Saudi Arabia wants Western leaders — especially Washington — to believe it is evolving: moderating its religious discourse, edging toward normalization with Israel and standing as a pragmatic bulwark against Iran. Yet the gap between what Riyadh says in private rooms in Washington and what it permits — indeed, sponsors — at home is no longer sustainable.
Saudis cannot have it both ways. And the United States should stop pretending they can.
The recent meeting between Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Jewish communal and national security leaders, first reported by Jewish Insider, perfectly captured the problem. In the room, the prince reportedly insisted that rising antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric emanating from Saudi Arabia does not reflect the monarchy’s views. He spoke of security coordination with Israel and warned that American hesitation toward Iran would embolden Tehran.
Outside that room, however — on the very same day — Saudi-approved clerics delivered sermons in Medina and Mecca invoking “victory” over “Zionist aggressors” and praying for divine strength against Israel. These were not rogue voices. As analysts have long noted, Friday sermons in the kingdom are curated and authorized by the state. In Saudi Arabia, theology is policy.
This is the heart of the Saudi doublespeak. Riyadh asks Western audiences to judge it by its diplomatic whispers while ignoring its megaphone at home. It assures Jewish leaders that antisemitism is not official policy, even as state-controlled religious institutions recycle some of the oldest, most toxic tropes in the modern Middle East. If that rhetoric is not “reflective of the monarchy’s position,” then the monarchy should demonstrate that — publicly, clearly and decisively.
The reluctance to do so is not accidental. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has built his legitimacy on a careful balancing act: reassuring Western governments and investors while maintaining religious and nationalist credentials at home. Ambiguity serves that strategy well. Clarity does not.
But ambiguity comes at a cost. It undermines claims of reform. It corrodes trust. And it enables antisemitism to persist under the thinnest veneer of diplomatic engagement.
The Trump administration, for its part, has been far too willing to indulge this performance.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly treated Saudi Arabia less as a partner to be challenged than as a benefactor to be indulged — drawn by the promise of investment, arms deals and geopolitical alignment. That approach may yield short-term transactional wins, but it forfeits moral leverage and strategic credibility.
Leadership requires more than closed-door assurances. It requires insisting that words spoken to Western audiences align with actions taken at home. If Saudi leaders claim that antisemitic incitement does not represent the kingdom’s values, then the United States should demand concrete proof: revised sermon guidance, public denunciations of antisemitic rhetoric, accountability for clerics who cross red lines and transparent benchmarks tied to diplomatic progress.
Dialogue, including engagement by Jewish organizations and others who were in the room, is not the problem. Dialogue without consequences is. Listening is valuable; believing without verification is reckless.
Saudi Arabia stands at a crossroads. It can continue playing to two audiences, hoping each will ignore the other. Or it can decide — openly and unmistakably — what kind of regional power it intends to be. The United States should stop accepting evasions and start demanding answers. If Riyadh wants credibility in the West, it must earn it at home.
The bluff has gone on long enough.
Americans and Israelis should stop chasing after the vain hope of getting the desert kingdom to behave as if it is anything other than the Islamist regime that it has always been and likely always will be. The Saudis will always act in their own best interests, and if that lines up with a more Israel-friendly policy, then they’ll do that. And being realists and still desirous of friendly relations with the United States, there will be limits on how far they will go in terms of open hostility to Israel. But they can neither be persuaded nor bribed to give up their basic character.
It’s long past time for Washington and Jerusalem to acknowledge this fact and stop trying to pretend that Saudi Arabia is anything other than what it is. It may not be at war with Israel and may even prefer for it to, along with the United States, continue to act to deter Islamist forces that are hostile to Riyadh, even if they are no longer worried about Iran. But it’s never going to be a real friend or ally of a Jewish state.