Short term - yes
Long term - no

establish relations. They will also provide a counterbalance to Iran's efforts to destabilize the Middle East. I agree with your prognosis for both the short-term and long-term outlook between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Good to see your comment and I hope that you are doing well.

Doing well, thank you for asking. Hope you are as well!

Definitely agree they view each other as allies and anchor points against Iran. Not sure how much money this would mean for Israel, but Iran is definitely threatening Saudi oil dominance in the Persian Gulf the value of which is well into the hundreds of Billions USD.

I also think the US is a not so subtle actor here as well given the US needs both players (as well as other Persian Gulf countries) to counter Iran as well. And they need our help as well. That is why we're fighting the Houthi in Yemen as well as why Trump assassinated an Iranian General back in his administration. Also why Trump has such a sweet financial deal with the Saudis - he basically has pimpled out the US military to do things the Saudis find too dirty to do. (He leveraged our needs and their needs to skim some money off of the top for himself).

If my brother wasn't fighting in Iraq at the time, I probably would have joined more protests against the war. Even though I wasn't as liberal then as I am now, the thought of our armed forces being mercenaries was always in my thoughts.

The good news is that my brother went to see someone at the VA a few months ago because he falls under the provisions of the PACT Act. The counseling agent looked at his application from 2018 (the form that neither the VA service agent nor my brother noticed that the SSN was wrong, but I spotted in less than five seconds) when he was denied. They sent in an appeal to reevaluate his claim and he received a 50% disability rating for PTSD and other mental health issues plus they still need to conduct pulmonary tests to see if he receives anything from the PACT Act. Because of the work and effort of Democrats, he received back pay for five years and is receiving a monthly check. However, being ungrateful that he is to the people looking out for his interests, my brother will almost certainly vote for Trump.

As for myself, I am on a roller-coaster ride with the diabetes and anemia. I was always thin, but dropping about 40 pounds this year has left me with skin and bones. The good news was that I finally had a colonoscopy and had good results other than removing a couple polyps. I also had good news from the kidney doctor that everything is still working and I had a COVID booster yesterday.