TEL AVIV (Dispatches) — Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is racing to secure a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia before October’s parliamentary elections, viewing the agreement as his last chance to cling to power.
According to a Haaretz report citing sources familiar with the matter, Netanyahu has told aides he needs “one more big thing” before Israeli settlers head to the polls, explicitly referring to a landmark deal with Riyadh that he hopes will propel his Likud party to victory and secure him another term in office.
The timing is far from coincidental. On July 22, U.S. President Donald Trump approved a long-term nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that would allow the kingdom to develop a civilian nuclear program. But within 24 hours, Trump introduced a new condition—Riyadh must normalize ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords framework.
Netanyahu seized on the development, reportedly planning to stress the normalization condition during his meeting with Trump earlier this week, desperate to leverage American pressure on Saudi Arabia for his own political gain.
The Saudi regime has repeatedly issued statements claiming it will not normalize relations with Israel without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.  
The Saudis were reportedly on the verge of finalizing a normalization deal with Netanyahu and Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman in September 2023—just weeks before Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza. 
The only reason the deal collapsed was the political inconvenience of being seen embracing Israel while it was slaughtering Palestinians, not because of any principled stance on Palestinian rights.
Many observers believe the Saudi leadership’s supposed support for Palestinian statehood is a convenient talking point, not a red line. The kingdom’s rulers have long maintained covert ties with Israel and are viewed disposed toward sacrificing the Palestinians for a U.S. nuclear deal and American security guarantees.
Following Trump’s announcement, Netanyahu’s office claimed that the joint U.S.-Israeli aggression against Iran had “created the possibility to expand the circle of peace”, with Saudi Arabia eagerly participating in the terrorist military campaign against Iran. 
 According to the Brookings Institution, Israel “craves public recognition as the path to ending its isolation in the Islamic world.” And the Saudi rulers are only too happy to provide that recognition—for the right price.