Invitation to genocide

Editorial

Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian prime minister, last week delivered an anti-Semitic diatribe that is unlike anything we tend to hear outside of extremist Web sites. Mahathir regurgitated centuries of stereotypes and typical world-domination conspiracy theories with remarkably cool-headed delivery.

Mahathir's comments, which included the remarks "Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them," were chilling enough. But the reaction from a crowd made up of leaders from 57 Islamic nations should make a decent person's blood run cold.

According to wire news reports, Mahathir's speech met with not a whisper of condemnation from the leaders assembled for the Organization of the Islamic Conference. In fact, the presidents, kings, emirs and sheiks from member-states representing one-fifth of the world's population, responded with a standing ovation.

Mahathir's presentation seems destined to be his last before his peers. He retires at the end of October after 22 years as Malaysia's head of government. The ovation could be interpreted as appreciation from world leaders to one of their own upon his retirement. Still, one might have thought someone – anyone – might have restrained their enthusiasm in light of Mahathir's despicable words about Jews.

Of course, the comments shouldn't have come as a complete surprise. Mahathir has made similar comments previously. But this speech, despite his attempt to inoculate himself by strategically criticizing suicide attacks, is the closest we have heard to a call for genocide against the Jews from a world leader in about – quick calculation – 62 years.

This speech cannot be dismissed as that of a madman, for several reasons. Mahathir, for 22 years, has led a country of 22 million people. More chilling still is that his call for "final victory" over the Jewish people was received with enthusiasm by leaders of apparently every Muslim country on earth.

The vulnerability Israelis and Diaspora Jews have been feeling in recent years is accentuated by terrifying words like Mahathir's, which – consciously or not – echo Hitler's Final Solution. The Malaysian leader's claims of Jewish world domination are so extreme that one's gut reaction might be to wish that Jewish values of tolerance and learning were as dominant as Mahathir alleges.

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