MEMRI has another update on the outrageous statements made recently by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah (he said that “Zionists” were behind the terror attacks in the Kingdom). First, the background:

Following the terrorist attack in Yunbu, Saudi Arabia on May 1, 2004, Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah said in a meeting with dignitaries broadcast on Saudi TV that “ Zionism is behind terrorist actions in the Kingdom… I am 95% sure of that.” [1] Several days later, during an interview in which he was asked for a clarification, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said, “ It is not hidden from anyone that extremist Zionist elements are engaging in a vulgar campaign against the kingdom by espousing and disseminating lies and incitement against the Saudi government… The terror operations taking place today serve the interests of the extremist Zionist elements, and this means that they [the perpetrators of the operations and the Zionist elements] share common interests.” [2] The Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC also posted the Saudi foreign minister’s remarks that Zionists are behind terrorism in Saudi Arabia. [3]

According to media reports, Bush administration officials were “stunned” by Crown Prince Abdallah’s comments. On May 5, U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Oberwetter met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal regarding the comments; an American official reports that “it wasn’t a particularly productive exchange.” [4] In addition, Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA), who is the Ranking Member of the House of Representatives’ Committee on International Relations, replied on the floor of the House of Representatives: “… What an outrage. What blatant hypocrisy… two and a half years after the September 11 attacks, Saudi Arabia still cannot look in the mirror and face the truth. Its own extremist ideology is corroding Saudi society and exporting the damage to countless others. How ironic that Abdallah accuses Zionism, whatever he intends that word to mean, while the Saudi kingdom inculcates its young with hatred of Christians, Jews, and Western Civilization… I urge Prince Abdallah to retract his sickening and absurd statements, and I call on him to apologize…” Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, also condemned what he referred to as the “outrageous antisemitic comments.”

But now Abdullah’s daughter, Princess Fahda bint Saud, has responded to the MEMRI report on antisemitism in the Royal Family with the shakiest canard in the Jew-hater’s arsenal of obfuscations: that the Saudis cannot possibly be antisemitic because they are semites themselves!

“A more valid statement is that the people of Saudi Arabia represented by its leaders are indeed anti-Zionists but not antisemites. Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal, who met King Saud in Riyadh in 1955 (alfredlilienthal.com), indicated in his article published by Washington Report on Middle East Affairs that anti-Zionism should not be equated with antisemitism, 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 ‘antisemitism’ and ‘antisemitic’ 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 antisemites 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 U.S. 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 September 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 U.S. media, then the U.S. 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 antisemites. They can’t be against themselves and their people.”