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As best I can recall, I met Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal at a home in Washington years ago. I found him stern and humorless, sometimes even bitter. Still, I was unprepared for the opinion column he published in Sunday's Washington Post. It read like a declaration of war.

Faisal is not now in the government. Yet, he is a member of the Saudi royal family and was once the kingdom's intelligence chief and its former ambassador to both London and Washington. He starts by citing what he calls President Obama's "controversial speech last month, admonishing Arab governments to embrace democracy and provide freedom to their populations." Saudi Arabia, he wrote, heard what Obama said and took it "seriously," and he noted that Obama had not demanded the same rights for Palestinians under Israeli occupation. >>>