PURELY COMMENTARY

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

Saudi Envoy To Jordan's Hussein: Stop Bluffing

T

o this introductory line
could be added: listen,
King, and learn to tell
the truth.
Would that all Arab and
Islamic chieftans read and
study the text about to be
quoted. Then we could have
accord among Arabs and ge-
nuine peace with Israel and
the Jewish people.
The lesson is from the New
York Times, Sept. 26 OP-ED
page. It is "A Saudi's Open
Letter to King Hussein of Jor-
dan." The headline for it is
"Facts are Stubborn, Your
Majesty."
More than facts are provid-
ed in the text. It must also be
treated as an indictment.
The author of the letter,
Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud,
the Saudi Ambassador to the
United States, concludes his
letter by stating:
Finally, Your Majesty, I
long had great respect and
affection for you. And I
continue to have deep
respect and affection for
your people. But I no

Saladin

I

raqi dictator Saddam
Hussein, who has the
blood of millions on his
hands and who now is univer-
sally condemned for destroy-
ing the country of fellow
Arabs, was among the chief
advocates of Jihad — a Holy
War.
It began with the Jihad
threat against Israel, and the
fomenters of such threats did
not hesitate also to mean all
Jews. Now it is the Jihad
threat against the world's
democratic nations. While
mobilizing Arab enemies
against civilized nations, the
condemned dictator claimed
to be the modern Saladin. By
making such contentions he
compares himself to a hero of
the Arab world of 800 years
ago. For his purpose, Saddam

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Vol. =VIII No. 7 October 12, 1990

2

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1990

longer can feel that you are
the same man I knew. I
hope that I am wrong. And
if I am wrong, please ac-
cept my sincere apologies,
Your Majesty.
But facts are stubborn
things.
This is the text of the indict-
ment which demands atten-
tion from all sincere minded
people.
Your Majesty, you gave a
moving speech to the
American people this past
week. This you appear to
have done over the head of
your long-time friend,
President Bush. You said
you were moved to make
the speech because of a let-
ter from Mr. Brown of
North Carolina.
Wouldn't it be more
honorable and truly mov-
ing if you were moved
enough by Kuwaiti women
and children with tears in
their eyes because they lost
their country as a result of
the aggression of your
friend Saddam Hussein?

Would it not be more
honorable and honest to
speak to the Iraqi people
over the head of your
friend Saddam, and tell
them that he has
dishonorably invaded and
annexed a brother Arab
and Muslim country? And
tell them of the horrifying

desecrated by friendly
forces and that those
forces must leave im-
mediately. But those forces
are actually hundreds of
miles away, and with tens
of thousands of Muslim
and Arab soldiers (but
none of yours) between
those friendly forces and
the holy places.

In the interest of
truth regarding the
Middle East, the
challenges against
Jordan's ruler must
be treated as
presented.

And all those forces are
dedicated to help defend
Saudi Arabia and are
respectful of its custodian-
ship of the holy places.
They will not leave until
your friend Saddam leaves
Kuwait, which we hope
will be peacefully and
immediately.
Tell us, Your Majesty,
what you have done to
safeguard the Al-Aqsa mos-
que and the Church of the
Holy Sepulcher, which you
lost to Israel in 1967,
almost a quarter of a cen-
tury ago. Is that the kind of
protection you would like
us to give to the holy places
in Saudi-Arabia?

acts of rape and destruc-
tion by Iraqi troops that
are unprecedented in Arab
history — and that is fact.
And facts are stubborn
things.
You say, Your Majesty,
that the holy places in
Saudi Arabia have been

Your Majesty, the holy
places in Saudi Arabia are
protected only by your
brother Muslims, and no
non-Muslim is anywhere
around, as millions of
Muslims can daily attest.
And you know that to be a
fact.
And, Your Majesty, you
claimed to defend the
Palestinian people's right
to self-determination and a
state of their own. And I
support you in that.
But you were responsible
for the Palestinian
homeland on the West
Bank from 1948 to 1967.
Why in all that period did
you not give them their
rights and statehood? And
how would the occupation
of Kuwait give our brother
Palestinians their home-
land?
Facts are stubborn
things.
You talk of "haves" and
"have-nots?' Saudi Arabia's
record as one of the

Continued on Page 44

12th Century Friend Of The Jews

port/ ays Saladin as an enemy
of the Jewish people. That's
how historic facts are cor-
rupted to invite accusations
based on ignorance in a time
of crisis. It is another way of
spreading the Big Lie by the
Iraqi dictator.
The fact is that Saladin was
a Jewish friend. The Saladin
attitude must not be
distorted.
Let the truth be circulated
worldwide to prevent spread-
ing of a lie resorted to by the
dictator in his quest for Arab
endorsement of appeal for
Jihad.
In the Universal Jewish En-
cyclopedia, in an item about
Saladin, there are these facts
about the 12th century idol of
the Arabs:
Saladin, sultan of Egypt,
Syria and Palestine, b.
Tekrit, Mesopotamia, 1137;
d. Damascus Syria, 1193.
Because of his piety, justice
and benevolence he was
depicted by Lessing in
Nathan der Weise as the
prototype of humanitarian-
ism. Saladin's rule was a
period of happiness and
prosperity for thousands
of Jewish refugees who
had been persecuted by
Christian or Moham-
medan fanaticism and had
found an asylum in
Saladin's empire. After the
recapture of Palestine in

1190, Saladin allowed the
Jews to return to Jeru-
salem. He entertained the
most cordial relations with
the Jews and invested
them with high offices at
his court. Thus Nathaniel,
chief rabbi of the Egyptian
Jews, was Saladin's court
physician.

Eretz Israel fell into his
hands .. .
The crusaders succeeded
in occupying Acre after a
siege which lasted two
years (1189-1191) and
Saladin was compelled to
sign a peace treaty with
the king of England,
Richard the Lionhearted,

More extensively moder-
ated is a biographical sketch
in the Encyclopedia Judaica.
In that more extensive ac-
count, Judaica provides addi-
tional important details. Here
is the text:
Saladin
(1138-1193),
founder of the dynasty of
Ayyuubid sultans, of Kur-
dish origin. In 1169 he was
elevated to the rank of
vizier in Egypt, which was
then still under the weak
dominion of the Fatimids.
In 1171 he removed the
last Fatimid sultan al-Adid,
from his throne, thus retur-
ning Egypt to the nominal
rule of the Abbasid
caliph . . .
Immediately after the
death of Nur al-Din in 1174,
however, Saladin seized
control of Syria. In a
brilliant and rapid cam-
paign, in 1187, at the head
of 12,000 horsemen, Sala-
din conquered Tiberias,
Hattin, and Jerusalem,
and almost the whole of

While mobilizing
Arab enemies
against civilized
nations, the
condemned
dictator claimed to
be the modern
Saladin.

according to which the
Eretz Israel coastal region
from Jaffa to Tyre remain-
ed in the hands of the
crusaders. Saladin died a
short while later.
The attitude of Saladin
toward the Jews, the Chris-
tians, and even the
defeated Christians who
lived under his rule, was
most tolerant. According to
Judah al-Harizi, he issued
a manifesto in 1190 in
which he called upon the
Jews to settle in Jerusalem
(their presence in the town

had been prohibited dur-
ing its occupation by the
Crusaders).
Indeed, when al-Harizi
visited Jerusalem in 1216,
he found an important
community which was
composed of immigrants
from France, the Maghreb,
and former inhabitants of
Ashkelon. Ibn Abi Usay-
bia, a friend of Abraham
ben Moses b. Maimon, re-
lates that Maimonides was
the court physician of
Saladin and of his son al-
Malik al-Afdal and both
greatly honored the Jew-
ish physician and scholar.
It appears, however, that
there is no historical basis
to this information.
Most fascinating about the
Saladin-Jewish relationship
is his contemporariness with
one of the most famous Jews
in Jewish and world history —
Maimonides. From Picture
History of Jewish Civilization,
published by Harry N.
Abrams in 1970, we are
enriched by the following:
Rabbi Moses ben
Maimon (known by the
acronym Rambam) was the
greatest Jewish personali-
ty of the 12th century. His
father was the religious-
court judge of the Jewish
community. When Moses

Continued on Page 44