The Sauds, as Nejdis, are Children of Adnan. They claim to be from Ishmael. They did not, as of 1975, like the Children of Israel very much despite Moses being one of them. Or maybe that's just the Yahud.
Holden and Johns are full of little ironies, such as the Sauds being - effectively - American clients on the level of 1970s-era Hungary under the Warsaw Pact. By the late 1960s Israel had become also an American client. But King Faisal hated Jews and his (nominal) successor Khaled had been a Schiklgruber fanboi in 1938. (By then I think ol' Addie had abandoned the NSDAP's earlier flirtation with Zionism.)
Faisal seems to have had the right instincts overall, and Fahd and Abdullah certainly did. They needed to put more Saudis in school and they needed to diversify the economy. The Saudi court ensured that their princes got an education, preferably overseas although some universities were founded in Arabia's major cities as well.
As noted earlier today not all Arabians or even Arabian princes could benefit by a foreign education, although many did. So the Sauds brought in foreigners- many, many foreigners. With an exception: they didn't want no Jooos. Which cost them a lot of support from American universities.
What also might have worked is a pipeline from Aqaba through the Negev to independent, Arabic, maybe Lebanon-themed Gaza.
Arabian interests would have been MUCH better served by a Gilbert Achcar perspective - host Jewish-Quarters here and there, and pretend these Jews weren't Zionists. Squaring that with official Hanbalite (or even Shi'ite) kerygma would take some work. I think this has only really been done in the past decade.
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