Hatred's Kingdom

How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism

When I discovered that this book has been written by a former ambassador in the service of Israel, the first thing that crossed my mind was its objectivity. After all, the Jewish state is known to be particularly hostile and indifferent towards the influential Muslim Kingdom.

I was not disappointed indeed. Hatred’s Kingdom proves to be nothing more than 309 pages of hogwash propaganda that aims to turn western sights onto a new enemy that they could hate.

Cover to cover, author Dore Gold tries to convince his readers as to why Saudi Arabia is the new crosshair of the United States. Though his research on the extremist movements like Wahhabis are fairly accurate, their role and influence in the Islamic world has been largely exaggerated to fit the agenda of the book. Very often, the exception is presented as the norm and the smallest events have been highlighted to be evidences of Saudi’s malaise towards Americans and ultimately the world

For example, in a bid to support his argument on how the Saudis particularly enjoyed the events of September 11th, he described a visiting entourage of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal as “smirking” while touring the site of ground zero. The Prince was there to present Mayor Rudolph Giuliani a check for $10 million for the victims of the terrorist attack. Coincidentally, I happen to have just watched the entire DVD footage. The Prince and his people were clearly nowhere close to enjoying the sights of ground zero.

Dore Gold dangerously echoes sentiments of anti-Saudists like Thomas Friedman, who coincidentally is also Jewish. One can help but feel the extreme hate and envy these people have towards the wealth and influence of the Saudi state. Nothing captures this more clearly than Hatred’s Kingdom.