For nearly a decade, Saudi Arabia has been locked in a wrestling match with its own identity. Is it a repressive government that silences dissent and assassinates journalists like Jamal Khashoggi, or is it a bastion of free expression that invites profane comedians like Bill Burr and Louis C.K. to perform for Muslim audiences in Riyadh? Is it a backwards theocracy that imprisons and beheads women for “crimes” such as talking, driving, and merely existing, or is it a tireless champion of female empowerment? Is it a warmongering bully that engineers famine in Yemen while fervently opposing regime change in Iran, or is it a peace-building nation that engages with innovative frameworks for advancing regional integration, particularly the Abraham Accords? The result of this inner struggle is that the Saudis are increasingly blinded by their own strategic incoherence and apparently oblivious to the reality that actions speak louder than words. Lately, even their words are betraying them. 

On 22 January, an article appeared in Saudi Arabia’s conservative daily newspaper Al-Jazirah titled “The Emirates in Our Hearts” written by Dr Ahmed bin Othman al-Tuwaijri, a former member of the Shura Council, the Kingdom’s supreme advisory body. On the surface, it was a long-form commentary outlining the unique relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates while drawing attention to emerging tensions between the two powers, specifically on the issue of joint UAE-Israel activity in the Gulf of Aden. None of this was necessarily incorrect. I made the same observations in my analysis of Israel’s Somaliland recognition.

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The issue, as ever, lay in al-Tuwaijri’s framing. Saudi Arabia’s waning influence in the Gulf is presented as the natural outcome of a “heinous and despicable” conspiracy allegedly advanced through Abu Dhabi: a “Zionist Trojan horse.” The article goes further still, pairing this narrative with an explicit invocation of Israel’s destruction: “Israel is on a path to rapid demise, while the Ummah will endure, insha’Allah.” The article was briefly removed from circulation after it was highlighted as a prime example of Saudi Arabia endorsing antisemitic narratives. But the damage had already been done.

Ahmed al-Tuwaijri is not an outlier. His brother and former ICESCO director, Abdulaziz al-Tuwaijri, has since described allegations of antisemitism as “the last arrow in the fool’s quiver” and framed interfaith architectural initiatives in the UAE as an example of “explicit unbelief.” Beyond the al-Tuwaijris, the prominent Saudi influencer Abdullatif al-Shaikh recently denounced Emirati analyst Amjad Taha as a “Zionist dog” who had sold his conscience for “Zionist dollars.” In the same message, al-Shaikh accused Israel of slaughtering Gazan children daily, alongside genocide and land theft, and advanced the absurd claim (one even debunked in Saudi-owned media) that “Arabs are the original Semites” and therefore, by definition, incapable of antisemitism. 

According to Israeli journalist Amit Segal, Saudi media coverage since December has been “worse than Al-Jazeera in the rhetoric it broadcasts against any normalisation with Israel.” The same Islamist strain of incoherent anti-Jewish hostility that shaped decades of pre-9/11 Saudi policy toward Israel now appears to be resurfacing, without any visible pushback from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman.