By David Isaac
(November 21, 2025 / JNS) Saudi Crown Prime Mohammed bin Salman received the royal treatment at the White House on Tuesday, with U.S. President Donald Trump ordering up an artillery salute, fighter jet flyover and brass band.
More significantly, the United States and Saudi Arabia finalized a sweeping set of agreements that significantly expand their strategic, economic and defense partnership, including the sale of America’s most advanced fighter plane, the F-35.
The question is: Should Israel be concerned?
At least publicly, the deal has been met with silence both by Israel and by American Jewish organizations. The two notable exceptions are the Zionist Organization of America and Americans for a Safe Israel, which have sharply criticized the F-35 sale, saying it undermines Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge. QME refers to a country’s superiority in advanced technology, training, intelligence and overall military effectiveness.
“They’re selling F 35s, the most highly advanced jet on earth, to a country which has strategic partnerships with two of America’s biggest enemies—China and Iran—and which has a mutual defense agreement with Pakistan,” ZOA President Morton Klein told JNS.
The Saudis themselves are an “Islamic dictatorship,” he added.
Not only Klein is worried. The Israeli Air Force delivered a position paper to Israel’s leadership on Nov. 16 warning that the sale could erode Israel’s military dominance.
Klein said Israeli officials visited Washington, D.C. several weeks ago “begging” the administration not to sell the Saudis its fifth-generation fighters. When they lost that battle, Israel requested that the sale at least be conditioned on the Saudis joining the Abraham Accords. That also didn’t happen, Klein said.
Trump should be more concerned that this technology could ultimately fall into the hands of China, Iran or Pakistan, Klein said. A Pentagon intelligence report expressed fears that China could acquire the F-35 technology through the Saudis, The New York Times reported last week.
Klein said that the deal violates U.S. law, referring to a U.S. legal obligation to maintain Israel’s QME. It’s important that pro-Israel groups register their disapproval, he said. Representatives of AIPAC, the main U.S. pro-Israel lobbying group, told Klein they were against the sale, but didn’t speak up. “We figured it’s a done deal. There’s nothing we can do,” they told him, he said.
Klein acknowledged that Republican senators shared with him this week that the F-35s the Saudis would receive would not be as advanced as those of the Israelis, despite Trump’s White House comments suggesting they would be “top of the line.”
Dan Schueftan, chairman of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, is still more upbeat. He agreed that positive Saudi signals about the Abraham Accords may pave the way for other Muslim countries to sign on. “I’m particularly interested in Indonesia. If they join, it will open up opportunities for Israel,” he said.
Schueftan attached far less importance to a formal normalization treaty with the Saudis than to substantive improvement in informal relations. If the Saudis cooperate in the vision put forward by former U.S. President Joe Biden, of a trade-transit route running from India, through the Persian Gulf and Israel to Europe, that would be far more valuable than a signing ceremony on the White House lawn, he said.
That trade route, called the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor, or IMEC, aims to bolster economic integration between Asia, the Persian Gulf and Europe, and act as a strategic alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Saudi Arabia and Israel would play a crucial role in the IMEC.
Of the F-35 sale, Schueftan conceded, “I’m not very happy with it,” but said improving U.S.-Saudi relations is important. He expressed confidence that the U.S. would compensate Israel for any loss in its qualitative military edge.
For Schueftan, what matters is that U.S.-Israel ties have never been better. The June war against Iran marked the first time the U.S. participated in military action with Israel. And in the Gaza Strip, Israel now has “legitimacy” to confront the inevitable breakdown in the ceasefire.
Israel enjoys a “dramatically better” strategic situation than before the Oct. 7, 2023, war with Hamas, Schueftan said, and “to a large extent because of Donald Trump.”
This article was originally published in JNS and can be viewed here.