The Gigantic City Project Called NEOM: Saudi Arabia Might Recognize Israel Because of NEOM Project

The half-a-trillion-dollar initiative to build a tristate city at the Saudi, Egyptian, and Jordanian border in the Gulf of Aqaba will more than likely lead to Riyadh recognizing Israel and integrating Tel Aviv into the project.

The ambitious Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman unveiled a $500 billion project at an investment forum earlier this week in an effort to bring some serious substance to his Vision 2030 project of fundamentally diversifying his country’s oil-dependent economy in the coming decade. The proposal calls for a gigantic city called NEOM to be built at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba in the northeastern corner of the Red Sea, with the plan being for it to eventually extend into neighboring Egypt and Jordan as well. The Crown Prince promised that it would be a technologically advanced city with its own laws and administration, and it will also be free from anything “traditional”.

The latter remark hints that Mohammed Bin Salman won’t allow the Kingdom’s traditional Wahhabi socio-cultural “regulations” to be enforced there, which goes along with his other headline-grabbing statement during the event when he said that Saudi Arabia will “return…to moderate Islam” and “swiftly deal a blow to extremist ideologies”. Quite clearly, as analyzed in the author’s earlier piece this month about Saudi Arabia’s shifting grand strategy, a “deep state” conflict is indeed being fought in the country between its monarchic and clerical factions, with the former poised to carry out a “soft coup” against the latter as it seeks to “modernize” the country. This will surely result in some behind-the-scenes tumult in the coming future, if not overt destabilization, but the point of the present article isn’t to dwell too much on that tangent.

Instead, it’s relevant to have brought that up in order to make the case that Saudi Arabia is on the cusp of an unprecedented paradigm change that will likely see it recognizing Israel if the monarchy is successful in snuffing out the clerics’ political influence. Saudi Arabia’s Egyptian and Jordanian NEOM partners have already recognized and signed peace treaties with Israel, and Riyadh is known to be coordinating with Tel Aviv in crafting a comprehensive anti-Iranian regional policy, amongst other strategic commonalities that they share. Moreover, the secret meetings between Saudi Arabia and Israel over the years suggest that their relationship is much warmer in private than either side publicly presents it as for their own respective domestic political reasons.

Israel has always wanted relations with Saudi Arabia, though Riyadh has traditionally shirked away from this because it wanted to present itself as a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, made all the more symbolic by the Saudi monarchy’s custodianship over the Two Holy Mosques given the religious dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, if Mohammed Bin Salman comes out on top in his “deep state” “soft coup” against the Wahhabi clerics, then he can easily lay the “blame” on them for his country’s refusal to recognize Israel after all of these decades. Not only could he be interested in doing this as the ultimate expression of his country’s radically transformed identity under his stewardship, but he might be just as importantly driven by the geostrategic imperatives related to Vision 2030’s flagship NEOM project.

The Gulf of Aqaba was chosen not just because it would allow NEOM to spread into Egypt and Jordan, but also because of its proximity to Israel, which is promoting its “Red-Med” railway proposal as the perfect Mideast complementary component of the New Silk Road. Tel Aviv keenly knows that the Chinese are always looking for backup plans and transport route diversification in order to not be too dependent on any single connectivity corridor, and in this case, overland rail transit from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Eastern Mediterranean via Israel comes off as exceedingly attractive to Beijing’s strategists. Furthermore, China has fantastic relations with both Saudi Arabia and Israel, so from Beijing’s perspective, this is the perfect Mideast “win-win”, especially if the People’s Republic can find a way to insinuate that its possible financing of both the NEOM and “Red-Med” projects contributed to bringing peace to the Mideast.

In addition, there’s also the Russian factor to take into consideration, and it’s objectively known – though commonly denied in the Alt-Media Community – that Moscow and Tel Aviv are on excellent terms with one another and basically cooperate as allies in Syria. When accounting for the fast-moving Russian-Saudi rapprochement and Moscow’s envisioned 21st-century grand strategic role in becoming the supreme balancing force in Eurasia, it’s likely that Russia would be in favor of any Saudi recognition of Israel and Tel Aviv’s integration into the NEOM project because it would then allow the Russian business elite both in the Russian Federation and Israel to invest in this exciting city-state and the complementary “Red-Med” Silk Road corridor.

Seeing as how Mohammed Bin Salman is trying to purge the clerics’ political influence from the Kingdom, it’s very possible that Saudi Arabia will end up recognizing Israel in the near future and blaming its decades-long delay in doing so on the Wahhabis. The grand intent behind this isn’t just to formalize the Saudi-Israeli anti-Iranian partnership or to show the world just how serious the Crown Prince is in changing the course of his country, but to please Riyadh’s newfound Multipolar Great Power partners in Moscow and Beijing, both of which enjoy exceptional relations with Tel Aviv but would probably be reluctant to invest in the Kingdom’s NEOM city-state project so long as its connectivity access remained dependent on the Suez Canal chokepoint.

Russia and China would feel more strategically secure if Israel was incorporated into this megaproject so that its territory could be used for overland transshipment between the Red and Mediterranean Seas via the “Red-Med” railway proposal, which would then make NEOM infinitely more attractive from a logistics perspective for all sorts of investors. If Saudi Arabia doesn’t recognize Israel, then this non-Suez workaround is impossible and the NEOM city-state loses its grand strategic significance in the context of the Multipolar World Order, which could consequently lead to a lack of investment and therefore the potential failure of Vision 2030’s flagship project. As such, due to the economic-strategic imperatives associated with NEOM, as well as the geopolitical paradigm shift staking place in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh will probably recognize Israel in the coming future in order to guarantee that its city-state initiative succeeds and ultimately transitions the Kingdom away from its oil-exporting dependency.

The ambitious Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman unveiled a $500 billion... proposal... for a gigantic city called NEOM to be built at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba in the northeastern corner of the Red Sea, with the plan being for it to eventually extend into neighboring Egypt and Jordan as well. The Crown Prince promised that it would be a technologically advanced city with its own laws and administration, and it will also be free from anything "traditional".
Locating it there while not mentioning Israel could mean either an eventual positive relationship with Israel, or it could portend an economic war upon Israel. Politically, either one makes sense, since it wouldn't do to say, "yeah, all four countries will be involved." I think it would make much more sense for Egypt to contribute the territory of the entire Sinai to the proposal, because that would create a wedge and buffer, and building out literally the entire coastline before fiddling much with the interior would cut off the nighttime resupply of the Sinai terrorists via ships, and maybe Iranian sub, by sea.
The latter remark hints that Mohammed Bin Salman won't allow the Kingdom's traditional Wahhabi socio-cultural "regulations" to be enforced there... Quite clearly, as analyzed in the author's earlier piece this month about Saudi Arabia's shifting grand strategy, a "deep state" conflict is indeed being fought in the country between its monarchic and clerical factions, with the former poised to carry out a "soft coup" against the latter as it seeks to "modernize" the country.
Reduction of the Wahhabi grip -- a grip that tightened a great deal as a consequence of the fake mahdi's takeover of the Grand Mosque back in the 1970s -- won't cause as much of a stir as some think, as it has been a failure at dealing with important threats such as the Shiite domination of the oil patch, the Iran-kindled civil war in Yemen, and, obviously, western influences, which are seen as an important part of the future rather than as a threat. Having some nitwit crossing guard moron in an ugly fashion choice uniform arrest kids for holding hands in public is insulting, particularly for a group of rich idlers who owe literally their entire lifestyle to the Kingdom rather than some cleric. Saudis have a guest worker population of close to 25 percent of the entire population of the country, and they do all the work.
Saudi Arabia's Egyptian and Jordanian NEOM partners have already recognized and signed peace treaties with Israel, and Riyadh is known to be coordinating with Tel Aviv in crafting a comprehensive anti-Iranian regional policy, amongst other strategic commonalities that they share. Moreover, the secret meetings between Saudi Arabia and Israel over the years suggest that their relationship is much warmer in private than either side publicly presents it as for their own respective domestic political reasons.
The enemy of your enemy may or may not be your friend, but the longer one has common ground with a common enemy, the less likely war becomes. [Civ's corollary]
...if Mohammed Bin Salman comes out on top in his "deep state" "soft coup" against the Wahhabi clerics, then he can easily lay the "blame" on them for his country's refusal to recognize Israel after all of these decades. Not only could he be interested in doing this as the ultimate expression of his country's radically transformed identity under his stewardship, but he might be just as importantly driven by the geostrategic imperatives related to Vision 2030's flagship NEOM project.

The Gulf of Aqaba was chosen not just because it would allow NEOM to spread into Egypt and Jordan, but also because... overland rail transit from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Eastern Mediterranean via Israel comes off as exceedingly attractive to Beijing's strategists. Furthermore, China has fantastic relations with both Saudi Arabia and Israel...
Here's a good place to hyperventilate if you like to fuss about so-called globalism. Humans are global. We've always been looking for trade and, y'know, other action, all over the world. Now, get ready to grab yet another brown paper bag.
...it's objectively known - though commonly denied in the Alt-Media Community - that Moscow and Tel Aviv are on excellent terms with one another and basically cooperate as allies in Syria. When accounting for the fast-moving Russian-Saudi rapprochement and Moscow's envisioned 21st-century grand strategic role in becoming the supreme balancing force in Eurasia, it's likely that Russia would be in favor of any Saudi recognition of Israel and Tel Aviv's integration into the NEOM project because it would then allow the Russian business elite both in the Russian Federation and Israel to invest in this exciting city-state and the complementary "Red-Med" Silk Road corridor.
By "objectively known" the writer means "known". ;^) The Russian/Saudi crude oil production agreement got all worked out after Russia's cutthroats entered Syria in large numbers and the Iranians hit the back door as fast as they could. The Russians don't want just any old pipeline across Iraq/(Kurdistan)/Syria to get built, they want some say-so about it. And they do want it built. Control of Russian oil production is the criminal gang's largest source of income (their second being arms exports), so assuring price stability by assuring production stability is important, even vital. The obvious US move is in Cyprus, but the EU and UN, along with the Greek Cypriotes, are busy ****ing that up some more.
Mohammed Bin Salman... recognizing Israel in the near future... to please Riyadh's newfound Multipolar Great Power partners in Moscow and Beijing, both of which enjoy exceptional relations with Tel Aviv but would probably be reluctant to invest in the Kingdom's NEOM city-state project so long as its connectivity access remained dependent on the Suez Canal chokepoint.
The chokepoint isn't the Suez Canal, the chokepoint is the Iranian missiles in Eritrea and the Iranian influence in Yemen, both places overlook the most valuable trade route in the world.
Russia and China would feel more strategically secure if Israel was incorporated into this megaproject so that its territory could be used for overland transshipment between the Red and Mediterranean Seas via the "Red-Med" railway proposal
Uh, no. Imagine how busy those train tracks would have to be if the shipping had to head up the Gulf of Aqaba, unload, the cargo loaded into trains, shipped across, and then reloaded onto ships in the Med. That looks like a poor option most of the time, but during a time of war, would be the inferior only choice. The Chinese might find that attractive, but the ships wouldn't be able to get to the railhead if the Iranians (or anyone or anything) closed the entrance to the Red Sea. The strategic value of the rail line isn't due to trade, but due to having some ability to move freight to the world's largest city, and to support any land war needed to move from the Med basin (US,EU) into Arabia and the Gulf. Russia support of the idea would only be to put the scare into Egypt -- that Russia itself might be counting on the loss of the Canal.

Saudi recognition of Israel would also open up natural geographic routes for pipelines.

The old Tapline (Trans Arabian Pipeline) was supposed to terminate in Haifa, but they re-routed through Syria, which they (later) had to shut down when relations went sour. That pipeline could be activated as fast as the Israelis could build their stretch and port facilities. The Saudi/Jordanian part is already built and idle (but would need refurbishing).

The Israelis also have an economic equivalent of nuclear weapons - their human capital. Tiny Israel has been called “Start-up Nation” for its huge number of new businesses, as well as a huge number of patents. Not only do they bring this world-class economic dynamism with their own population, but they can rapidly leverage Jewish elites in the United States, Europe and Russia as well - a world-class asset, that could stimulate a frenzy of investment interest if there was real opportunity.

“Palestinian” Arabs used to be respected in the Gulf as competent employees for white collar service and middle management jobs - a cut above their domestic populations. They have been largely shut out since Arafat sided with Saddam in the Gulf War though. Should Saudi Arabia recognize Israel, Palestinians also could be a significant source of human capital to jumpstart Neom’s growth. Good jobs and real career options would be a Godsend for many Palestinians - close enough drive home for holidays, and nice enough to not want to.

There are huge synergies to an Israeli-Saudi free trade zone, as well as in a security partnership.

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