Tired of that old Danish cartoon rage? You've probably caught a virus. Did you hear? The Jews have planted a flu virus to sicken the Arab Nation. At least, that's what the government of Syria is trying to tell the world.

MEMRI reports that the government daily Al—Thawra

"... published an article by columnist Abd Al—Rahman Ghunaym
suggesting that Israel created the avian flu virus in order to damage "genes carried only by Arabs." The article further speculates that Israel may have planted the virus in East Asia in order to mislead the world, and that this is why the disease first appeared in that remote region. Another possibility given is that the virus was created to attack "the yellow race — especially in China and Vietnam" which are "rising powers" threatening "American hegemony over the world.""

How's that for evil, eh?

"The suspicion regarding a link between the avian flu and Israel's 'race bomb' is compounded by a report from the Palestinian Authority, regarding 85,000 good chickens that were buried [by Israel] in fields in the West Bank, and by the fact that the Palestinian Authority was not allowed to take samples from these chickens for testing. [Another telling fact] is what happened later — the case of a young Arab from one of the villages around Jerusalem [who caught the disease]. This means that the disease appeared in a new location, this time in the West Bank, simultaneously with the discovery of a new case in northern Iraq."

That's how the Zionists got to Arafat!

"Tampering with Arab genes [without affecting] the white race is very difficult. But the Zionists are capable of attempting this [risky] adventure if [they have] a preventive treatment or a [cure for the disease]. Recall that the assassination of Yasser Arafat was carried out by means of biological weapons."

Certain activities may have had something to do with Arafat's passing. His autopsy is still top secret. There is at least as much reason to speculate he died of AIDS as there is to suspect poisoning. As David Frum wrote:

He has suffered a dramatic weight loss, memory loss and periods of disorientation, loss of muscle control and recurring nausea. His doctors tell us that his blood platelet count has dropped dramatically, but that he does not have leukemia. These symptoms sound remarkably AIDS—like, don't they? An AIDS diagnosis would certainly accord with what is widely known about Arafat's personal way of life. (Some of the lurid, homoerotic details can be found in the memoirs of Lt.—Gen. Ion Pacepa, former head of Romanian intelligence under Nicolae Ceausescu.

If HIV is a biological weapon, it is largely self—inflicted.

The President of Syria is an opthalmologist, medically trained, so he may not believe Syrian crank theories. But the Muslim world incubates conspiracy theories like, well, like the flu virus in a culture dish, taking advantage of widespread ignorance about science — not just about the facts but also about the purposes of biological medicine. For a small nation, Israel does some first—rate science in biology and medicine, with the obvious goal of curing people. For decades Israel's hospitals have treated Palestinian patients. The Saudi royal family is not averse to using Jewish physicians. Syrians surely know this — in a separate part of their minds — even while they talk up the newest rumors of evil Zionist plans to spread death and disease to innocent Arabs. It's just pathetic.

One difficulty with this fantasy is that more than a million Israelis emigrated from Arab countries, bringing along their share of Arab genes, picked up over the last twenty centuries. Middle Eastern Jews often resemble Arabs, just as European Jews look more like Europeans. So the carefully tailored "Arab virus" might just wipe out a million Israelis of Middle Eastern descent. That's the problem with bioweapons: They're not very discriminating.

But then, neither are nukes. Iran's Mad Mullahs like to fantasize about a perfect nuclear strike to wipe out Tel Aviv. President Ahmadinejad is supposed to have a PhD in Engineering, but he hasn't figured out that radioactive fallout would float hundreds of miles to kill Palestinians, Jordanians, and even Syrians, within hours of a nuclear explosion. And by that time Tehran, Qom, Natanz and Isfahan would be reduced to rubble by counterstrikes from Israel's cruise missiles.

Isn't it time for Syria and Iran to do some hard thinking? When it comes to WMDs, everybody ends up dead.

James Lewis is a frequent contributor