What do they expect them to do, allow the forces aligned against them to win? It is human nature to hang on to power as long as possible. With nukes, they can take out their Sunni and Shia foes in other lands, when the dust settles from these “democratic” uprisings.
After we give everything a few years to cool off can we just break through the glass and start pumping the oil again?
If islamists anywhere in the world get into a war for all the marbles with a nuclear power, Mecca and Medina are logical targets.
If the Allah described in the Koran exists, Mecca and Medina are under divine protection by an omnipotent god.
If Mecca and Medina can be obliterated, than any Allah that exists is not the omnipotent god described in the Koran and the Hadith. Destroying them would be a knockout moral blow.
The Saudis have to see the precariousness of their situation.