Saudi source: Israel criticism not antisemitic, Netanyahu doesn’t want normalization

Recent harsh criticism of Israel in Saudi Arabian media is not antisemitic, a source in the Saudi royal family told the Kan public broadcaster Sunday, and is instead directed against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s policy decisions.

Last month, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement signaling “alarm” about frequent “antisemitic dog whistles” repeated by media figures and religious clerics in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi source, who was not named in the report, pushed back on the accusation, saying that the coverage “is not antisemitism, but is opposition to moves by the Israeli government.”

“There is no hostility toward religion or to a country here,” the source continued, “but to its policies.”

Netanyahu “is the one who is not interested in normalization,” the source said.

“We want peace, on the condition that Israel agrees to creating a Palestinian state that meets the minimum criteria,” they added, repeating Saudi Arabia’s longstanding line of requiring moves toward Palestinian statehood in exchange for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel, which Jerusalem is strongly opposed to.

Despite the source’s insistence, Saudi clerics have in fact launched into antisemitic sermons, and a front page story in the Saudi newspaper Al-Jazirah last month claimed the United Arab Emirates “was the biggest instigator of the Zionist entity’s aggression against the Gaza Strip.”

In its statement released late last month, the ADL said that it is “alarmed by the increasing frequency and volume of prominent Saudi voices — analysts, journalists and preachers — using openly antisemitic dog whistles and aggressively pushing anti-Abraham Accords rhetoric, often while peddling conspiracy theories about ‘Zionist plots.'”

ADL is alarmed by the increasing frequency and volume of prominent Saudi voices — analysts, journalists, and preachers — using openly antisemitic dog whistles and aggressively pushing anti-Abraham Accords rhetoric, often while peddling conspiracy theories about "Zionist plots."…

— ADL (@ADL) January 22, 2026

Netanyahu said last week that he is closely following Riyadh’s posturing.

“We expect from anybody who wants normalization or peace with us that they not participate in efforts steered by forces or ideologies that want the opposite of peace,” he said at a press conference in response to a question by The Times of Israel.

Such efforts “reject the legitimacy of the State of Israel, and nurture all kinds of forces that attack the State of Israel,” said Netanyahu, going on to say that he’d be “happy to have a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia,” provided “they want normalization and peace with a secure and strong Israel.”

While Netanyahu has been open in his desire to normalize relations with Riyadh,  Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal, told The Times of Israel in a December interview that the kingdom is currently not even entertaining the idea of normalizing relations with Israel and will only do so if Jerusalem begins acting like a “normal country with normal acceptance of international law.”