Eshki and members of his delegation, meeting with Israeli Knesset members, July 22

TEL AVIV — Retired Saudi General Anwar Eshki visited Israel last week and met with foreign ministry officials, including Director-General Dore Gold Yoav Mordechai, Haaretz reported.  

Eshki, who headed a delegation of Saudi academics and business people, also met with a group of Knesset members to encourage dialogue in Israel on the Arab Peace Initiative. 

Eshki had served in senior positions in the Saudi military and foreign ministry and currently heads a research institute. It is unclear how close he is to officials in the Riyadh government and the palace. While this wasn’t an official visit, it was a highly unusual one, as Eshki couldn’t have traveled to Israel without approval from the Saudi government. 

Eshki and Gold held a publicized joint event at a Washington research institute in June 2015, after meeting several times privately within academic frameworks over the preceding year. Gold attended the event a few days before assuming the role of director-general of the Foreign Ministry.  

Eshki and the delegation arrived in Israel in the beginning of the week. They also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior government figures in Ramallah.  

Their meetings with the two Israeli officials did not take place in a government office but rather at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.  

The former general and the delegates met with opposition Knesset members on Friday. 

During the meeting, the former Saudi general told the Israeli lawmakers about his relationship with Gold, noting that the Foreign Ministry director-general wrote an anti-Saudi book over a decade ago titled “Hatred’s Kingdom.” Eshki said during one of their meetings, Gold apologized for his accusations against Saudi Arabia, said that some of what he had written was wrong and stressed that he wants to strengthen the ties between the two countries.