Open letter to MBS, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

Jerusalem, May 12, 2025

Dear Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman,

I am writing this letter, through the pages of The Times of Israel, hoping that your advisors and staff will draw it to your attention. I am an Israeli peace scholar, who, like 70% of the Israeli public, wants the war in Gaza to end now with the return of the 59 hostages (live and dead).  I am also part of the 84% of the Israeli population, who are deeply concerned about the fate of the hostages and argue that “no victory” (over Hamas) can be reached without the return of all the hostages, now.”

Several days ago, the Israeli security cabinet approved a plan to escalate the war, including the military occupation of most of the Gaza Strip, and the forceful displacement of 2 million Palestinians to a tiny area in its southern part.  That military plan, if implemented, will lead to the death of many Israeli hostages, Israeli soldiers, and hundreds and thousands of innocent Palestinian residents of Gaza, mostly women and children. That is a catastrophic plan that will bring more tragedy and misery to both peoples, and that has to be avoided now, by all means.

This week, President Donald Trump will be visiting your kingdom, alongside the UAE and Qatar. The US President is very interested in enhancing the economic, security, and technological cooperation between your two countries, including agreements in trillions of dollars, to the benefit of the USA and Saudi Arabia.  You have the leverage, the moral and pragmatic obligation, to condition any agreement with the United States in taking a joint initiative to stop the war and impose that initiative upon the recalcitrant Israeli government and Hamas.

As outlined in the Egyptian and the Arab League plans, Hamas has to surrender its political control in the Gaza Strip to a technocratic transitional government, with Palestinian legitimacy.  Furthermore, the Gaza Strip has to be demilitarized, and a massive international effort of reconstruction has to start after the war.  Eventually, the jumpstarting of a renewed peace process involving Israel and the PLO/Palestinian Authority should take place, since the only realistic and moral solution to the tragedy that involves Israelis and Palestinians would be to return to the logic of partitioning the Land between its two peoples in a two-state solution.  We are far from achieving that, but the urgent task is to end the war now, return the hostages, and dismantling Hamas from hijacking its own people in Gaza.

A significant part of Israeli civil society has been demonstrating and acting against the government for the last year and a half, to bring an end to this horrible war, return the remaining hostages home, and end the misery to the Palestinians in Gaza.  But today we need your help, and you have the leverage to do that, now.  You should also be aware that the majority of Israelis dream of ‘normalization’ and peace with your country, within the framework of a ‘package deal’ that will include a security alliance against Iran, and separation from the Palestinians, including the eventual establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian State alongside Israel.  President Trump wants peace, no wars. And this is money time, in more than one sense, to save Israelis and Palestinians from their engulfing catastrophe. All the peoples in the Middle East and history will forever thank you for your intervention in ending the war in Gaza.