"The Israeli anthem breaks a sound barrier"  was the reporting in the Washington Post  of Israeli athlete Sagi Muki  who "became the first Israeli athlete to hear Israeli's national anthem played openly at a medal ceremony in an Arab country," namely, the United Arab Emirates after winning a gold medal in Judo. Kudos to the Post for reporting this historic event.

The article documented past episodes of discrimination against Israelis, including Israeli athletes in Arab countries forced to "cover the Israeli flag on their uniforms with a white patch," Iranian opponents who forfeited matches telling one Israeli "your country doesn't exist, so why should I compete against you?" In the past, no Israeli flag or anthem played when Israelis won competitions in Arab venues, and more often than not, Israelis were denied entry visas to those nations. When Israelis are included in sports tournaments in the Arab world, they are segregated from the other competitors and typically are omitted from competition rosters, according to the Post article.  And that is the end of the one step forward reporting by The Washington Post. 

The Post then breaks into the tired mantra that they consistently propagate about how the Arab nations oppose normalization with Israel "until a solution is found for the Palestinians." The Post cannot admit that the Arabs hated and wanted to destroy Israel before there was a Palestinian issue. Arab violence against the Jews of the Levant began even before there was a Jewish state! This most notably occurred in 1929 with the Hebron riots, where 67 Jews were murdered in cold blood. Arab riots against Jews continued and then accelerated in 1947 when the UN decided to partition the remaining undesignated British Mandate territory into two states, a Jewish one and an Arab one. 

But these riots against Jews pre-Israel existed also in Arab countries further debunking The Washington Post narrative. Throughout the Middle East there were repeated Arab pogroms against Jews. For example, the infamous 1941 Farhud Pogrom in Iraq was an Arab massacre of hundreds of Iraqi Jews. Each Arab nation has stained itself with a history of unrelenting violence against its Jewish population.

When Israel finally declared independence in 1948, five neighboring Arab countries attacked the Jews of Israel intending to inflict back-to-back Holocausts on the Jewish people. Again, there was no such Palestinian issue that caused this so-called impediment to peace. 

The Washington Post inadvertently contradicted itself, exposing the real truth by saying "despite the [recent] successes [of ethnic toleration]... Israel and its sports teams still face hostility and suspicion in many Arab countries." Suspicion about what? The Post said it was the Palestinian issue and now it’s about Arab suspicion of Israelis, of Jews? Arab anti-Semitism is well-known and suspicion of Jews is one of the most prominent tenets of the prejudice. In their hateful minds, Jews are disloyal to host countries, Jews are traitors, Jews are parasites, Jews are thieves, Jews are trying to dominate the world. One of the most widely-read books in Arabs countries is Mein Kampf – Adolph Hitler's manifesto. During my trip to Jordan, it was predominantly displayed in most book stores.

Clearly anti-Israel hostility is not about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Palestinians are treated better in Israel than by most Arab countries. It is high time The Washington Post gave up its absurd anti-Israel narrative and reported on the Middle East as it is, not as they seemingly want it to be.