Saudi Daily To PA President Mahmoud ‚Abbas: Do Not Dismiss Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s Invitation To Knesset | MEMRI – The Middle East Media Research Institute

On September 25, 2016, the Saudi English-language daily Saudi Gazette published an unusual editorial, urging the Palestinian Authority (PA) not to dismiss out of hand the invitation extended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Palestinian President Mahmoud ‚Abbas to address the Israeli parliament, and not to treat it as just a „new gimmick.“ The editorial stated that this invitation was reminiscent of the one extended by Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to visit Israel. This eventually led to the signing of the Camp David agreement, which „for all its shortcomings… demonstrated that negotiations with Israel were possible.“ The editorial also mentioned the visit of U.S. president Bill Clinton to the PA in 1998, which led to the amendment of the PLO charter and eventually to the holding of the Camp David summit between Israel and the Palestinians in 2000. These two examples, it said, showed that diplomatic visits on that level could change the course of history.