The World - News from July 16, 1986

Secretary of State George P. Shultz has ordered the U.S. Embassy in Damascus to look into the publication of an anti-Semitic book allegedly written by Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Talas. The book, “The Matzo of Zion,” was printed last year in Damascus with the tacit approval of the Syrian government, charged Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies in Los Angeles. Hier said the book perpetuates the medieval “blood libel” in which Jews were accused of killing Christians to use their blood for matzo, the unleavened bread of Passover. Syrian officials in Washington have denied any knowledge of the book.