Now she is preparing to torpedo the possible agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia once again.

Sources in Hamas say that Iran will not allow any American administration to establish a new moderate axis in the Middle East that would endanger the resistance axis led by Iran.

Iran and its affiliates are very encouraged by the success of the Hamas attack on Israel, and also by the Hezbollah attack on northern Israel. Iran's political mission now is to erase from the agenda any possibility that Israel will continue the normalization process with Arab countries.

Senior security officials in Israel are concerned by the fact that Abdelmalek Al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Iran's emissary, has been threatening Saudi Arabia for several consecutive weeks not to sign a normalization agreement with Israel, because such an agreement constitutes "a threat to Yemen's national security".

Saudi Arabia is very afraid of the military power of the Houthi rebels, who managed to impose a naval blockade on Israel in the Red Sea, and so far have hit more than 150 ships with missiles and drones, claiming that they were on their way to Israel.

The Houthi rebels also managed on September 14, 2019 to disable the Saudi oil facilities of the "Aramco" company in the Albuquerque region of Saudi Arabia through an attack of cruise missiles and UAVs. As a result, Saudi Arabia suffered great economic damage. The attack reduced their oil production capacity by 50 percent, which is about 5 percent of the total global capacity to supply oil. The Trump administration at that time did not come to the aid of Saudi Arabia.

Political officials in Jerusalem point out that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has recently stopped speaking in the media on the subject of normalization with Israel, and has refrained from doing so despite American pressure.

Saudi Arabia is in a ceasefire with the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Security sources said that the Houthis have sent messages to Saudi Arabia in recent times about what the signing of a normalization agreement with Israel would mean, and its consequences for the cease-fire agreement with them.

Bin Salman is very concerned about the weakness of the Biden administration in the Middle East. He also follows Biden's political entanglement in the American election system, and also takes into account the possibility that he will be forced to withdraw from the presidential race.

In addition to this, the Israeli government stands by its refusal to agree to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state as part of the normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. There is also a danger in the air of an all-out military confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel, which will lead, according to all estimates, to a regional war.

In view of these developments, Saudi officials estimate that only a clear Israeli victory in the Gaza Strip over the Hamas movement can encourage Bin Salman to sign a normalization agreement with Israel. In the meantime it is not happening. Israel's situation on the northern front against Hezbollah is also not yet clear.

Ben Salman has no interest in signing a normalization agreement, which is also a security agreement, with Israel, when it is seen as weak against the pro-Iranian axis. It will be difficult for him to pass such an agreement on the Saudi street. 

He is also afraid of being portrayed in the Arab world as someone who is trying to help Israel recover from the events of October 7th. The assessment in Israel now is that he would prefer to wait for the results of the US presidential elections to make the final decision regarding normalization with Israel.

Yoni Ben Menachem, NEWSRAEL contributor and Epoch magazine commentator on Middle East affairs, is an expert in the field who has covered significant events in Israeli history, such as the first and second intifadas, military operations and more. He speaks the Arabic language in several different dialects, and has connections with senior figures in the Arab world, as well as in the political and military leadership in Israel. Ben Menachem served as editor-in-chief and CEO of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.