The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East, reports that three separate Saudi Arabian dailies published an anti-Semitic column by an official of the Kingdom this month. The article, by Dr. Abdul Wahid al-Humaid, the Secretary General of an Interior Ministry development council in Saudi Arabia, ran in al-Riyadh in Arabic and Arab News in English on June 5, as well as in the Riyadh Daily on June 10, 2003.
The article, which focuses for the most part on anti-globalization, begins by lamenting how ineffectually the Arabs have managed and marketed the "the Palestinian cause" in the world. "The most unfortunate thing about a just cause is that the advocates chosen to defend it are often among the worst.... It remains a fair and just cause, but the people who have chosen to defend it, do so very badly."
In contrast, the Saudi official claims, "The Jews... have succeeded in [winning] world sympathy by playing on the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities. The result has been a world that gradually shifted from disliking Jews to sympathizing with them. The Jews are masters at manipulating the media, money, world organizations and pressure groups."
Not just the Arab cause suffers from ineffectual "representation", according to Dr. Al-Humaid, "the anti-globalization demonstrators rampaging through the streets of Geneva not far from the headquarters of the World Trade Organization... look like people from the 1950's and 60's. I can't understand why the defenders of poor countries and just causes are those who lead lives neither socially normal nor conventional."
He continues, "Some of the demonstrators appeared like clowns, others were dressed in rags and odd bits of clothes while still others seemed drunk, judging from the way they behaved." Unfortunately, continues the Saudi Arabian article, the forces against these demonstrators are the most powerful: "Globalization is a weapon that America and other industrial nations are using to manipulate the developing world. Why not use more serious and rational means to influence the course of events instead of allowing anarchists to dominate the scene? Globalization in its present shape is meant to make the strong manipulate and triumph over the poor."
The article, which focuses for the most part on anti-globalization, begins by lamenting how ineffectually the Arabs have managed and marketed the "the Palestinian cause" in the world. "The most unfortunate thing about a just cause is that the advocates chosen to defend it are often among the worst.... It remains a fair and just cause, but the people who have chosen to defend it, do so very badly."
In contrast, the Saudi official claims, "The Jews... have succeeded in [winning] world sympathy by playing on the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities. The result has been a world that gradually shifted from disliking Jews to sympathizing with them. The Jews are masters at manipulating the media, money, world organizations and pressure groups."
Not just the Arab cause suffers from ineffectual "representation", according to Dr. Al-Humaid, "the anti-globalization demonstrators rampaging through the streets of Geneva not far from the headquarters of the World Trade Organization... look like people from the 1950's and 60's. I can't understand why the defenders of poor countries and just causes are those who lead lives neither socially normal nor conventional."