The not-so-secret alliance

摘要

ISRAELI MINISTERS were told at the last moment that a cabinet meeting scheduled for November 22nd had been postponed. Not said was that the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, was making his way to the airport where he was met by the chief of the Mossad spy agency, Yossi Cohen, who also functions as his plenipotentiary to countries with which Israel does not have official relations. As night fell they flew due south, over the Red Sea, to Saudi Arabia. Sharp-eyed journalists noticed the unusual flight on an online flight-tracking website and quickly put two and two together: Mike Pompeo, America's secretary of state, was also in the kingdom, meeting Muhammad bin Salman, the powerful crown prince, in Neom, a new high-tech city that the prince is building. Unusually, calls to Mr Netanyahu's office to confirm reports that all three men had met were not rebuffed with denials. Equally surprising was the lack of action by Israel's military censors, who in the past had quashed reports of Israeli-Saudi co-operation. One of Mr Netanyahu's aides snidely tweeted that unlike his defence minister and rival, Benny Gantz, "who is making politics", Mr Netanyahu "is making peace". Saudi officials have also confirmed the meeting between Mr Netanyahu and Prince Muhammad, reports the Wall Street Journal.