Saudi Arabia cannot ask the world to treat it as a partner for peace while a sermon broadcast from Mecca vilifies Jews and sanctifies their enemies. Normalization is not a trophy but a test. If it is meant to change the Middle East, it must also change the global community.
In an op-ed published this week, Dr. Edy Cohen, an expert in the Arab world, described the weekly sermon delivered from Islam’s holiest site two days before the antisemitic terrorist attack in Sydney. The preacher, Sheikh Salih bin Abdullah bin Humaid, called on God to punish the Jews and portrayed Israel as a cruel “Zionist enemy,” while praising the Palestinian struggle.
Regardless of any operational connection, sermons such as these provide moral justification. They tell millions of listeners that hostility to Jews is not prejudice; it is righteousness. They intentionally blur the distinction between anti-Israel rhetoric and anti-Jewish hatred, and their impact extends far beyond the Gulf region.
Such rhetoric matters now because normalization with Saudi Arabia is again being discussed in strategic circles, often as if it is a transactional mega-deal. Public reporting and US policy discussions have described a package that could include US security guarantees, advanced weapons, and civilian nuclear cooperation in exchange for Riyadh establishing ties with Israel. If that is the framework, then antisemitic incitement is not a side issue; it is a threat multiplier.
MBS speaks the language of reform but consolidates power through repression
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) likes to speak the language of reform. In 2017, he told Reuters he wanted “moderate Islam” and vowed to eradicate extremism. Yet he has also consolidated power through repression, including waves of detentions of prominent clerics and public figures. In Saudi Arabia, religion is not separate from the state; it is administered.
That is why it isn’t easy to accept the claim that a Mecca sermon is mere freelancing. Saudi authorities have long regulated mosque preaching, including requiring imams to commit to not using Friday sermons for making inflammatory remarks – and to dismissing preachers who cross official redlines.
In 2023, the Saudi cabinet established a body linked to the king to supervise the imams and religious affairs of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. In other words, what is said from those pulpits should be treated as state-signaled messaging, not a rogue flourish.
MBS’s own words on normalization underline the point. In September 2023, he told Fox News: “Every day we get closer,” while stressing that “the Palestinian issue is very important.” In September 2024, he publicly declared that Saudi Arabia would not recognize Israel without an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Riyadh is not offering peace for free. Israel should not be asked to accept hate for free. Israel should want peace with Riyadh. A serious relationship could help deter Iran, deepen regional cooperation, and open doors that have been closed for decades.
Nevertheless, The Jerusalem Post has repeatedly said normalization should not be at any cost, especially not at the expense of Jewish dignity and safety. We argued that explicitly in our September 26, 2023, editorial: “Netanyahu must not let his coalition interfere with Saudi normalization,” and in a later editorial: “Normalization with Saudi Arabia is not at any cost.”
So, what must be nonnegotiable? Saudi Arabia must first end official, or state-tolerated, antisemitic incitement, especially from platforms tied to the holy sites. This entails establishing unambiguous guidelines, enforcing them, and publicly denouncing any instances of transgression.
Second, any normalization track should include measurable benchmarks on education and religious discourse. Saudi Arabia has shown it can revise textbooks when it chooses to, and researchers have documented the removal of some classic anti-Jewish tropes and modern antisemitic conspiracies from Saudi curricula. That progress makes a Mecca sermon that curses Jews more baffling.
Third, the US should use its leverage honestly. If defense guarantees, advanced aircraft, and nuclear cooperation are on the table, then so is a demand for the basic dignity and safety of Jews in Israel and the Diaspora.
Normalization can still occur and remain historical. But if the price is to normalize the idea that Jews may be cursed from the world’s most revered pulpit, while diplomats applaud “progress,” then the deal is not peace; it is a mirage, and it will not protect anyone.