A controversial Saudi blogger posted a video of a phone call he made with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he wished the latter to win the Likud elections, which sparked a wave of dismissive and angry reactions on social media.
On Thursday evening, Netanyahu said - to the Saudi Muhammad Saud, who was previously described by the Palestinians as a Zionist, that he wishes that he (the blogger) could vote in the elections for the party leadership.
From within his campaign headquarters, Netanyahu addressed Saud in a video conversation jokingly "a loss that you cannot vote," according to the official Israeli "Kan" channel.
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And this blogger sparked widespread controversy last July, after his visit to Israel as part of a media delegation from Arab countries, some of which do not have diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.
During his wandering in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem - and at that time - Saud was subjected to a barrage of insults and spitting by Palestinian youths who called him Zionist, and a group of worshipers prevented him from entering the Sharif Mosque.
On more than one occasion, Saud expressed his love for Israel and his support for Netanyahu. "The Israeli people resemble us, and they are like my family. I love this country, and it has always been my dream to visit Jerusalem," the Israeli Foreign Ministry's "Israel in Arabic" account quoted the Saudi blogger as saying to the occupation army radio.
Officially, there are no diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, but recent years have witnessed a great rapprochement between them, especially against the background of what the two call "the Iranian threat" according to Hebrew media.
The Likud leadership - in the elections that started Thursday morning - is competing for Netanyahu and Gideon Saar.