" “There’s no doubt that the visit was authorized and quietly initiated by the Saudis behind the scenes,” said Steinberg, formerly a special adviser to heads of the Shin Bet security service. “I think that Egypt, too, within the framework of President [Abdel Fattah] al-Sisi’s initiative, was in on the secret.” One can also assume that without a green light, the retired general would not have met openly with the top official of Israel’s foreign service, Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold, and with Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the most senior IDF officer in the West Bank." "The Arab willingness to give Israel an advance payment in the form of normalizing ties with the Arab world without receiving anything in return on the Palestinian front signals a change in the Arab League’s strategy."