On May 20, US President Donald Trump signed a deal unprecedented in scope to sell Saudi Arabia $110 billion worth of arms and military equipment and an additional $350 billion over the coming decade. The mammoth agreement, inked by Trump with the Saudis, did not cast a pall over the royal reception accorded to the presidential family in Israel. It’s hard not to remember the Israeli reaction to the 1981 decision by President Ronald Reagan to sell the Saudis five Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS). Back then, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin raised a stink, the pro-Israel lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington went into overdrive, and the media reported a severe crisis in Israel’s ties with the United States.

So why has Israel, the great enemy of terrorism, changed its attitude toward Riyadh? After all, Saudi Arabia has not stopped backing Islamist, anti-Israel terror groups. Former President Barack Obama declared that the Saudis were disseminating radical Wahhabi ideology. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote that the Saudis were the main source of funding for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terror organizations. German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel demanded that the Saudis stop funding radical mosques.

There are several explanations for the resounding Israeli silence regarding the US arms deal with its Arab neighbor, formally considered an enemy state of Israel. First, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have learned a lesson from the failure of the 1980s campaign against the AWACS. His right-wing government has no desire to run afoul of the quick-to-anger businessman-turned-president and to get in the way of such a lucrative deal. It could cost them a “real estate” deal — namely an American demand that Israel freeze West Bank settlement construction — which would threaten the future of Netanyahu’s coalition. One can easily imagine what a ruckus Netanyahu would have caused had Obama signed a similar weapons deal before coming to Jerusalem, then refused to visit the holy Jewish site of the Western Wall accompanied by the Jewish prime minister and delivered a speech (at the Israel Museum) that included lavish praise for the Saudi monarch, King Salman.

Second, the Saudi weapons purchase is expected to boost the global arms industry, in which Israel has a major stake. A former senior defense official told financial daily The Marker that the intensive American interest in the Saudi deal was expected to spawn tenders for arms sales to other countries. Israeli entrepreneur Tal Mashraky, owner of the communications equipment manufacturer Acceleradio, which conducts projects for the Israeli and US militaries, said Israeli subcontractors working with American industries stand to gain a hefty commission from the Saudi deal. He also predicted that as compensation, the Americans might lift limitations on the sale of Israeli weapons to China.