Prince Mohammed has since pivoted to adopting slogans echoing Trump and hoping to divorce Saudis from regional and global Muslim causes, such as 1. “Saudi Arabia for Saudis” 2. “Make Saudi Arabia Great”,
However, Saudis have already internalised their religious duty to side with Arabs and Muslims.
So far, Prince Mohammed has pushed to repress solidarity by jailing those who openly support or call for demonstrations on behalf of Palestinians.
It is still unclear what the governance of Gaza will look like.
Despite the destruction, neither Prince Mohammed nor other Arab countries can successfully decide the fate of Gaza without engagement with the Palestinians themselves.
While many Arab countries have already signed normalisation agreements with Israel, none have brought peace. In fact, the opposite has happened, for a simple reason. Palestinians themselves were sidelined.
Only an agreement between Israel and Palestinians that guarantees Palestinian statehood and sovereignty will bring about a long-lasting peace.
The “Saudi awakening” will pass without creating the conditions for this peace if all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, are not sitting at the negotiation table.
