Forget embassies: How trains, tunnels could link Israel and Saudi Arabia - opinion

Bismarck famously said that the statesman’s task is to “hear God’s footsteps marching through history, and to try to catch on to His coattails as He marches past.” In other words: timing is everything. Most of the time, history just walks away.

Right now, timing is both the problem and the opportunity.

But this diplomatic capital need not be wasted, unless Washington insists on “normalization or nothing.” A serious White House needs an off-ramp: a Plan B that stops short of embassies and anthems, yet quietly locks Saudi Arabia and Israel into shared interests, daily coordination, and a strategic trajectory that points only one way.

That Plan B is IMEC.

Strategically, IMEC is a high-standards alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. It is also a necessary bypass for a Suez-Red Sea chokepoint increasingly held hostage by Houthis and other Iranian proxies. It implicitly answers the Russia-Iran-China axis with functioning, rules-based infrastructure rather than empty communiqués.

Getting the Saudis to formally recommit now – anchoring the first tranche of funding and creating a decision-making consortium with Israel named explicitly as a core node – creates a “near-normalization” mechanism both sides can survive. In this structure, Riyadh and Jerusalem sit at the same table to decide routing, standards, and security long before they exchange ambassadors.

Trains, fiber optics, and shared customs systems do not hold press conferences. They do something better: they force bureaucrats, regulators, and business elites to work together every day. That is how a cold peace quietly ripens into a warm one.

IMEC sits at that intersection. It offers serious freight and trade flows on a scale large enough to satisfy a crown prince determined to leave his mark. It transforms the kingdom into the indispensable land bridge between Asia and Europe, giving Riyadh a platform where it co-chairs with India, Europe, Israel, and the US as a peer, not a client.

For Washington, IMEC is a strategic trifecta. It ties India’s rise to a Western-aligned supply chain; embeds Israel in a broader, rules-based regional architecture; and offers Europe an alternative to both Suez instability and dependence on Chinese infrastructure. In a world where Beijing and Moscow court the Gulf with slogans, a functioning, Western-backed corridor is a concrete answer. If Plan A (full normalization) stalls, Plan B (wiring them into the same corridor) advances the same objectives with less theater and more steel.

For Israel, this is about survival and leverage, not photo ops. An overland route from Gulf ports to Haifa or Ashdod would provide alternatives to the Red Sea precisely when those waterways are being weaponized. Serving as the Mediterranean terminus of a US-backed artery hard-wires Israel into the economic security of partners far beyond the region. Once Indian exporters and Gulf sovereign funds share a stake in an Israeli node, the cost of allowing Israel to be isolated rises dramatically.

One of Musk’s least understood but fastest-advancing ventures is The Boring Company. Having already built underground loops in Las Vegas, the company is eyeing expansion in Dubai. Musk himself has become a featured guest at Saudi investment forums, treated in Riyadh less as a vendor than as a peer visionary.

If Jerusalem were to invite Musk to pilot a desert-scale freight corridor under the Saudi sands as part of IMEC – combining deep tunnels and hyperloop-style pods – the project would evolve, beginning with a modern rail line into a global technology showcase.

Crucially, this Hyperloop-style integration offers a vital and hi-tech role for Israel. Leveraging its experience as a world-leading “Startup Nation” and a hub for frontier tech, Israel could become the central technology incubator and accelerator for the corridor. This means developing and piloting the advanced AI logistics systems, sensor networks, and high-speed propulsion controls required for the next generation of ultra-fast infrastructure.

For the Saudis, it would embody Vision 2030, branding the kingdom as a hi-tech hub. For Washington, it would deploy a private-sector evangelist to prove that the future of infrastructure is being built with American, not Chinese, know-how. And for Musk, it offers a continental-scale testbed to prove that his vision works in the real world.

A tighter alignment of India, the Gulf, Israel, Europe, and the United States against Red Sea chaos and Iranian aggression is coming – one way or another. The only question is whether it arrives through crisis and improvisation, or through a structured corridor like IMEC.

If timing is the essence of statecraft, this is the moment. The war has exposed the cost of passivity, the Saudis are recalibrating their ambitions, Washington wants a win beyond a photo op, and Israel needs anchorage in something larger than a temporary ceasefire. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor will not solve everything. But as an off-ramp from stalled normalization and an on-ramp to a shared strategic future, it may be the rare piece of timing the region actually gets right.