SYDNEY, Oct 19: Malaysia said on Sunday widespread anger over comments about Jews by the country’s prime minister was terrible, and insisted Mahathir Mohamad’s remarks were only an accurate reflection of the undeniable power of Jews worldwide.
Mahathir provoked an outcry when he said that Jews controlled Western powers by proxy. The United States, Israel, Australia and the European Union accused Mahathir of anti-Semitism.
“It’s most unfortunate, the reaction that has come out is terrible,” Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said in an interview on Australian television.
“They (the Jews) are very, very influential and strong in many countries. You cannot deny the fact that the Jewish economic power is tremendous. Their lobby is tremendous. So what’s wrong in saying that. You are not saying ‘Kill all the Jews’. You say, ‘Take the example of the Jews’, he said on Channel Nine’s “Sunday” programme.
“Arabs are also Semites. Whenever a Jew says that Semites only refer to Jews, then it becomes an accepted thing. So that’s how powerful the Jewish lobby is — the control of the media, by the Jewish community. But that should not create anti-feeling against them,” Syed Hamid said.
He said Mahathir, who made his remarks on Thursday in a speech to a summit of Islamic leaders in Malaysia, had intended to remind Muslims that if they wanted to be successful they must think, plan and not use aggression.
The Jews had “real power” because they had worked hard and successfully achieved knowledge and influence, he said.
ALLEGATIONS: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said on Sunday that accusing Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of anti-Semitism served to “deflect attention from Israeli acts” against the Palestinians.
Mahathir “called for a stop to violence (against Palestinians) and to study the situation with rationality and objectivity,” Maher said after returning from the OIC summit in Malaysia.
“What is said about this speech shows bad faith,” he said, alluding to Mahathir’s speech opening the OIC meeting on Thursday.
“These are lying allegations aimed at protecting Israel and deflecting attention from Israeli acts,” he added.
Mahathir created a storm of controversy when he urged Muslims to take a common stand on the Palestinian struggle against Israel, saying it was time to plan a “counter-attack” against the enemies of Islam who treated its adherents with “contempt and dishonour”.
“The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them,” Mahathir said, adding that 1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews.
Maher said: “We hope that those who condemned Mahathir’s speech lend more attention to the words of the American general ... who demonstrated hostility toward Islam and Muslims.”
Maher was referring to General William Boykin, who in June was named deputy undersecretary of defence for intelligence, and cast the war on terror as a fight of Christianity against Islam.
Boykin apologized if he had offended anyone and denied he was anti-Islam.
CHIRAC: French President Jacques Chirac backed the European Union’s condemnation of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for remarks he made about Jews last week, presidential spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said Sunday.
Chirac “joined in the condemnation of the anti-Semitic remarks issued Friday by the Italian presidency (of the EU) in the name of all the countries of the European Union,” Colonna said after the Israeli daily Maariv on Sunday ran a front-page photograph of Chirac with the caption “The Face of Anti-Semitism in France”.
Meanwhile in Brussels, the European Union also denied the Maariv allegation that during an EU summit in Brussels Chirac had blocked a resolution condemning Mahathir’s remarks.
A spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs coordinator Javier Solana described the allegation as without foundation.—Reuters/AFP
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