THE letter from eight US Congressmen to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, complaining about Malaysia’s policy on Israel, is typical only in being ill- informed and unrealistic.
Malaysia has never had diplomatic relations with a genocidal Israel, and Israeli citizens are routinely denied visas to enter. They have neither diplomatic representation nor official channels of redress should anything befall them here.
US immigration authorities separate thousands of young children from their parents among foreign family arrivals, in addition to harassing, assaulting, and killing people. Malaysia never does these things to anyone.
But when Israeli and other foreign citizens who on rare occasions enter Malaysia through subterfuge, they are identified and deported. That is standard practice for undesirable aliens everywhere.
The letter accuses Malaysia of seeking to “hunt down” Israeli citizens in Malaysia, words chosen to sensationalise and press the issue. Yet immigrants crossing into the US from Mexico face a far worse fate.
Malaysia is also accused of providing “training” to Hamas, which Malaysia and Hamas deny. This allegation from Israel was extracted from a detainee under duress, despite torture being notoriously unreliable in interrogation.
Malaysian military forces themselves receive training from the US. Why should Hamas come to Malaysia for training when the US is unable to win wars against Iran, Afghanistan’s Taliban, and even Yemen’s Houthis?
The criticism of Malaysia’s standard foreign policy and routine immigration practice comes with the demand that Malaysia must comply by changing its policies forthwith. Has any colonial power issued such a high-handed order even at the height of empire?
The letter interferes in Malay-sia’s policies and violates the UN Charter’s provision for sovereign equality among nations. It has nothing to do with US-Malaysia relations, and pertains only to Israel’s interests.
Malaysia’s refusal to grant entry visas to Israeli citizens applies to all Israeli nationals regardless of race or religion. It is based on nationality and does not target Jews or any other community.
This selective, non-discriminatory immigration practice derives from Malaysian foreign policy that is the government’s prerogative. The controversy began with viral videos by the Palestinian, not Jewish, Israeli citizen Nuseir Yassin (Nas Daily), describing how he entered Malaysia with a second passport.
The Congressmen’s letter also wrongly accuses Malaysia of “anti-Semitism” by typically misrepresenting the term. Various countries and organisations oppose a predatory Zionist Israel for its genocidal policies, not Semitism or Jewishness.
Arabs along with Palestinians and Jews indigenous to West Asia are Semitic. Israel’s founders were Ashkenazi or European Jews such as David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Chaim Weiz-mann, like many Western Jewish settlers in illegally occupied Palestine.
Staunch supporters of Pales-tine like Malaysia cannot be anti-Semitic but quite the opposite. But when language and territory are hijacked for a sectarian Zionist agenda, a different narrative descends on US Congress that Pat Buchanan has described as “Israeli-occupied territory”.
The letter to Rubio was led by American Jewish Congressmen Greg Landsman and Josh Gottheimer. For the integrity and credibility of their work in Congress, they need to distinguish between their personal identities or interests and their official functions.
The eight signatories are a small part of the 535 members of both houses of Congress, and they come from only the Democratic Party. The letter represents neither Congress, nor the Executive, nor the Democratic Party as a whole.
Neither does it represent the US Jewish community. As US public support for Israel continues to fall, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll earlier this month found that 59% of American Jews opposed Israel’s government and only 32% supported it.
Jewish Americans also support the Muslim Mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, with 44% approving of him and only 39% opposed. On US streets and university campuses, American Jews prefer Mamdani to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
When some 30% of Jewish adults in the US today are convinced that Israel is committing genocide against the Pales-tinian people, what do the eight Congressmen seriously expect of a country like Malaysia?
A similar mood against Israel prevails around the world, including the West.
Australia, Ireland, the Nether-lands, Spain and Sweden have introduced a range of measures against Israel, from trade sanctions to banning the entry of extremist Israeli ministers and activists.
It is unfortunate that eight US Congress members are so clueless as to threaten ending US military assistance to Malaysia. Although practically everyone prefers to maintain the regional status quo, countries do not respond well to blackmail.
Foreign military assistance benefits both provider and recipient, but the latter will decide if it is essential.
If it is still needed but US assistance ends, there will be alternative powers able and willing to provide it.
Bunn Nagara is director and senior fellow of the Renaissance Strategic Research Institute, and honorary fellow at the Perak Academy. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.
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