Senator John Kerry is the first major politician to sign on to the Anti-Defamation League’s new "Break the Wave of Hate" initiative. He capped off his commitment with a lengthy speech Sunday at Temple Israel on the Riverway, where his brother Cameron (whose wife is Jewish) is a member, condemning the recent outbreak of global anti-Semitism.

Kerry, a likely 2004 presidential candidate, called on both Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Saudi crown prince Abdullah to curb anti-Semitism in their respective countries by reforming the press, as well as textbooks used in schools. "In the absence of firm, clear, forceful voices speaking out against it," Kerry warned, "[anti-Semitism] can spread even more quickly."

Such outspokenness is something we have yet to hear from President Bush. While Bush has spoken forcefully on the right of Israel to defend itself, he has said little on the subject of international anti-Jewish attacks, such as those in France and Tunisia, where synagogues have recently come under attack. With the exception of one line in an April 30 speech — "We reject the ancient evil of anti-Semitism, whether it is practiced by the killers of Daniel Pearl, or by those who burn synagogues in France" — Bush has been all too silent on the subject. He has also failed to call upon the leaders of so-called moderate Arab nations, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to help stop the propagation of anti-Semitism in their state-controlled media outlets. The Bush administration reinforced its tepid attitude toward anti-Semitism in the Arab world when a White House spokesman, in response to Kerry’s speech, told the Boston Globe that while Bush wants to promote democracy in those countries, if Kerry "is calling for us to ask our allies in Saudi Arabia and Egypt to appoint different people to run newspapers, that’s something different."

Unless the spokesman meant something else — and he didn’t return the Phoenix’s telephone calls — he seems to be suggesting that the US government is unwilling to pressure these nations to change their hate-filled news outlets. Such reluctance is ludicrous, given that most news outlets in these countries are state-controlled at worst and operate at the whim of the state at best.

Kerry — who is an advocate of energy independence, which centers on weaning America off foreign oil — seems to have an easier time playing rough with the Saudis than Bush, a former oilman whose family has close ties to the Saudi royal family. That will be an issue to watch as the 2004 campaign draws closer.