Iran pushes the crypto-Jewish Saudi theory: propaganda or interests

Iran and the crypto-Jewish theory of the Saudi House: the noise that hides geopolitics

Iran accusing the Saudi royal family of being crypto-Jewish is, at heart, less surprising than the normality with which the claim is received. The narrative has been circulating for years: Wahhabism as doctrine, terrorism as a tool and a supposed secret affinity with Israel that would explain decades of tactical cooperation. The paradox is that Iran itself has dealt with the Hebrew state: during the war against Iraq, the ayatollahs did not shy away from Israel, as the analyses most uncomfortable for Tehran's official narrative recall.

Some think all this is theater. If a geopolitical claim is made public, the right reflex would be to suspect the opposite: perhaps Iran launches these stories precisely so that public opinion looks at religious identity rather than at oil interests, arms routes and the struggle for regional hegemony. The proof of the narrative's elasticity lies in the attempt to pin the same Jewish origin on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, born in a Thessaloniki with a strong Jewish community: with that scheme, any enemy ends up being Jewish, including the accusers themselves.

The satire of the matter is that, taken to the extreme, the method leaves no one out: not Hitler, not the Buddhists, not the Yanomami. If even the accuser can be Jewish without knowing it, the theory explains nothing: it only projects demons. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and Israel share a common enemy, and that can be seen with data, not with conspiracies. Is it worth asking how long the anti-Iranian alliance would last if the Saudi House really were what Iran insinuates?

The question that remains hanging is the usual one: if the royal family's identity were the key to the board, where would regional security, oil and arms be left? Perhaps the identity noise serves precisely to avoid having to answer.