Yeah, that's pretty much my (fuzzy) understanding of it. I was thinking that the USSR got along well with some Arab nations, but I realized that that wasn't adequate, as the US was pretty close with Saudi Arabia throughout, then got pretty friendly with Jordan and Egypt at various times. I don't think it fully explains the support for Israel, which has lots of other factors, such as votes in the US, WW II, and so forth. Basically, lots of little things.

I would guess that all sides now agree that Netanyahu is too much of a net yahu to be tolerated much longer.