Why this venom towards
Israel
?
Matthai Varkki
2006/03/01
malaysiakini.com
I write in response to Abdul Rahman Koya’s
International Jew: Apologies won’t undo the truth and Abdul Rahman Abdul
Talib’s Hamas democratic choice of Palestinians.
There are some very peculiar things about
Malaysia
and one of these peculiar things is the venom that most Muslim Malaysians
seem to have towards
Israel
. Dr Mahathir Mohammad with his famous anti-Jew remarks, Chandra Muzaffar
with his anti-Israel rhetoric and views expressed in the above letters
seem to indicate that Malaysians top of the list of people with the most
venom towards the Israelis alongside militant groups such as Hamas,
Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah and the Iranian government.
The background to the publication of The
International Jew is incredible. I can’t imagine that fellow Malaysians
have that much venom towards the Jews to publish a book that denigrates
the Jews based merely on fiction and far fetched imagination rather than
truth as some would want the world to believe. This was also done against
the wishes of its original writers who have since apologized for their
work.
One wonders why Malaysians of all people should have
this sort of venom towards
Israel
and the Jews in general. We are after all very distant from the
Middle East
conflict. Is it because of our passionate support for the Palestinian
cause? However, this should not in any way be the reason used to ferment
hatred towards the Israelis and Jews. I am convinced that all this venom
is being shown by our fellow Muslim Malaysians due to the rise of
religious extremism and a complete lack of understanding of the true
situation and the history of the Israeli–Arab conflict. This is further
compounded by the completely biased and one-sided manner of journalism
perpetrated by the Malay media.
If one cares to analyze the Israeli–Palestinian
conflict carefully, it is apparent that even as the militant Palestinian
groups continue daily to target innocent Israeli civilians including women
and children with tacit backing from the Muslim world, the Israelis target
only the militants who are hell bent on the destruction of
Israel
. Of course, one has to acknowledge that occasionally innocent Palestinian
lives are lost due to the nature of the conflict.
Those that argue that
Israel
is an illegal state that is a colonial creation that is created out a
Palestinian homeland are also completely missing the historical facts.
Israel
was legally created by a UN resolution. There was never in history
something called a Palestinian state while historical facts prove the
presence of a historical
Kingdom
of
Israel
. Jews have a historical right to a homeland just like everyone else in
the world. They cannot have just dropped out of the sky.
Then there is the often-heard mantra of Zionism being
an evil and racist ideology. Does any of these Malaysian’s really know
what Zionism is all about? Zionism is in essence a very simple desire of
the Jewish people to have their own homeland – nothing sinister at all.
If Zionism is so evil and dangerous, one wonders why 20 percent of the
population of
Israel
is made of Arabs who are full citizens of the state of
Israel
. Due to the nature of the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews, I
guess that there would be some sort of discrimination against the Israeli
Arabs but again we in
Malaysia
do not have any moral authority to talk about discrimination.
My argument is that all this venom targeted at the
Israelis and Jews is simply the result of religious extremism among our
Muslim brothers in
Malaysia
as also clearly illustrated by the fact that many of the progressive
Muslims worldwide have accepted and have made attempts to build bridges
with the Israelis. In addition to the countries that have signed peace
treaties with the Israelis such as
Egypt
and
Jordan
, there are a number of progressive Muslim countries that have established
relations with
Israel
.
Turkey
, a country made up of 99 percent Muslims and with the historical heritage
of the great
Ottoman Empire
behind them has established good relations with the Israelis which
includes even high-level military cooperation.
Here in
Malaysia
, as illustrated recently in the MAS case, even the mention of
Israel
would get some Muslims into such frenzy. The local Malay media can’t
even bear to mention the word ‘
Israel
’ and often retorts to statements like ‘Zionist regime’. If
Israel
and the Jews are a bunch of cold- blooded murderers who are anti-Islam as
what our Muslim brothers in
Malaysia
want to believe, why do all these overwhelmingly Muslim countries have
links with
Israel
?
It is quite evident that there is nothing that
Israel
has done that deserves such negative views by our Muslim brothers in
Malaysia
on them and on Jews. Our passionate support for the Palestinian cause is
fine but this should not blind us to the truth and cause us to hold such
unjustified negative views on
Israel
.
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