(Washington Post) Editorial - When a chess tournament sponsored by the World Chess Federation opened in Saudi Arabia Tuesday, the Saudis refused to give visas to seven Israelis to participate. A Saudi spokeswoman said the reason for excluding them is that the kingdom and Israel do not have diplomatic relations. Rubbing salt into the wound, the federation and the kingdom issued a news release pledging to admit players from Qatar and Iran, both increasingly at odds with Saudi Arabia. For seven decades, the Arab world has wished Israel would fall into the sea or be driven there. The Jewish state has not and will not. If Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is truly committed to rejuvenation of the kingdom, as he claims to be, then he might discard some of the calcified thinking of his forebears. If a nation cannot welcome everyone, it should not be given the honor of hosting a world tournament.
2017-12-29 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive