Why Does the British Royal Family Visit Saudi Arabia But Not Israel?

The Prince of Wales shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu at the CO21 conference

THE TELEGRAPH: Members of the Royal family regularly visit authoritarian Arab states, but they have never made an official trip to Israel

When Prince Charles threaded through the hallways of last week’s climate change conference in Paris, he swapped ideas with world leaders on how to confront the dangers of a warming planet.

But Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had something else on his mind. During a brief meeting, he invited the Prince of Wales to pay an official visit to Israel.

Mr Netanyahu’s offer - like dozens of others extended by Israeli leaders to the Royal family - is unlikely to be taken up.

In the 67 years since Israel was founded in territory once controlled by Britain, no member of the Royal family has ever visited in an official capacity. While Prince Charles and others have occasionally set foot in Israel, Buckingham Palace and the British Government have been at pains to stress they were personal visits and not official ones.

The rejected invitations are a source of deep frustration for Israel, especially as the Royal family has made high-profile visits to authoritarian regional neighbours like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as Charles did in February.

“We’re the only democracy in the Middle East and so you ask why do the Royals go to the Arab dictatorships around us but they don’t come here?” said one Israeli official. » | Raf Sanchez, Jerusalem, and Gordon Rayner | Saturday, December 5, 2015

Prince Andrew Trip to Libya Could Be Cancelled Over Lockerbie Bomber
THE TELEGRAPH: The Duke of York may see plans for an official visit to Libya cancelled as an expression of British Government anger at Libyan celebrations of the return of the Lockerbie bomber.

There is growing anger in Britain at the reception granted to Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi on his return to Libya after eight years in a Scottish jail.

Downing Street has also said that Gordon Brown had appealed to the Libyans not to give Megrahi a hero's welcome on his return.

In a letter to Col Gaddafi sent on Thursday, the Prime Minister asked the Libyans to "act with sensitivity" over the return of Megrahi.

Megrahi, the biggest mass murderer in British legal history, flew home to Tripoli on Thursday after being freed from jail on compassionate grounds by Scotland's devolved adminstration.

A large crowd gathered to greet his return, and he has been feted as a national hero.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that the reception Libya gave Megrahi was "deeply distressing".

The Foreign Office is now understood to be reviewing a plan for Prince Andrew to represent Britian [sic] at celebrations marking 40 years of Col Gaddafi's rule. >>> James Kirkup and Aislinn Simpson | Friday, August 21, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH:
Lockerbie bomber release: Reaction from American media >>> | Friday, August 21, 2009