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Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-880721
Normalization with Saudi Arabia Cannot Begin while Mecca Broadcasts Antisemitic Hate
(Jerusalem Post) Editorial - Saudi Arabia cannot ask the world to treat it as a partner for peace while a sermon broadcast from Mecca vilifies Jews and sanctifies their enemies. In an op-ed on Dec. 17, Dr. Edy Cohen, an expert in the Arab world, described the weekly sermon delivered from Islam's holiest site where Sheikh Salih bin Abdullah bin Humaid called on God to punish the Jews. Such sermons provide moral justification, telling millions of listeners that hostility to Jews is righteousness. Saudi authorities have long regulated mosque preaching - including requiring imams to commit to not using Friday sermons for inflammatory remarks - and dismissing preachers who cross official redlines. What is said from those pulpits should be treated as state-signaled messaging. Before normalization, Saudi Arabia must first end official, or state-tolerated, antisemitic incitement, especially from platforms tied to the holy sites. If the price of normalization is to normalize the idea that Jews may be cursed from the world's most revered pulpit, while diplomats applaud "progress," then the deal is not peace; it is a mirage, and it will not protect anyone.