Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Peter Dowley via Wikimedia Commons.

Palestinian Arabs and other anti-Israel and antisemitic Arabs are seething over two tweets by Saudi writer Saud al-Fawzan, a columnist for the Saudi Al Sharq newspaper.

Al-Fawzan’s first tweet said:

I rented furniture from a Jewish store, and when my flat burned down, I met the owner of the store, who said (to his workers): “Furnish the flat on my account.” I regretted each time that I “paid a Riyal to save an Arab.”

“Pay a Riyal, save an Arab” was the name of a campaign that was conducted in Saudi schools 30 years ago to raise money for the Palestinians; the campaign was organized by the Saudi government.

That first tweet from al-Fawzan was met with a torrent of antisemitic replies, but not a small amount of support as well.

Then al-Fawzan tweeted:

I am not the Jews’ lawyer, but truth must be said: Show me one Jew who killed a Saudi, and I will show you a thousand Saudis from ISIS and Al-Qaeda who killed their own kind with explosive belts.

This received hundreds of very angry replies — and Arab media outlets are picking up on the story.

The cracks in the antisemitic, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian stances in the Arab world are getting wider every day.

While the spread of the internet has had a huge impact on some Arabs — who are now questioning the hate that they were taught growing up — it is worth noting that this writer’s attitude was apparently changed by a single Jew doing him a big favor.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)