Israel, which will face strong opposition from politicians on Capitol Hill and major donors.

        What's more, at the press conference of the US State Department on May 28, local time, spokesman Miller attributed the incident to a "fire" rather than Israeli bombing based on the Israeli statement. Several heads of organizations sympathetic to the Palestinians in the United States pointed out that citing the Israeli investigation is a tactic for the United States to shirk responsibility, which allows it to postpone the assessment indefinitely and wait for news reports about the tragedy to slowly die out. Qatar's Al Jazeera quoted experts as saying that Biden's attitude on Rafah is "just a continuation of his ruthless and untenable Gaza policy ."