A
media campaign in Saudi Arabia is seeking to combat antisemitism in the
kingdom, apparently in an effort to prepare public opinion for deepened
relations with decades-old enemy Israel.
Ehud
Yaari, a senior analyst on Israel’s Channel 2 TV, on Friday read out examples
of key sentences in recent articles by Saudi columnists and reporters
demonstrating a shift in attitude towards the Jewish state and Jews in general.
Saham
al-Kahtani, a famous Saudi columnist, recently wrote that describing Jews as
the sons of apes and pigs, and other derogatory descriptions of Jews from the
Quran, relates to the period in which Islam’s holiest book was written, and
should not be seen to refer to all Jews today, the Israeli TV report said.
This
interpretation of the Quran is not in line with previous interpretations, which
take the phrase comparing Jews to animals quite literally.
Similarly,
Yasser Hijazi, columnist in the influential paper Riyadh (published in the
country’s capital), said that Arabs must “leave behind their hostility and
hatred of Jews,” according to a translation of his comments published by the
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
Another
columnist, Ibrahim el Matroudi, was quoted by Channel 2 as complaining that
Saudis — and Arabs in general — have been “swearing at the Jews instead of
drawing benefits from studying their success.”
And
Ahmed Adnan, writing in the influential Saudi-owned pan-Arab website Al
Arabiya, argued that the Saudis should speak to Israel in line with their own
national interests, and without mediators.
The
change in tone in Saudi rhetoric towards Israel comes a year after the signing
of the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers — a deal that leaves
Riyadh concerned over its position in the Middle East — and as Tehran’s proxies
in Syria and Lebanon are holding their ground in the Syrian civil war.
In
late July, a retired Saudi general visited Israel, heading a delegation of
academics and businessmen seeking to encourage discussion of the Saudi-led Arab
Peace Initiative.
The
delegation led by Dr. Anwar Eshki reportedly met in Jerusalem with Foreign
Ministry Director-General Dore Gold, the Coordinator of Government Activities
in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, and held a meeting north of
Jerusalem near Ramallah with several Knesset members from the opposition.
Such
a visit by former general Eshki, who was once a top adviser to the Saudi
government, is an extremely rare occurrence. Eshki said later the trip had not
been coordinated with the royal household, but it was seen as highly unlikely
that he would have come without the Saudi leadership’s tacit consent. Eshki had
met with Gold several times previously.
The
meetings with Gold and Mordechai reportedly did not take place at official
Israeli government facilities, but rather at the King David Hotel in the heart
of the Israeli capital.
The
visitors also toured the West Bank city of Ramallah and met with Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well as other Palestinian officials.
Earlier
this year, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki al-Faisal share da platform at the
Washington Institute with Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s former national security adviser.
