Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s vocal stand against Zionists and the West contradicts his own close association with them while he was in power, said PKR today.

NONE “Mahathir may seem to be vocal in opposing Zionists and the West but actually had the closest connections with them, to the point of signing a secret military agreement with America in 1984 - the  Bilateral Training and Consultation Agreement (Bitac) - that allowed America to hold their military training in Malaysia,” said PKR’s Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad ( right ).

The party communications director was responding to Mahathir’s attack yesterday on PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim’s “pro-Jew” stance and the latter’s alleged “close relations with the former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, who is a Jew”.

He said that the long-time former PM, after he had ruined Malaysia’s name abroad with Anwar’s sacking, had allegedly paid Zionist lobbyist Jack Abramoff up to USD1.2 million to arrange a meeting with former US president George W Bush.

“Mahathir himself had admitted to the fact,” said Nik Nazmi in a statement. Abramoff, he said, was close to Bush and to a group of extremists in Israel.

“According to Newsweek , funds from Abramoff’s lobbying was channeled to Jewish residents who opposed the Palestinian state...

NONE “After that, Bush considered Malaysia an ally in his war against terrorism and Malaysia used that as grounds to detain whoever was necessary under ISA, including opposition leaders who were accused of being terrorists,” he said.

Nik Nazmi said Mahathir ( right ) was merely acting out a grudge against Anwar, that he and Umno were jumping from one scandal to another against the PKR de facto leader.

The war of words follows Anwar's Thursday interview in the Wall Street Journal that reported him saying that he supported efforts to protect Israel's security, but that any relation with the Jewish state depends on its willingness to respect the Palestinian aspirations.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin took the cue to slam Anwar and Pakatan for being pro-Israel.

Nik Nazmi however stressed, “Anwar has explained that his statement in Wall Street Journal was distorted by Umno and the media ... they (Umno) themselves support the two state solution, that is also accepted by the Arab peace initiative, Malaysia and even Hamas, the Palestinian freedom fighters.”