From the Anti-Israel Guardian!!

"....There is a great deal to shudder about. The
amount of anti-Semitic literature, journalism and
television in Arab countries is voluminous. The
more sophisticated Arab governments, however, who
tolerate this stuff, understand the need to turn a
less contorted face to the West, with its
anti-racist liberal campaigners. They play it
down, or ignore it. It isn´t easy, though.

When you are confronted with the collected
anti-Semitisms of the post-11 September Arab
world, what is most striking is the weirdness of
journalists and politicians raiding the ancient
political sewers of old Europe for arguments. Take
the example of what is called the ´blood libel´.
This is the old medieval story of how Jews kidnap
Christians, kill them and use their blood in
arcane rituals. We had a spate of these tales in
England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
and many Jews lost their lives as a result.

So what on earth is the blood libel doing in a
column in the respected Egyptian mass daily paper
Al-Ahram, in a book by the Syrian defence minister
and in broadcast sermons from various Palestinian
mosques? The libel in question is the 1840
Damascus case, in which several Jews (including a
David Harari) ´confessed´ to the Ottoman
authorities - under torture - to kidnapping a
priest and stealing his blood.

Holocaust denial is another widespread feature of
Arab discourse, but for different reasons. In a
school in Gaza, a middle-aged teacher of English
interrupted my interview of several of his pupils,
and launched into a tirade against the Jews. Were
they not behind all wars? Had they not caused
trouble wherever they were? Had they not caused
troubles even for the Germans? ´When?´ I asked
him. ´Before the reign of Hitler,´ the teacher
replied.

A few blocks away I met Dr Musa Al-Zubut, chairman
of the Palestinian Legislative Council education
committee, who had been trying to go and meet his
colleagues in Ramallah for several weeks, but had
been prevented by the Israelis. He was explaining
why the history books for the new Palestinian
curriculum contained no reference to the
Holocaust. Zubut said he knew that the Holocaust
was ´of course´ exaggerated. It was not, he said,
´1 per cent of what we have suffered in
Palestine´. Besides, even if every Jew had been
killed, what was that to do with the
Palestinians?...""

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,69
03,982458,00.html