The United States asked the Saudis, specifically, and Arab governments, in general, to halt the anti-Semitic incitement of their media, urging them instead to act in the interests of Israeli – Palestinian peace.
Recent stories reported by the Arab media as fact include a story explaining how Jewish clerics must have innocent blood to mix with dough for Passover pastries. The piece even explains how the innocent Christian or Muslim victim is slowly drained of blood in excruciating agony in a needle-studded jar. The author of that piece was a doctor from a prominent Saudi university.
Arab cartoons, especially in the Egyptian press, depict Jews as hook-nosed schemers seeking world domination.
Primetime Arab television aired a skit in which a Sharon character gunned down Arab children and then drank their blood.
The "blood libel" has been circulated about the Jews for centuries. It formed the foundation for most of the anti-Semitic pogroms of the past two millennia. Millions believe it to be true. Leviticus 7:27, one of the Books of the Law, says, "Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that should shall be cut off from his people." Jewish dietary law is extremely strict because it conforms to the Law, not because it violates it.
The Arab world blames Israel for the violence. The United Nations agrees and has passed literally hundreds of resolutions condemning the Jewish state since 1948. The U.N. has passed more resolutions condemning Israel than it has all other nations combined, including Iraq.
Twenty-six percent of all Security Council meetings between 1948 and the 1991 Madrid Conference dealt with the Arab-Israeli conflict. The U.N. Security Council passed a total of 175 resolutions. Seventy-four were neutral. Four were against the perceived interests of an Arab body. Ninety-seven were against Israel. In the U.N. General Assembly, the cumulative votes cast during this same period with or for Israel totaled 7,938. Those against Israel totaled 55,642.
At the Durban Conference on Racism, the Arabs openly passed out anti-Semitic cartoons and literature, including the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." At issue was Israeli racism. Israel is made up of people from 102 countries. Arab states are, well, Arab.
No matter. The U.N. agreed that Israel was a racist state.
Israel protested that it was a nation of "people of a particular birth, irrespective of their faith and those of a particular faith, irrespective of their birth," a statement so profound it defined the antonym to racism. Since Michael Melchior's statement couldn't be refuted, it was ignored.
The U.S. is exerting pressure on the Israelis to honor a one-sided ceasefire and grant statehood to a sworn enemy in its midst.
Presumably, Washington is aware of the anti-Semitic propaganda blitz, since it publicly called on the Arabs (again) to desist. It would be an equally safe presumption that Washington is familiar with the power of propaganda.
For decades, Arab children have been taught through official government publications and at home to hate Jews. Now they are learning to hate America. A recent Arab opinion poll showed four out of five Arabs agreed that the United States was the real terrorist state.
Nobody mentioned the Arab propaganda campaign until now?
Israel's enemies have many faces. Nationalist Arabs hate Israel for stealing "their" land. The fact that a Jewish state was created by the same Great Power (Britain) that created Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq means nothing. The Arab borders are legitimate because they are Arab. The Jewish border is illegitimate because it is not.
Then there are the Islamic nationalists. They believe that Allah gave the entire Middle East, including Israel and Jerusalem, to Islam for a possession. To an Islamic nationalist, recognizing Israel's right to exist would be tantamount to declaring Allah wrong. Among Israel's enemies are the "secret" Arab nationalists and Islamic theocrats at the U.N. who vote their conscience, seeking only "justice."
And there are just the Jew-haters that seem to be everywhere. I will get at least a dozen e-mails to this column calling me "a blind pathetic fool" (as a recent letter said) for believing Israeli propaganda.
It isn't Israeli propaganda that says Israel has a claim to the land it occupies. The Balfour Declaration granting a Jewish homeland predates the San Remo Conference that drew the borders of the modern Arab world by six years.
And 3,000 years ago, the Psalmist wrote, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." (Psalms 137:5-6) That claim predates Islam itself by 1,600 years and predates Arafat's claim by about 2,930 years.
The world hates Israel, and it can't even say exactly why. It just does. But there is a reason. The existence of Israel is a stench in the nostrils of the secular world. It stands as a living reminder of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The existence of Israel, against all odds, is a testimony to God's sovereignty over the affairs of men. And it is proof positive the days of human government are drawing to a close.
Special resources:
Get "Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict"
"Trojan Horse" and "Israel and the War of Images"
"From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict"
"Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine"