If there was once talk of a moderate Sunni alliance against Iran, this term has lost all meaning in the last two years. The Middle East is now divided into two camps. The first includes Turkey, Qatar, Iran, and Sudan. The second includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, and has the support of the United States and Israel.
There can be no doubt that the growing ties between Riyadh and Jerusalem are a result of the hostility between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iran is aggressive in its attacks on Saudi Arabia, including in the cyber arena.
In 2012, a cyber attack on Saudi Arabia’s national petroleum and gas company Aramco caused unprecedented damage, partially wiping or completely destroying some 35,000 of its computers. There have also been reports of Iranian hackers breaking into the bank accounts of Saudi princes to reveal how much money they have at their disposal.
Faced with these threats, Saudi Arabia established the National Cyber Security Authority to fight Iran and the hackers. In 2017, the authority was tasked with an additional goal: inciting the Arab world against Qatar. Abdullah adviser Saud bin Abdullah Al-Qahtani is responsible for the unit, which according to assessments employs some 4,000 people.
The National Cyber Security Authority’s Twitter account has 400,000 followers. Employees operate online under false identities; their job is to create hashtags that trend online and thereby moderate and control public opinion and of course vilify Qatar and its leaders.
The agency tweets daily, mostly against Qatar and Iran. It uses anti-Semitic terminology, referring to Qatar as “Qatariel,” a portmanteau of Qatar and Israel, and claims that the Al Jazeera network “belongs to the Israeli Mossad.”
“The deal of the century” is a Qatari scheme to sell Palestine to the ‘Zionist entity,’” one tweet reads while another alleges that the “Zionist” Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the father of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is scheming to divide the Arab states to fulfill the dreams of the “Zionist entity” and Iran.
In yet another tweet, the authority alleges that Qatar is “trying to destroy the Arab world to serve the enemies of the Muslim world: Israel and Iran.” These statements penetrate deep into the Arab consciousness and increase their existing hatred towards Jews and Israel.
The Saudis, then, are playing a double game. Behind the scenes, they send the Israelis the message that Iran is a common enemy and goad them to fight Iran and Hezbollah. At home, however, they say the enemy is first and foremost the State of Israel, followed by Iran. Their formula is clear: covert ties with Israel coupled with overt hostility to the Jewish state to satisfy its people, a majority of whom hate Israel.
The Saudi’s double game is reminiscent of the Egyptian model under the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser: Dozens of anti-Semitic articles are published on a daily basis, the Israeli audience is not exposed to the phenomenon, and the politicians close their ears.
Following the signing of the 1994 Oslo Accords, the Palestinians asked Israel for permission to “moderately” incite against the Jewish state for “domestic needs.” This incitement turned deadly and was used as live ammunition for the boycott, sanctions, and divestment movement. We must not give in and accept the incitement against us, whichever country is involved – including Saudi Arabia.
Incitement translates into action, and that action comes at a deadly price.