Sometimes, high school romance is the best analogy for diplomacy.  If so, then Saudi Arabia just told the other kids she’s been secretly dating Israel despite her well-known declaration back in freshman year that Israel was totally uncool.  There’s no ring yet – Saudi Arabia still hasn’t formally recognized Israel’s right to exist.  But by declaring in front of all the other kids (at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York) that the two nations have held five bilateral meetings over the last 17 months, in India, Italy, and the Czech Republic, the word is now officially out, and Iran is sulking. For it was Iran that drew these two together, in one of those crazy, unanticipated affairs that happen among adolescents and serious nations alike, when rivalries, pride, fear, and ambition mix together in a volatile brew. Eli Lake recounts the semi-historical reveal at the CFR in Bloomberg: One participant, Shimon Shapira, a retired...(Read Full Post)