Israel’s president calls ties with Saudi Arabia key to end war

DAVOS, Switzerland — Normalizing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia would be a key element of ending the war with Hamas and a game-changer for the entire Middle East, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Thursday at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss town of Davos.

“It’s still delicate, it’s fragile, and it will take a long time, but I think that it is actually an opportunity to move forward in the world and the region towards a better future,” Herzog said.

It comes days after Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said on a Davos panel that the kingdom agreed “regional peace includes peace for Israel.” He said Saudi Arabia “certainly” would recognize Israel as part of a larger political agreement.

“But that can only happen through peace for the Palestinians, through a Palestinian state,” he said.

U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken also reiterated in a talk at Davos that a pathway to statehood for Palestinians could help improve Israel’s security and its relations with other countries in the region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightwing government, however, are opposed to the concept of a twostate resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Herzog, whose ceremonial role is meant to serve as a national unifier, said public support for it is low because traumatized Israelis are focused on their own safety following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 rampage. He displayed a photo of Kfar Bibas, the youngest Israeli held hostage in Gaza whose first birthday is Thursday.

“When nations come forward and say ‘two-state solution,’ they have to first deal with a preliminary question, which is a core question for human beings: Are we offered real safety?” Herzog said. “Israelis lost trust in the peace process because they could see that terror is glorified by our neighbors.”

Herzog also stressed the global implications of Hamas’ attack on Israel, which he said is just one of the proxies of the “empire of evil emanating from Tehran.”

Amid the conflict in Gaza, Iran has taken military action against what it called an Israeli intelligence operation in Iraq and launched attacks in Pakistan and Syria. Iran-backed rebels in Yemen known as Houthis also have upended global shipping by attacking vessels in the Red Sea, triggering retaliatory strikes from the U.S. and Britain.