Saudi media Detona Netanyahu after a joke about Palestinians

Saudi Arabia launches an unprecedented offensive against Netanyahu, reflecting the growing frustration of the kingdom with Israel and the war in Gaza

Saudi Arabia has launched a fierce campaign on state media against Benjamin Netanyahu, indicating a growing frustration in the real court of the important state of the Gulf with Prime Minister Israeli and the war in Gaza.

According to the Financial Times, the unusual attack, which could only have been published with the approval of the authorities, occurred after US and Israel authorities talked about the prospects of Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel, despite Riade’s insistence that this would depend on the creation of a Palestinian state.

The offensive was triggered by a joke made by Netanyahu in an interview last week about the creation of a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia.

After an presenter of Israel’s channel 14 says erroneously that there would be no progress in the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel without the establishment of a Saudi state, Netanyahu corrected him, saying: “[Você quer dizer] a Palestinian state ”.

“Unless you want the Palestinian state to be in Saudi Arabia,” he added. “They have a lot of territory.”

The state media responded with fury, reflecting the anger that has been sealing for months between senior employees and the public.

A report on the state channel Al Ekhbariya described Netanyahu incisively as a “Zionist and Sonist son … who inherited extremism in his genes.” He added: “The occupation has no good or ugly face. It has only one face, and it’s Benjamin Netanyahu. ”

Saudi channel Al Arabiya showed an interview program in which the presenter raised questions about the mental state of Netanyahu. “Maybe it was a hallucination case?” asked the anchor.

An Okaz newspaper columnist called the comments of Israeli Prime Minister “fools and ridiculous,” while pro-government commentators on social networks called Netanyahu “the rotten”, a pun with his name in Arabic.

Saudi anger has surfaced while Riade must face pressure from US President Donald Trump to normalize relations with Israel. Like other Arab states, Riade was also shaken by Trump’s insistence that Palestinians should be expelled from Gaza.

Saudi Arabia was close to closing a tripartite agreement with the Biden government before the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. The kingdom would have agreed to establish formal diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for a US defense pact and assistance to a nuclear program.

The war in Gaza shook these plans. Riade never took the normalization of the table, but intensified his condemnation of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza and hardened his position, insisting that Israel would need to take irreversible steps towards a two -state solution.

In September, heir prince Mohammed Bin Salman went further, telling the Advisory Board Shura that the kingdom would not recognize Israel without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, including Gaza and the Someline, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Saudi employees expressed in particular exasperation with what they consider offensive and smug comments of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, suggesting that the kingdom would not only welcome displaced Palestinians, but would also accept conditions for much weaker normalization than its declared requirement of an independent Palestinian state.

“There is a complete disrespect for the statements that Saudi employees make, [e isso faz os sauditas parecerem] Basically not reliable people, two -faced and very conspiring people. It is certainly an indignation, ”said Aziz Alghashian, a Saudi analyst and director of research and geopolitics at Orf Middle East, a Think-Tank-based Think-Tank.

“They [Riade] They are trying to use this opportunity to give Netanyahu a dose of their own medicine. ”

Netanyahu stated that Saudi Arabia would follow in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates, which, along with Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020.

These agreements, signed during Trump’s first term and dubbed Abraham’s agreements, brought insignificant benefits to the Palestinians.

Trump said he would like to extend the agreements to include Saudi Arabia, which, as leader of the Sunni world, is considered the main prize.

Prince Mohammed maintained strong ties with Trump during his first term, and there are some indications that Riade wants to resume where he stopped. The heir prince told the president this month that the kingdom plans to invest more than $ 600 billion in the US over four years.

But Trump shocked the Arab states by saying last week not only that Gaza should be emptied of Palestinians, but also that the US should take control of the track. Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan postponed a programmed trip to Washington after Trump’s announcement announced a familiar person with the subject.

The kingdom also quickly rejected Trump’s plan in a blunt statement released at 4am at the local time, saying: “Achieving lasting and fair peace is impossible without the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights according to international resolutions, as has already been clarified to previous and current US administrations. ”

There Shihabi, a Saudi commentator near the royal court, said “the whole ship is going in the wrong direction now.”

“People expected Trump to appear and advance to a two -state road, but Trump took it in a completely different direction, and Netanyahu is trying to take advantage of it,” he added.

“Israelis have a powerful public relations machine, and when they continue to say that at closed doors, the Saudis are giving us a different message, Riade realizes that it needs to be much more proactive in contesting it.”

Saudi leadership is also concerned about the anger that the war in Gaza has fueled a generation of young Arabs.

“Saudi employees are certainly taking into account the growing public anger among Saudis young people, but also among the younger Muslim population,” said Elham Fakhro, a researcher at Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School. “This is another reason why Saudi employees reinforced the defense of a Palestinian state.”