Marketed as a “pathbreaking public dialogue between senior national security leaders from two old adversaries,” May 5, 2016  featured a high-profile public meeting in Washington DC between officials from Saudi Arabia and Israel.

In rare joint appearance, Saudi prince, ex-Netanyahu adviser spar over peace | The Times of Israel https://t.co/u9Am7CwIoo

— سلطان سعود القاسمي (@SultanAlQassemi) May 6, 2016

Prince Turki bin Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief and one-time ambassador to Washington, and retired Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Major General Yaakov Amidror, former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke together at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel organization funded by AIPAC donors, staffed by AIPAC employees, and located down the hall from AIPAC headquarters.

https://twitter.com/jo_bouk/status/728487623900028928

Saudi Arabia has never engaged in diplomatic relations with Israel since the Nakba in 1948, and at one point even led efforts to boycott of the state of Israel. And although this was not the first meeting of its kind (Saudi Arabia and Israel had a former official speak at a Council on Foreign Relations panel last year), it is definitely the highest profile meeting and it is taking place.

Watch the discussion here.

– Read more: DC meeting between Israel and Saudi Arabia marks end of Arab Peace Initiative and two-state solution – Mondoweiss.net