Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) leaders today said that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's controversial views on the Jews is based on the generalisations of the actions of some members in the Jewish community.

Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali said Mahathir should have distinguished between Jews and Zionists, as the former are not necessarily in favour of the latter's long-term plan for territorial and political expansion in the Middle East.

"Not all Jews support the military occupation and state violence perpetrated by the Zionist Israeli regime on the Palestinian territory and people.

We know for certain that there are many Jews who are against the Israeli occupation and state terrorism, as much as they are opposed to suicide bombing. Of course Dr Mahathir is well aware of this," they said in a press statement.

However, the two leaders said that for reasons of his own, Mahathir seemed to have deliberately chosen to ignore the differences between the terms, and thereby causing controversy which overshadowed other parts of his speech which deserved greater attention.

According to Wan Azizah and Syed Husin, the United States, in particular, should have been appreciative of the fact that Mahathir expressed a strong position against terrorism and suicide bombing during his address.

"We would have further expected many among the Jewish people to celebrate Mahathir's compliments to them as a community that has been so resilient and effective in defending their interests and advancing their positions throughout history.

"Compare this to how he laments over the ineffectiveness and backwardness of the Islamic communities," they said.

Heard it before

The two leaders said Mahathir's speech was probably calculated to provoke in order to draw attention to what he has to say on his favourite topics.

"There is little new in his speech for much of it is a rehash from several themes he had focused on in the past... We have heard Mahathir pontificate almost all of these before," they said.

These included his views on the backwardness of Muslims and Muslim countries, the importance of Muslims adopting modern education and technology, the cruelties of the Israeli regime against the Palestinians, the lack of wisdom for the Palestinians to respond through violent means.

Mahathir's controversial remarks during the Organisation of Islamic Conference summit last week had attracted condemnations from key Western governments, including the United States, the European Union and Australia, as well as Jewish groups, for their alleged anti-Semitic message.

He had accused the Jews of ruling the world by proxy and getting others to fight and die for them. He was, however, defended by a number of his colleagues at the OIC who said Mahathir was only speaking the truth.