Anti-Semitic illustration featuring on the cover of Mustafa Tlas’ book (1983) The Matzah of Zion.

Mustafa Tlas, the Syrian Minister of Defense, discusses the 1840 Damascus Blood Libel. In the introduction, Tlas points to the contemporary significance of the anti-Semitic blood libels, and states: since Jewish religion is one of ‘vicious deviations’ and ‘black hatred against all human kind and religions,’ no Arab country should ever sign a peace treaty with Israel. This was the fatal mistake of Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, who ‘sold his country to the devil.’