The Saudis need to get serious, and they can't do that if they persist in doing silly things like keeping Israeli journalists out of their country even on the occasion of a visit to Riyadh by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general. After all, Saudi Arabia has now put itself forward as the leader of the Arab orbit in pushing the two Palestinian factions--Hamas and Fatah--to engage with Israel. Frankly, I don't believe that they'll be able--and this assumes that they are willing--to accomplish this feat. But they are certainly setting an awful example by denying a Washington-based Israeli journalist from Yediot Aharonot, the most popular newspaper in Israel, the visa that she had been promised by the Saudi mission in New York.
Read Warren Hoge's piece in Sunday's New York Times.