Saudi media takes an anti-Israel turn

In one example, a January editorial in the daily Al Riyadh criticized Israel for disregarding international law and state sovereignty.

“Wherever Israel is present, there is ruin and destruction," the editorial said.

Saudi clerics have amplified the message. “Oh God, deal with the Jews who have seized and occupied, for they cannot escape your power," Sheikh Saleh bin Humaid, an imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, said during a sermon in December.

The recent shift in tone has been driven in part by Saudi Arabia’s escalating public feud with the United Arab Emirates, a rival for economic leadership of the Gulf that has taken opposing sides to the kingdom in conflicts around the Middle East.

The U.A.E. is also the most prominent signatory of the Abraham Accords—a series of U.S.-backed normalization deals between Israel and Muslim-majority countries. The Saudi media campaign has been directed by the kingdom’s leadership and takes aim at those ties, which make for an easy target to swing public opinion, Saudi officials said.

“The impostor from Abu Dhabi believes that the shortest path to avenging past grudges and healing the state of jealousy and feelings of inferiority toward the Kingdom is by throwing oneself into the arms of Zionism and accepting that the Emirates become the Israeli Trojan horse in the Arab world," Saudi columnist Ahmed bin Othman Al-Tuwaijri wrote in an online editorial last month for the Saudi publication Al-Jazirah.

Saudi Arabia disputes the idea that the coverage is coordinated by the government but has noticed it as well, seeing it as a sign of growing popular anger with Israel that highlights the pressure the government faces over normalization.

Bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords long figured at the center of U.S. and Israeli ambitions for the Middle East. But the kingdom’s calculations have changed in the wake of the war in Gaza, whose toll has hardened attitudes against Israel, Saudi and Israeli officials said.

While Saudi Arabia says it is still open to normalization if it comes with a pathway to a Palestinian state, its diminished urgency has left room for other foreign-policy priorities to dominate.

Media bombast isn’t necessarily reflective of more deeply held foreign-policy priorities, and the kingdom has sharply criticized Israel before, including the crown prince referring to its actions in Gaza as a genocide in November 2024.

But the current Saudi campaign runs counter to years of work to improve Israel’s image in the kingdom and prepare Saudi Arabia’s 35 million people for the possibility of formal diplomatic ties.

Saudi media had previously remained neutral about other Gulf countries’ decisions to normalize relations with Israel. In contrast to Qatar-based Al Jazeera, Saudi media also heavily criticized Hamas for its role in sparking and perpetuating the war in Gaza.

The new tone has created political trouble for the kingdom in the U.S. The Anti-Defamation League has expressed concern about what it called prominent Saudi voices making increasingly loud and frequent disparaging comments about Jews, Israel and the Abraham Accords.

“It does raise a question of whether MBS is committed to the path of moderation both Trump and Biden have invested in," said Daniel Shapiro, who was deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East in the Biden administration, referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “If he’s willing to dramatically change course when he’s dealing with a rival and competitor, perhaps he isn’t as committed to a regional coalition of moderates as we thought."

Saudi Arabia’s embassy in the U.S. said the kingdom rejects antisemitism and remains open to normalization with Israel provided there is a commitment to Palestinian statehood. The country’s defense minister, Khalid bin Salman, traveled to Washington, where he met Friday with Jewish groups and spread the word that the kingdom was committed to regional integration.

Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, met with senior Saudi officials last week and joined a meeting Friday with the defense minister.

“The Saudis understood that their dispute with the Emiratis had crossed into an anti-Israel posture of increasing virulence, that it was creating serious problems for them in Washington," Dubowitz said.

The Saudi defense minister and other officials committed to do what they can to lower the temperature, Dubowitz said.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince continues to push forward efforts to modernize the kingdom and its ultraconservative image, recently lifting a ban on sales of alcohol, for instance.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to questions from reporters during a press conference on Tuesday, said Israel was monitoring the Saudi moves.

“We expect from anybody who wants normalization or peace with us that they not participate in efforts directed by forces or ideologies that want the opposite of peace," Netanyahu said. He added that he still wants normalization with Saudi Arabia as long as Saudi Arabia is interested in normalization with a strong and secure Israel.

The U.A.E. foreign ministry declined to comment on the Saudi media campaign.

Saudi Arabia has long contemplated establishing formal ties with Israel, in large part to move closer to the U.S. and to cement the crown prince’s reputation as a modernizing force. The two came close to a deal in 2023, according to Israeli and U.S. officials who were involved in the talks.

The war in Gaza changed the calculations for both sides. Saudi Arabia has toughened its demand that Israel create a pathway for a Palestinian state—something that is opposed by most Israelis in the wake of Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war in 2023.

“You won’t find anything formal about it, but Israel has chosen for now to shelve the normalization, because it’s not willing to pay the price the Saudis have demanded," said Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank based in Tel Aviv.

Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. have many common interests but have long feuded over their competing economic ambitions and leadership of the region. The tensions have sharpened recently, with the two finding themselves supporting opposing sides in conflicts including in Yemen, which is especially sensitive as it abuts Saudi Arabia.

The face-off there is in the part of the country not controlled by the Houthi militant group. After a Yemeni faction backed by the U.A.E. seized energy-rich territory along the Saudi border in December, the kingdom ramped up its military and media pressure.

Saudi Arabia’s pivot away from the U.A.E. and Israel has been accompanied by strengthening relations with Israeli adversaries Pakistan and Turkey. Riyadh signed a defense pact with Pakistan in September, and talks are under way to include Turkey in the security alliance.

Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are at the lowest point in their relationship since the Emirates gained independence in the 1970s, said Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, a Washington think tank.

Still, he compared their rivalry to the type of familial infighting that is often ultimately resolved.

The two have overlapping geopolitical, security and economic interests and challenges, including a focus on technological supremacy and cooperation, opposing Islamist governments in the region, and defending their countries from common threats like Iran.

“Without a doubt, a thaw between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi will almost certainly come before normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia," Ibish said.

Write to Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com and Dov Lieber at dov.lieber@wsj.com