Prince Charles blamed ‘influx of foreign Jews’ for Mideast troubles

Leaked 1986 correspondence shows that Prince Charles espoused anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic notions.

By: World Israel News Staff

The United Kingdom’s Prince Charles alleged that an “influx of foreign Jews” was one of the causes of strife in the Middle East, while expressing his hopes that the “American Jewish lobby” would be confronted.

The British Daily Mail on Sunday revealed leaked correspondence between Prince Charles and his mentor, the Afrikaner explorer Laurens van der Post showing that the heir to the British throne blamed the “the great problems” in the Middle East region on the post-Holocaust immigration of European Jews to Israel.

Prince Charles penned the letter in 1986 after official visits to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar, which he called “fascinating” and during which he “learned a lot about the Middle East and Arab outlook.”

“I now begin to understand better their (Arabs’) point of view about Israel,” he wrote, “Never realized they see it as a US colony. I now appreciate that … it is the influx of foreign, European Jews (especially from Poland, they say) which has helped to cause great problems.”

Prince Charles also expressed hope that a US president would “have the courage to stand up and take on the Jewish lobby.” The US president at the time was Ronald Reagan.

Stephen Pollard, an editor of the Jewish Chronicle, criticized the prince’s use of the term “Jewish lobby” as anti-Semitic and said his views were “the absolute classic Arab explanation of the problems in the Middle East.”

“To me this is the most astonishing element of the Prince’s letter. The ‘Jewish lobby’ is one of the anti-Semitic themes that have endured for centuries. It is this myth there are these very powerful Jews who control foreign policy or the media or banks or whatever,” the Mail quotes him as saying.

Pollard described the letter as “jaw-droppingly shocking,” adding “that they [the Prince’s comments] come from the heir to the throne is unsettling, to put it mildly.”

A spokeswoman for Prince Charles explained the incident, saying the letter “clearly stated that these were not the Prince’s own views about Arab-Israeli issues but represented the opinions of some of those he met during his visit which he was keen to interrogate.”

“He has built a proven track record of support for both Jewish and Arab communities around the world and has a long history of promoting interfaith dialogue and cultural understanding,” she noted.