Gość: Jude Wanniski
IP: *.NYCMNY83.covad.net
24.10.03, 19:32
`Listening to Mahathir`
Memo To: Jewish Fans, Browsers, Clients
From: Jude Wanniski
Re: "Jews Rule This World by Proxy"
I wasn't going to comment on Mathahir Mohamad's assertion last week
that "Jews Rule this World by Proxy," although I did post the report of his
speech as a Recommended Reading. And I did say the speech should be taken
seriously, because it did represent the views of the Islamic world, not just
Mahathir. Now President Bush, who does not read newspapers but gets the news
conveyed to him by Condi Rice, bumped into the Malaysian Prime Minister at a
gathering in Bangkok. He took the opportunity to tell Mahathir how outraged
he was at this anti-Semitism and then issued a press release trumpeting news
of this private conversation. Then Tuesday, Paul Krugman of the New York
Times devoted his column to an explanation of why Mahathir did what he did,
and why he thinks President Bush does not understand how he and his
administration have brought America's relations with the 1.3 billion Muslims
to this pretty pass. In today's Times there are several letters to the editor
denouncing Krugman for being an apologist for an anti-Semite.
The complete transcript of Mahathir's speech can be found at this link. Here
are excerpts as reported by AP:
October 21, 2003
Views on Jews By Malaysian: His Own Words
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Following are excerpts from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's speech on
Thursday at the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Putrajaya,
Malaysia:
We need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships for our
defense. But because we are discouraged from learning of science and
mathematics as giving us no merit for the afterlife, today we have no
capacity to produce our own weapons for our defense. We have to buy our
weapons from our detractors and enemies. . . .
Today we, the whole Muslim ummah [community], is treated with contempt and
dishonor. Our religion is denigrated, our holy places desecrated. Our
countries are occupied, our people starved and killed. . . .
Our only reaction is to become more and more angry. Angry people cannot think
properly. And so we find some of our people acting irrationally. They launch
their own attacks, killing just about everybody, including fellow Muslims, to
vent their anger and frustration. . . .
There is a feeling of hopelessness among the Muslim countries and their
people. . . . But is it true that we should do and can do nothing for
ourselves? Is it true that 1.3 billion people can exert no power to save
themselves from the humiliation and oppression inflicted on them by a much
smaller enemy? Is there no other way than to ask our young people to blow
themselves up and kill people and invite the massacre of more of our own
people? . . .
We are actually very strong; 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out.
The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews
rule the world by proxy: They get others to fight and die for them. . . .
We also know that not all non-Muslims are against us. . . . Even among the
Jews, there are many who do not approve of what the Israelis are doing. . . .
We are up against a people who think. They survived 2,000 years of pogroms
not by hitting back but by thinking. They invented socialism, communism,
human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong,
so that they can enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now
gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community,
have become a world power. . . .
Of late, because of their power and their apparent success, they have become
arrogant. And arrogant people, like angry people, will make mistakes, will
forget to think. They are already beginning to make mistakes. There may be
windows of opportunities for us now and in the future. We must seize these
opportunities.
* * * * *
I'll append Krugman's column, but also recommend you read a Mahathir speech
he gave last year, which got no attention, but which may at least persuade
you that Krugman has a point that should not be dismissed out of hand. I have
been privately responding to Jewish clients on this issue by pointing out
that a political leader knows how to get in front of an angry mob that is
moving in the wrong direction. He gets its attention by first telling it that
it has every right to be angry. He can only then hope to move it by degrees
in a more constructive direction, away from its violent path. Read the speech
and you will see that is what Mahathir is doing and why the response from the
leaders of the Islamic world was so enthusiastic. There is no anti-Semitism
here. Anti-Semitism requires that you wish to do harm to Jews in some way or
another and Mahathir is clearly stating the opposite goal, urging his fellow
Muslims to instead think through strategies that will bring about peaceful
solutions to the issues that confront the Islamic world.
Listening to Mahathir
By Paul Krugman
NYTimes Oct. 21, 2003
"The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews
rule this world by proxy: They get others to fight and die for them." So said
Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister of Malaysia, at an Islamic summit
meeting last week. The White House promptly denounced his "hate-filled
remarks."
Indeed, those remarks were inexcusable. But they were also calculated
