The Prime Minister´s antisemitism is part of an alarming trend

The vicious antisemitic statements made on October 10 by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad are a testimony to the moral bankruptcy of the international community´s resolve to combat antisemitism. It has become clear in recent years that antisemitism now enjoys the highest degree of legitimacy that it has ever had since the days of the Third Reich. Across Europe and elsewhere (including in places in which Jews and the anti-Jewish bogey have been largely absent, such as Malaysia) anti-Jewish discourse has again become commonplace. Jews can today be excoriated even in “good company” – especially when they are called “Zionists”. Of late, antisemites have become even bolder. They can and do speak about “Jews” without bothering to camouflage their remarks in terms of acidic criticism of Israel.

Today, members of the intellectual and political elite, and movers and shakers in every sphere have learned that hating Jews is not only legitimate - it is also fashionable and is even considered to be a sort of avant garde ideology. One member of the British House of Parliament has even spoken recently of a “Jewish cabal.” Many of the attacks leveled against Israel in the wake of the Palestinian Intifada have been tinged with antisemitism, some of it drawing upon traditional anti-Jewish motifs. More than one European newspaper caricature likened Arafat´s situation to that of Jesus, crucified by Jews; and the Jenin refugee camp has been variously depicted in respectable newspapers and by mainstream intellectuals as the new Warsaw Ghetto or even as a modern-day Auschwitz.

Mahathir – Schindler´s List is anti-German propoganda

Prime Minister Mahathir has a long history of making unambiguous anti- Jewish utterances and actions and he has time and again identified himself as an implacable enemy of Jews and Judaism. In 1984, he took part in preventing the New York Philharmonic from performing in Malaysia specifically because of the planned inclusion in their concert of a piece by Swiss Jewish composer Ernst Bloch. He sought in 1994 to ban the showing of Steven Spielberg´s film Schindler´s List in Malaysia, calling it an anti-German propoganda film. (Spielberg decided to pull all of his films from Malaysia, after the government decided to allow only an edited screening of Schindler´s List.) In 1992 the Malaysian government prevented a representative of El Al from attending an international aviation conference in Kuala Lampur, and later that same year, an Israeli soccer player playing for a Liverpool soccer team was not allowed to enter the country. (The team decided to cancel its trip as a result.) During the summer of 2003 it was discovered that Mahathir had organized the distribution of Henry Ford´s infamous anti-Jewish tract The International Jew at a party congress. In 1997, his comments about the Jews conspiring to undermine Malaysia´s economy through manipulation of its currency attracted a limited amount of international attention. (For this story, see WJC Policy Dispatch No. 24.) Mahathir´s ideas, manifested in numerous forums and actions over the course of three decades, have generally been consonant with those that appeared in the notorious Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, the antisemitic forgery which has been a catalyst for so much Jewish suffering for more than a century.

Mr. Mahathir is obviously less attuned to the fine nuances of anti- Jewish speech. He did not feel compelled to speak of Israelis (who are routinely compared to Nazis) or Zionists… but simply directed his comments at “the Jews.” But the need to hide antisemitism behind “legitimate” criticism of Israel or of Zionism is of course no longer critical, as can be seen from the recent statements of various European politicians and intellectuals. In Mr. Mahathir´s view, and in a statement that he gave at an international conference, “the Jews rule the world by proxy.” In other words, a Jewish cabal controls the world according to its own sinister whims. Such ideas, of course, are nothing new, and Mr. Mahathir cannot even claim any originality in aping the shopworn ideas of 19th century European antisemites. That the Malaysian leader´s words were echoed by Osama bin-Laden, the fugitive Al-Quaida leader at least suggests that the new antisemites are in good company.

The reaction: hardly a murmur

But the significance of Mr. Mahathir´s latest outburst transcends his own idiosyncrasies and personal loathing of Jews. On that issue, the record is clear and there is little to discuss. What is noteworthy in the Malaysian Prime Minister´s latest rantings is the international reaction -- or rather, the lack of any meaningful reaction. Given the fact that the Prime Minister spoke at a summit of the Organization of Islamic States, before heads of state and other dignitaries one would have hoped that that there would be an international outcry in the face of such brazen effrontery. But just the contrary happened. There has been little outcry, and virtually no spontaneous or convincing condemnation. No one dared speak of any punitive measures, of blacklisting Mr Mahathir, or of the effect of the Malaysian´s leader´s word on Malaysia´s status in the international community. Whatever reprimand was offered was low-key. To his and his nation´s credit, US President George Bush personally condemned Mahathir´s comments, and took him aside during an October 21 meeting of the Asia- Pacific Economic Group to tell the Malaysian prime minister that his October 10 remarks were “wrong and divisive” and stood “squarely against what I believe.” While Bush uncharacteristically made a point of releasing information about this personal conversation with the Mahathir, the criticism came late and seemed to be relatively mild. This, of course, is nothing new. Prime Minister Mahathir´s earlier antisemitic remarks elicited only a muted reaction from foreign leaders, and relations with Malaysia continued to be characterized by a “business-as-usual” approach. What better proof could be offered of the moral bankruptcy of the international community?

This perhaps explains why the European Union was sharply divided over how to react to Mr. Mahathir´s latest attack. Greek Prime Minister Costas Simas and French President Jacques Chirac sought to prevent the issuance a condemnation of the Malaysian leader at the conclusion of the two-day EU summit. Finally, a watered-down condemnation was in fact released, but the message implied by the inter-European squabbling over whether to censure Mr. Mahathir was clear. Several days later, faced with Jewish criticism of his failure to act, Mr. Chirac addressed a mild letter of rebuke to Mr. Mahathir: "Your remarks on the role of Jews provoked strong disapproval in France and around the world… Even though you yourself and your government were careful to reject all accusations of anti-Semitism, these remarks can only be condemned by all those who remember the Holocaust."

Lessons for the world to learn - and no lesson learned by Mahathir

Clearly, no half-hearted declaration against antisemitism can be taken seriously without real steps being taken to reign in the culprits. That much history has already taught us… again and again. The international community has repeatedly allowed UN conferences to be hijacked to as platforms for antisemitic invective and various UN human rights for a have been used to attack Jews and Judaism. Sadly, today we reap the fruits of Durban… and the recent comments from the Malaysian prime minister constitute but one example. (The United Nations World Conference Against Racism, held in the summer of 2001 in Durban, South Africa, was transformed into a conference of antisemitic propaganda and virulent anti-Jewish and anti-Israel feeling.)

The international condemnation of his recent comments, to the extent there was such, has not taught Mr. Mahathir anything about the error of his ways. To the contrary – as he told a Bangkok newspaper this week, the criticism directed at him by leaders and the media has only served to prove to him that the Jews do indeed “control the world.” (wjc.org.i 10/20/03)