This is sure to cause coffee to come out of some peoples noses and to make them yell "anti_semitism" and "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." The reality is that those setting our foreign policy are doing so for the benefit of Israel and not for the benefit of the citizens of this country. In the long run, this will benefit neither the US nor Israel. These links contain much truth. Read these links with an open mind. Let's start with a rant from Our Man in South Africa, Mike Golby.

Neocons have America's Balls in a Vise

Have you read Mahathir Mohamad's now-notorious speech, a piece of oratory which, if the mainstream press and hysterical Israeli lobby are to be believed, will live in infamy unto the umpteenth generation? It's called Close Ranks, Muslims Urged. It's damned good. Please read it and make up your own bloody mind for a change. Here, courtesy of thestar online's Shahanaaz Habib's article, Jewish Lobby does ‘Rule’ the US, is a piece refuting its intentional misreading to now; call it a study guide.

No, really. Which bit of Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad's speech at the opening of OIC summit is inflammatory, offensive, repugnant and deserving of contempt?

That he called on Muslims to use their brains and not just brawn to fight their enemies? That he told them to stop blowing themselves up? And not act out of anger as irrational acts only beget more violence? Or that the Malaysian leader told Muslims they could learn a lesson or two from the Jews? And that numbers alone do not make strength? Or was it his remarks that the Jews have become arrogant and arrogant people make mistakes? Or that the Jews rule the world by proxy and get others to fight and die for them?

Now, really, which of these are untrue?

Just take the Jewish-rule-the-world by proxy comment. Why the uproar about it? Isn't this a known fact? The difference perhaps is that others have not expressed it in such blatant terms as the plain-speaking Malaysian Prime Minister. more...

If this article makes you turn blue in the face, gives you hot flushes or palpitations, makes your blood curdle or turn to ice, or compels you to bludgeon the nearest Arab to death with the ubiquitous baseball bat, you need help. Fast.
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Here is the speech of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Read it for yourself.

Close ranks, Muslims urged
Speech by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the opening of the 10th Session of the Islamic Summit Conference on Oct 16, 2003

And more of the comments of Shahanaaz Habib...

Jewish lobby does ‘rule’ the US

A number of Jews sit in key positions in the US administration and they steer much of the US foreign policy.

Just take the current George W. Bush administration.

There's Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defence secretary and close advisor of foreign policy, and Richard Perle, chairman of the Defence Policy Board, the Pentagon's advisory panel.

Perle comes with a colourful past. In the 1970s, he was expelled from Senator Henry Jackson's office for passing highly-classified documents to the Israeli embassy.

And later, he worked for an Israeli weapons firm, while Wolfowitz is said to have close ties with the Israeli military.
[...]

There's also Douglas Feith, undersecretary of Defence and Policy Advisor at the Pentagon whose appointment caused quite a stir in the Arab world.

Arab-American Institute president Dr James Zogby called it a “dangerous appointment” because having Feith, known for his extreme anti-Arab bias, as a chief architect of the US foreign policy was bad news for the Middle East.
[...]

With so many pro-Israeli American Jews in the US administration, why is there a problem when someone states the obvious? And questions who is really in charge?

And puts in perspective why US policies are always skewed in favour of Israel no matter how unfair?
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Here is a Jewish perspective on the speech...

Mahathir's Message

If its anti-Jewish element sounds blood-curdling in its intensity — and it should — then it is worse than most critics have let on, because this isn't one cranky old man speaking. It is, in a real sense, 1.3 billion Muslims throwing down a gauntlet.

If there is a bright side, it is in the fact that this attack on Jews is about something specific: land. Unlike the Nazis, who wanted nothing other than to kill every Jew in the world, the Muslim Jew-haters for whom Mahathir speaks want something they consider "justice" in Palestine.

Pessimists will argue that this amounts to the same thing, that the Muslims will never settle for less than the destruction of Israel. That may be true. But it may not be.

The atmosphere of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish rage welling up with ever-greater intensity around the world these days has not been a constant over the half-century since Israel's founding. It exploded with a sudden fury three years ago, after steadily declining for a decade before that. While Israel was engaged in what seemed to be a genuine peace process with its neighbors, the world — including the Muslim world — was content to give it a chance. When the diplomacy collapsed, and the violence surged to previously unimaginable proportions, the rage followed.
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The Essence of Duplicity: The Reaction to Mahathir's Comments on Jews

But when his speech is met with such hostility by people who are all too ready to target Muslims on the basis of their faith and their cultures, it is no wonder that Muslims and Arabs would rush to his defense. In a web poll on Al Jazeera's Arabic website over the weekend, 95% of over 56,000 voters supported Mahathir's remarks.

Knee-jerk reactions and condemnations by the "international community" (defined primarily as Europe and the US, since even staunch US allies like Afghan President Hamid Karzai defended Mahathir) serve only to illustrate a perceived double standard.

So now, we have fallen once again for the "you are with us or with the terrorists" nonsense. There is no middle ground permitted. And of course Muslims are on the wrong side. How can they give a standing ovation to Mahathir? How can they be such rabid anti-Semites? Perhaps it is a sign of the inferiority of their (Semitic?) culture (to recall Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi comments two years ago) or that our god is bigger (according to General William Boykin).

A more reasoned response to Mahathir, one that categorically condemns and corrects some of his speech's claims about Jews while affirming the importance of the overall message, is what's needed.
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