Arab polemic targets Jewish religion more severely than it targets Israel.

Evidence

Paradoxically, Arab authors appear to show more respect for Israel and Zionism than for Jewish religion and history. Discussions of the former are occasionally serious and factual; on the latter they rarely rise above the level of uninformed polemic and abuse, drawn partly from local stereotypes but relying very largely on such typical products of Christian anti-Semitism as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This well-known anti-Semitic fabrication now has more editions in Arabic than in any other language. It is universally cited in Arabic literature on Jewish matters, has been endorsed by heads of state and other prominent personages, and is taught as a basic Jewish text in some Arab uni­ versity courses in comparative religion. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1351

Categorization

• QUESTION: Test whether this claim about Arab polemic vs. Israel still holds today and how it applies outside the 1970s context.
• SEED: An essay angle: how the Protocols of the Elders of Zion traveled from European Christian anti-Semitism into Arabic literature as a borrowed, not homegrown, tradition.