Photo: President George W
Bush meets Jewish holy men
earlier this month

Bush condemns attack on Jews

US President George Bush has condemned Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's statement that Jews rule the world, pulling him aside at an international economic meeting to tell him the remarks were "wrong and divisive".

White House press secretary Scott McClellan quoted Bush as telling the Malaysian leader: "It stands squarely against what I believe in."

Bush confronted Mahathir between meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok, McClellan said.

Monday, October 20, 2003

Chirac rebukes Malaysia in 'anti-Jewish' dispute

By Philip Delves Broughton
in Paris

FRENCH President Jacques Chirac wrote to Mahathir Mohamad (right) the Malaysian Prime Minister, yesterday telling him that his recent remarks about Jewish influence would be condemned by those who remembered the Holocaust.

Before M Chirac's office released excerpts of the letter he had come under a barrage of criticism from Israel where he was accused of having blocked an EU condemnation of Dr Mahathir's "Jews run the world by proxy" comment.

An Israeli newspaper, Maariv, ran an unflattering picture of M Chirac with the headline "The Face of French Anti-Semitism". At a discussion on Thursday during a heads of government meeting in Brussels, M Chirac was said to have opposed the notion of including a condemnation in the usual end-of-summit statement. Instead, the EU issued a separate statement in the name of the current Italian presidency. Though dated Thursday, it appeared on the Italian presidency's website only on Saturday.

The statement said Dr Mahathir's

"unacceptable comments hinder all our efforts to further inter-ethnic and religious harmony and have no place in a different world".

Maariv's presentation of events, however, prompted Sylvan Shalom, the Israeli foreign minister, to say: "It is a disgrace when a country like France, an important country, displays even the slightest understanding or acceptance of Mahathir Mohamad's anti-Semitic remarks." M Chirac's office vigorously disputed the Israeli accusations, calling them a "gross misinterpretation".

A spokesman for Javier Solana, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said all of the EU members had agreed that it was best to issue two statements, the first describing the conclusions of the summit meeting, the second condemning Dr Mahathir.

In his letter, M Chirac said Dr Mahathir's comments, at the opening of a summit of Islamic nations, had "roused intense condemnation in France and the world", though he noted that the Malaysian leader had criticised suicide bombings against Israelis.

Syed Hamid Albar, the Malaysian foreign minister, said Dr Mahathir's speech was misunderstood. "I am confident he has no anti-Jewish feeling," he added.

. . . on this website

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad says Jews rule the world

Embassy Scandal Consumes Fleet Street | French ambassador to UK can't recall calling Israel "sh*tty" | Wall Street Journal shocked at rise of anti Israel feeling in Britain | French ambassador to London sent packing

Florida: Jewish outrage at "Jewish"

Our dossier on the origins of anti-Semitism