Europe in denial over role in sparking Mid-east terrorism, says Dr M
Although countries like Spain, France and Ireland have now decided to recognise Palestine, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Europe too should start admitting that it played a role in the violence in the Middle East.
The former prime minister, in his blog today said all the violence, killings and wars started when the Europeans created the Jewish state of Israel by seizing the land from Arab Palestines.
"Before that, terrorism did not plague the Middle East and the rest of the world. Now there are irregular terrorists and state terrorists.
"Truly Europeans are in a state of denial. They refused to acknowledge that they started the 'terrorism' in the Middle East which is now spreading throughout the world," he wrote on his popular blog chedet.com.
A well-known supporter of the Palestinian cause, Dr Mahathir insisted that there was a Palestinian state before the establishment of Israel in 1948.
The move "de-recognised" Palestine, which he said led to frustrated Arabs who thenresorted to unconventional means of retaliation, such as using primitive weapons and strapping bombs to themselves to regain lands stolen from them.
He said Spain, France and Ireland's move to recognise Palestine after being impatient with the stalled peace plan aimed for a two-state solution was long overdue but somewhat too late.
"Can Europe recognise and admit its role in destabilising the Middle East, in promoting terrorism by unashamedly supporting everything that Israel does, including international crimes? Can the Europeans link their de-recognition of Palestine with the violent reactions of the Arabs?" he asked.
He said Europe's refusal to admit that it is their need to solve the Jewish problem in Europe that had prompted them to agree to the setting up of Israel on Palestinian land.
"They refuse to admit that their refusal to recognise the state of Palestine at the behest of the Israelis is what aggravated the frustration, the anger and the escalating violence," he pointed out.
He said Israel's settlement expansion into West Bank had caused the violence to escalate, as anger and frustration mounts among Arab Palestinians.
"And the Europeans declare that the Arab/Jew war is a religious war. It is a religious war because Jerusalem Arabs killed four Jews praying in a synagogue.
"When Jews build illegal settlement on Arab land and in Jerusalem that is not provocation. The Jews will claim, while their allies on both sides of the Atlantic will agree, it is just retaliation. It is double standards of the most blatant kind," he charged.
Dr Mahathir said he hoped that Europeans would read his blog and understand that their ignorance would result in them continuing to endanger the world with the unfairness and injustice through policies and actions. – December 17, 2014.
