They're probably paranoid about Iran. I doubt they want to mix it up with Israel, and probably view it as a partner against Iran, albeit one they want no direct involvement with. Still, it's pretty clear that the Saudis hate the Iranians a lot more than they hate the Israelis.
If the Saudi's and Irani's fought a war I would still put my money on those duct taped 30 year old planes.
Explain why you would say that.
Better hardware are very good, but it demand a degree of competence to also use it well, the Saudi Army have at no point shown itself competent, while the Iranis have shown that they can deliver quite good results even with inferior hardware.
Just to look at the Saudi's competance, they have tried to build a rebel force up in Syria, but rather than training them in SA, they send them to Pakistan, where they hire Pakistani instructors.
In the 1st Gulf War, when SA had to mobilise their (untrained) soldiers both infantry and pilots arrived with servants.
So while I think Saudi Army can deal with unarmed and lightly armed civilians, I think they will collapse when they meet anything stronger than that.
