Inside the Saudi campaign to oust Netanyahu while pretending to seek peace
Khaled Hassan | The Grand Strategy | Jul 23, 2026
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Around 14 July, reports of a deliberate leak began circulating. The method was classic deniable statecraft—tactical silence, the understanding that what is said in private can be easily denied in public.
According to a report in Israel Hayom, cited by outlets including JFeed, Saudi representatives of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman conveyed to senior U.S. officials in recent weeks that Riyadh was prepared to reopen discussions on joining the Abraham Accords, but only under key political conditions the current Israeli government was unlikely to accept. The two central, linked demands were that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no longer serve as PM following the next Israeli elections, and that the policies advanced by Netanyahu’s government, particularly Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in Judea and Samaria (AKA the West Bank)—settlement expansion and related measures—be reversed.
Saudi officials saw these as connected, on the view that Netanyahu in power would continue backing Smotrich’s approach. A third element referenced earlier wartime explorations of recognition in exchange for major Palestinian concessions, including a public Israeli commitment toward a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu rejected. Contacts reportedly went through the White House, State Department, and members of Congress. Earlier reports from 2025 had already indicated Saudi reluctance to normalise with the current Netanyahu-led coalition, especially amid settlement expansion, but the specific post-election Netanyahu exit plus reverse Smotrich policies framing matches this July 2026 reporting.
The leak was not an olive branch; it was a poison pill dressed as an offer. By setting unrealistic terms that any Israeli right?wing government would refuse, Riyadh handed a weapon to Netanyahu’s domestic opponents and to anti-Israel Washington, such as Tucker Carlson and Vice President JD Vance. The subtext was impossible to miss—normalisation could be achieved, but only if Israelis replaced Netanyahu.
Two days later, on 16 July, the second prong of the campaign struck. A Saudi channel, Al Arabiya English, interviewed Israeli President Isaac Herzog in his Jerusalem residence. Al Arabiya is a Saudi?based outlet, part of the MBC Group with deep ownership ties to the Saudi state. Giving Herzog such a prominent platform was a calculated embrace of Israel’s ceremonial head of state while the prime minister was being openly undermined.
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