Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, has published an article under the title “The Royal Treatment, Anti-Semitism, that is”.
He starts his piece with this statement: The Saudi royal family has been on the forefront in espousing an extreme position of hatred toward Jews ...which influences the Kingdom’s educational system and media and subsequently its foreign policy.
He proceeds by citing examples of statements and policies of the leaders of this country since its inception which are against Jews and hence anti-Semitic.
To be more clear about this issue, certain facts need to be stated. First, the writer of this article must have been in great hurry to publish it, as his references are a collection of pieces of articles taken out of their contexts.
Secondly, he missed stating that the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia made the issue of Palestine a personal commitment. This was an issue which shaped the Kingdom’s foreign policy and was raised in the first historical meeting between King Abdul Aziz and US President Roosevelt in 1945 whereby the latter promised to halt emigration of Jews to Palestine and not to endanger the position of Palestinians, a promise which has been broken by all American presidents who followed, but was kept alive by all Saudi kings who came to power after their legendary father. Another promise was taken up by Saudi Arabia in 1946 at the formation of the Arab League in Egypt whereby Arab states declared that from that day onward the Palestinian question concerned not merely Palestinians but the Arabs as a whole.
Saudi Arabia has paid a huge price for keeping up this promise internally and externally and the result we are witnessing now: A smear campaign abroad to pressure this country into abandoning its commitment toward the Palestinians.
A more valid statement is that the people of Saudi Arabia represented by its leaders are indeed anti-Zionists but not anti-Semites. Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal who met King Saud in Riyadh in 1955 (www.alfredlilienthal.com/kingandi.htm) indicated in his article published by Washington Report on Middle East Affairs that anti-Zionism should not be equated with anti-Semitism, the racist ideology directed against Jews as Jews. Nor should Zionism, the political movement established to reconstitute Jews as a nation, be equated with Judaism. Dr. Lilienthal, who was the second Jew to meet a Saudi king, proceeds by saying: The words “anti-Semitism and “Anti-Semitic” are, in fact, misnomers. Jews constitute no more than 10 percent of the world Semites. The overwhelming majority of Semites are Arabs. Furthermore, most Jews today could not trace their ancestry back to the holy land and, therefore, are not true Semites at all. Ninety percent of the world’s Jews are descended from converts to Judaism, mostly the Khazars in what once was southern USSR. I think Steven Stalinsky is one of them. In fact, it is the Zionists who have been anti-Semites starting from the holy land of Palestine and ending with a worldwide movement against Muslims and Arabs who form 90 percent of the Semites. The proof of which is his article.
Besides, Israel and Saudi Arabia do not recognize each other and do not have diplomatic relations. Then how is either state expected to treat the other’s citizens?
At the same time, Jews who happen to be citizens of other countries like the US and work for their governments have always been welcomed by Saudi Arabia, keeping with diplomatic norms.
As for Interior Minister Prince Naif’s statements which Stalinsky quotes in his article, there is no denying that the Sept.11 attacks have served the interests of the Zionists more than they have any other group’s. Can anyone dare deny this fact?
Concerning Prince Sultan’s accusing the Jewish congressmen of being at the forefront of lobbying in the interest of Israel and its perceived enemies, could this assertion be denied? If the pro-Israeli lobby did not influence the US media, then the US could hardly prefer the interests and friendship of a small country like Israel to that of 1.5 billion Muslims. Neither would Israel receive more aid than the rest of the world put together (almost).
Moreover, Saudi kings can hardly be accused of being anti-Semites. They can’t be against themselves and their people.
Saudi kings were raised by their father King Abdul Aziz to be experienced regional politicians and to fight injustice wherever it may be. And they are paying a price for this. The stability of this country is being undermined by inimical forces as confirmed by Crown Prince Abdullah after the Yanbu bombings.
— Fahda Bint Saud is the chairperson of Al-Faisaliah Welfare Society. She is based in Jeddah.
