You have to rub your eyes and read it two and three times to believe that the Al-Riyadh newspaper, where every word undergoes the inspection of the Saudi royal house with a magnifying glass, whipped out from the dark Middle Ages the traditional blood libel and recycled it last week with a monstrous twist. We are talking about March, 2002, the 21st century.

The new director of the “blood bank” is in fact a woman — “Doctor” Umaya Ahmed el-Jalahma of the King Faisal University in a-Dammam. She earned her reputation in sociology (and her degree, apparently, in Latvia, in exchange for a few thousand rials), and her anti-Semitic words of wisdom attest that her poisoned veil still hides from her the fact that the world has progressed a bit over the years.

Those who had hoped in their heart of hearts that the Saudi initiative, which may be presented soon in Beirut, would perhaps herald a new era about to begin in the (literally) blood-filled Israel-Arab relations, or a new wind blowing, can only despair now. And the more carefully one reads this new blood libel, the despair does not grow any lighter.

For anyone who for some reason missed the Saudi genius of the ignorant sociologist, let us mention that she has finally discovered the red dessert we Jews like best, particularly during Purim and Passover.

The story began in Norwich, England in the year 1144, and has now made it to Riyadh. Here is one foul example from the Saudi text: “These vampiric activities of the Jews give them pleasure. Let us now examine how they take the blood of their victims. To this end, they use a container with an opening. The container is the size of a human being. It is inlaid with needles on all sides. These needles stab the human body from the moment it is placed inside. These needles do the job and the human blood flows out slowly. The victim suffers terrible death agonies, a torture that gives the vampiric Jews great pleasure as they oversee every feature of the blood-letting with pleasure and love.”

The people of Israel suffered many blood libels, and countless numbers of Jews were burned at the stake because of this kind of dark, violent and inciteful ignorance. And here, when from out of the fire blazing in the Middle East we hear a fresh Saudi voice, some would say a brave voice, the princes of Riyadh — without whose approval the article would never have been published — found an “academic” messenger to chill the enthusiasm.

Those with any sense are asking themselves now: What do we need the milk for if the Saudi cow kicks the jug? How can there ever be peace in our region — and there is no country in the world that seeks peace more than the Israeli people — if they feed poisoned water to their millions of ignoramuses, who are easily incited by their vile “doctor”?

This blood libel once again exposes — to anyone needing proof — that we are surrounded by a culture of lies and deception, libel and treachery, by eternal victims who have all the justice on their side, by pathological whiners, who therefore deserve to pay a high price and get nothing in return. There can be two conclusions from this. One: we should understand them, explain, say nothing, turn the other cheek; after all they, or their brothers, are in distress. The other: not to close our eyes for a second, because every “initiative” and any idea of peace is nothing more than “kalam fadi,” and all their willingness to accept Anthony Zinni’s mediation is meant only to play for time, as yesterday’s terror attacks will attest.

And true peace, what will become of it? It, apparently, will come only when those who recycle blood libels, along with those who spread myths of IDF uranium bombs, internalize that the world has moved on a bit since the days of Mohammed, and that they will achieve nothing this way. When will they achieve something? When they link up to the 21st century or the one after it.

And until then? We must beware of serial liars, of blood-libel spreaders, who mean to feed us frogs. [This expression, which means to be compelled to accept something one dislikes, may also allude to the Ten Plagues of Egypt which are commemorated during the upcoming holiday of Passover, of which blood was the first and frogs were the second. — INT]

This article ran in Yediot Aharonot on March 18, 2002

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