Mahathir brands US a rogue nation terrorising innocents and stands by
claim that Jews 'rule the world by proxy' 

by Simon Tisdall in Kuala Lumpur 

MAHATHIR Mohamad, modern Malaysia's founding father and moderate Islam's
self-styled champion, denounced the Bush administration yesterday as a
"rogue regime" bent on terrorising innocent civilians. He also said he
was disappointed that Tony Blair, whom he called a "proven liar", had
won re-election after joining the US invasion of Iraq. 

Reflecting the rage felt across the Muslim world over abuse scandals in
Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, and continuing violence in Palestine and
Iraq, Mr Mahathir said President George Bush and other US politicians
were "ignorant" people who believed might made right - a return to
colonial-era "old thinking". 

Speaking to the Guardian at his offices in Putrajaya, near Kuala Lumpur,
Mr Mahathir also claimed that the Israeli government had been given a
free hand by Washington to continue to expropriate Palestinian land and
entrench its control over Jerusalem. The war on terror would not end
until the Middle East conflict was justly resolved, he said. 

Asked whether he regretted his statement that "Jews rule the world by
proxy", which caused an international furore in 2003, Mr Mahathir said
he took nothing back. 

"US politicians are scared stiff of the Jews because anybody who votes
against the Jews will lose elections. The Jews in America are supporting
the Jews in Israel. Israel and other Jews control the most powerful
nation in the world. And that is what I mean [about Jews controlling the
world]. I stand by that view." On his balcony overlooking the tower
blocks, mosques, bridges and artificial lakes of Putrajaya, Malaysia's
new administrative capital which he created in the 1990s, Mr Mahathir,
79, cuts a slight, almost self-effacing figure. His personal manner is
reserved and courteous to a fault. 

Earlier in the day, he had lectured students at his Perdana Leadership
Foundation on the importance of education and development in the Muslim
world to defend the Islamic faith. The problem was not Islam itself, he
said, but the many incorrect interpretations of the Qur'an that were
exploited by extremists. 

"Islam is a positive, not a negative force. Today most Muslim countries
seem incapable of developing good governments, they are always fighting
each other, assassinating each other and doing all the wrong things."
Distortions of the Prophet's teachings had held back the peoples of many
Muslim countries, he said. 

But Mr Mahathir's strongest criticism was directed outwards. Even though
he retired as Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister in 2003, many in
the region still regard him as the country's leader and one of Asia's
most influential voices. 

His anger is undimmed; his rhetoric flows unstaunched. 

"The US is the most powerful nation," he said. "It can ignore the world
if it wants to do anything. It breaks international law. It arrests
people outside their countries; it charges them under American law. It
kills them. 

"The US war on terror is a way of terrorising people. If you are an
Iraqi and you are expecting to be bombed, aren't you terrified? If you
have done nothing, if you are an innocent Iraqi citizen and you are
expecting any time a rocket to fly in and blow you to pieces, aren't you
terrified? "That is terror [and] the US is as guilty of terrorism as the
people who crashed their planes into the buildings ... Bush doesn't
understand the rest of the world. He thinks everybody should be a neocon
like him." 

Mr Mahathir was equally scathing about Israeli policies in Palestine. He
said his visit to the West Bank last month had been deliberately
disrupted by the Israeli government. Specifically, he said he was
blocked from travelling to Jerusalem and Jenin, scene of some of the
worst Israeli violence in 2002, where he was to open a school funded by
Malaysia. Israel has denied impeding his visit. 

"I suppose I was mistaken in thinking that there are parts of Palestine
that are under the control of the Palestinians. But apparently the
Israelis have occupied the whole of Palestine. They do anything they
like there," he said. 

Mr BLAIR had discredited himself and Britain in Muslim eyes by backing
the Iraq war, Mr Mahathir said. "He was wrong and he was more wrong
because he tells lies. You know, Jack Straw came to see me [on the eve
of the war in January 2003] and I asked him, 'Why are you with the
Americans?' He said we're trying to influence the Americans not to take
that kind of action. But it seems it was the other way round. 

"They [Britain] were influenced in supporting America to do something
that they knew was wrong ... They knew they were being lied to, and yet
they supported the Americans and today 300,000 Iraqis are dead because
of these lies. "I think a person like Blair would feel very guilty and I
am disappointed that the British people would re-elect a person who
obviously told lies . . . We're beginning to lose faith in the present
leadership of Britain." 

One eventual consequence, he suggested, could be Malaysia's withdrawal
from the Commonwealth. 

Malaysia, which is encircled by conflicts in western Indonesia, the
Philippines and southern Thailand, fully supported the fight against
religious and political fanaticism, he said. But the west was going
about it the wrong way. 

"Even if you get Bin Laden, you can't be sure there won't be another Bin
Laden. You cannot get terrorists to sign a peace treaty. The only way to
beat terror is to go for the basic causes. 

"They don't blow themselves up for no reason, they're angry, they're
frustrated. And why are they angry? Look at the Palestinian situation.
Fifty years after you created the state of Israel, things are going from
bad to worse. 

"If you don't settle that, there will be no end to the war on terror.
For how long are you going to go on examining people's shoes?"