CONTEMPORARY EURASIA IX ( 2 )
have a more robust analysis and holistic picture , the bilateral relations are analyzed one by one .
Historical Background Saudi Arabia-Israel relations
In 1902 , the young Emir Abd Al-Aziz ( Ibn Saud ) seized Riyadh and took control over the neighboring territories . He is the founder of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ( KSA ), which bears his kin name , Ibn Saud . 1 On September 18 , 1932 , Ibn Saud issued a decree according to which the parts of the Arabian Kingdom were merged , and the name of the new state was proclaimed as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . 2 Saudi Arabia entered a new era after discovering oil in the late 1930s . Its impact and might were particularly felt in the 1940s . Henceforth , oil became the most powerful factor in strengthening the Kingdom ’ s international position , improving its financial condition , and developing its society . 3
Al-Zirikli , an official in the Foreign Ministry of Saudi Arabia , has published a secret document that sheds light on the Kingdom ’ s foreign policy in the late 1940s and early 1950s . This document came from King Ibn Saud , which contains instructions on the matters of foreign affairs addressed to Crown Prince Saud before his important visit to the United States in 1947 . 4 According to the document , the Crown Prince had been instructed to persuade US President Harry S . Truman that “ Saudi Arabia ’ s been satisfied with the fact that the US has given up the isolationist policies it adhered to earlier and the kingdom ’ s great hopes caused by active US involvement in Middle East politics .” 5 He should demonstrate the importance of Saudi-American relations and emphasize the existing divergence between the Kingdom and Great Britain . The document contains a clause dedicated to the country ’ s attitude towards Zionism . It demonstrated the deep roots of Saudi-Israeli hostile relations . The clause started with the sentence , “ We , the Arabs , are Muslims first of all . The Jews have been the enemies of our religion since the birth of Islam … We do not oppose the Jews just because they are Jews . We
1
Gertrude Bell , Arab War : Reports Reprinted from the Secret “ Arab Bulletin ” ( Selwa Press , 2012 ). 2 Iosif Levin , The Constitutions of the States of the Near and Middle East ( Moscow ,
1956 ), 436-437 .
3
Tyler Priest , “ The Dilemmas of Oil Empire ,” Journal of American History 99 , no . 1 , ( 2012 ): 236 – 251 .
4
Laurent Murawiec and George Holoch , Princes of darkness : The Saudi assault on the West ( Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers , 2005 ). 5 Alexei Vassiliev , The History of Saudi Arabia ( New York : NYU Press , 2000 ), 699 .
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