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Maureen Dowd writes an article about how Saudi Arabia - a country with very few rights for women, no rights for religious minorities, a history of brutal killings for arbitrary "crimes", and a long-standing hatred of Israel - is getting better regarding all the above mentioned atrocities.  Fine.  For those living in Saudi Arabia, I can only hope this is true, and as the emirate becomes a more and more a major world player, it is essential that these human rights violations are addressed and eradicated.  However, within the first few paragraphs, both Dowd and Prince Saud al-Faisal were lambasting Israel as regressing in their human rights, saying:

"'What is happening in Israel is the opposite; you are moving into a more religiously oriented culture and into a more religiously determined politics and to a very extreme sense of nationhood,” which was coming “to a boiling point.'

'The religious institutions in Israel are stymieing every effort at peace,' said the prince, wearing a black-and-gold robe and tinted glasses.

Israel is a secular society that some say is growing less secular with religious militants and the chief rabbinate that would like to impose a harsh and exclusive interpretation of Judaism upon the entire society. Ultra-Orthodox rabbis are fighting off the Jewish women who want to conduct their own prayer services at the Western Wall. (In Orthodox synagogues, some men still say a morning prayer thanking God for not making them women.)"

Ummmm, what?  It is ridiculous that Maureen Dowd is sitting in Saudi Arabia criticizing the only country in the area that has women's rights, religious freedoms, and any notion of basic human rights.  

Clearly we could all rant and rave about this for a while, but it's the same old things, said by the same old people.  I hope that Prince al-Faisal stops criticizing Israel and starts working to bring his own country to the 21st century. 

Globes sold in Targets across the United States have recalled globes that have omitted the state of Israel, calling the entire area Palestine instead.  Most likely a glaring mistake, but it does invoke some concern, especially as many are calling for this very thing to happen in real life.

Article can be found here.

by Irwin Mansdorf
Special To The Jewish Week

With the continued rise of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic campus activity across the United States and the prevalence of “Israel advocacy” seminars, courses and activities designed to combat the attacks, protests and rallies that target the Jewish state, is there any evidence that advocacy has actually made a dent in the anti-Israel attitude in academia?