Rumor has it that Reese was very pro-Israel just after its June 1967 victory in the Six Days of War. He went on trips to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to learn more about the Arab conflict with Israel and switched sides.

He’s ended up becoming the favorite media advocate for the Palestinians and excoriating Israel at every possible opportunity. He has also taken after the US on the war against Islamic extremism and our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What I’m suggesting is a bit of Reese’s own medicine: a ‘pop quiz’ on Saudi Arabia, America’s ‘other’ ally in the Middle East and mainstay of OPEC.

The Economist Magazine, published in the U.K., puts out an annual Democracy Index where it ranks more than 167 countries using several different dimensions, “free and fair election process, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture”. Israel ranks in the top 50, 47th, even though The Economist puts it in the ‘flawed democracy’ category. The U.S. is ranked 17th falling in the ‘functioning democracy’ category. Contrast that with Saudi Arabia which ranks 159th. The Economist puts Saudi Arabia in the category of ‘authoritarian regimes’ like Libya (161) Myanmar (163) and North Korea (167). Saudi Arabia is governed by strict Islamic Shari’a law in accordance with the Wahhabi doctrine and even has a religious police.

Here is a ‘pop quiz’ about Saudi Arabia.

1. What was the dominant country of origin of the 9/11 perpetrators.

Answer: Saudi Arabia with 15 out of 19 Jihadis.

2. What country of origin constituted over half of the foreign insurgents fighting our troops in Iraq?

Answer: Saudi Arabia

3. Are Houses of Worship (synagogues, churches, temples) other than Mosques allowed in Saudi Arabia?

Answer: No

4. Can Bibles or non-Muslim religious symbols (crosses, Stars of David) be taken into or worn in Saudi Arabia?

Answer: No

5. Can women drive in Saudi Arabia?

Answer: No

6. Is the testimony of a woman given equal value to that of a man in a Saudi court of law?

Answer: No. Such testimony is given half value.

7. What is the penalty for a woman caught in the company of an unrelated male?

Answer: Flogging with up to 200 lashes.

8. What is the penalty for a Muslim apostate if caught, tried and sentenced in a Saudi court?

Answer: Death

9. What is the penalty for gays and lesbians if caught in Saudi Arabia?

Answer: Death

10. What did a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom find in a review of textbooks used by a Saudi Embassy sponsored school here in America. the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Alexandria, Virginia:

Answer: In a twelfth-grade Tafsir (Koranic interpretation) textbook, the authors state that it is permissible for a Muslim to kill an apostate (a convert from Islam), an adulterer, or someone who has murdered a believer intentionally.

Note that the valedictorian of the ISA class of 1999 was convicted for plotting to assassinate President Bush.