The religious establishment and the so-called “Arab street" in Saudi Arabia and most other Islamic countries are not separate problems. They are two sides of the same curse - a curse that goes straight back to the founding of the modern Saudi state.
In 1744, Muhammad ibn Saud, the founder of the Saudi dynasty, made a pact with Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the father of Wahhabism. In exchange for religious legitimacy and the right to spread their strict, puritanical version of Islam, the Wahhabi clerics gave the House of Saud their blessing to rule.
That alliance has never been broken. It is the original “deal with the devil" that still dominates Saudi Arabia today.
The Saudi royal family provides the Wahhabi establishment with money, power, and state protection. In return, the clerics give the monarchy its religious authority. This is why the religious police, the strict enforcement of Wahhabi rules, and the export of Wahhabi ideology through mosques, schools, and billions in funding still shape Saudi society and much of the Sunni world.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has tried to loosen some of the chains. He has allowed women to drive, opened cinemas, and reduced the power of the religious police. But he cannot break the fundamental pact without risking his throne. The religious establishment and the brainwashed “Arab street" remain powerful forces. Decades of indoctrination have created a population that sees any compromise with Jews or the West as betrayal. Even after the current Iran war brought tactical alignment with Israel, public opinion in Saudi Arabia remains deeply hostile.
This is not just a Saudi problem. It is the deeper curse of Islam itself. The underlying ambition - to dominate the world under Sharia - has never been abandoned by the hardliners. Wahhabism and the Muslim Brotherhood both teach that Dar al-Islam (the House of Islam) must eventually cover the entire globe. This is not fringe thinking. It is taught in countless mosques and madrasas funded by Saudi money for decades.
If radical Islam ever achieved real dominance in Europe - through demographics, unchecked migration, and political surrender - the result would be the modern equivalent of Rome falling to the Barbarians. We would enter another Dark Age: the loss of individual rights, free speech, and scientific progress; the rise of parallel Sharia societies; and the suppression of everything that contradicts Islamic doctrine. Early warning signs are already visible across parts of Europe.
The shining exceptions - the UAE and a handful of other pragmatic Gulf states - prove the rule. Their leaders made a deliberate decision to put national interest and modernisation above ideology. They understood that Israel is an asset, not a threat. Saudi Arabia has not found the courage to make the same break.
This is why Israel must never make dangerous concessions in the name of “peace" with Saudi Arabia. The religious-ideological curse runs too deep. Normalisation should only happen on Israel’s terms - or not at all. Saudi Arabia needs Israel’s technology and brainpower far more than Israel needs Saudi petrodollars or symbolic recognition.
If Saudi Arabia chooses to remain trapped by its Wahhabi pact and centuries of brainwashing, that is their decision. Israel will continue to thrive and grow stronger - with or without Riyadh.
The curse is theirs. The future belongs to those who break free from it.
David Hersch is Chairman of SAIPAC, the South African Israel Public Affairs Committee. Former chairman of the South African Zionist Federation (Cape Council) as well as a former national vice-chairman of the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF). He is also former member of the South Jewish Board of Deputies (Cape Council). Retired businessman and broadcaster.
09 March 2026