Malaysia is, always has been, a good neighbour. She does not interfere in our neighbour's affairs, nor does our mature leaders comment negatively on another's internal affairs. She helps her neighbours by offering tens of thousands of Indonesians over the years. Her leaders would not make scathing comments of a neighbour as the speaker of the Indonesian National Assembly, Mr Amien Rais, did. The Indonesians are terrible people, we give them jobs and they burn our flag. They should be grateful for the honour, as Malaysians must to the National Front (BN) for what it wrought to Malaysia, and any who questions, be it a Malaysian, an Indonesia, a Thai, a Filipino, must be severely dealt with. Mark you, no one should question Malaysia's right to pass any law it deems fit. Foreigners should stay out. This is the gist of a comment in the New Straits Times today (29 August 2002, p12) on the burning of the Malaysian flag in Jakarta. But how should the United States view Malaysia when UMNO Youth, an adjunct of the main party in the governing BN coalition, burns the US flag in front of its embassy in Kuala Lumpur for an act that has nothing to do with bilateral ties -- Israel's treatment of the Palestinians?

Turning Singapore into a nation of WOGS, and he the Super WOG, excited, fitted into a Singapore defining its role both as a Chinese Israel in a hostile Malay sea and force the Singaporean into the globalised world. The success attracted fame and more success. Mr Lee was feted and admired the world over, notably in Western chancelleries, for the Englishman he had become. Singapore's success, it was seriously argued at the time, could be replicated, in a reverse political osmosis, to right Britain's decline, and put the "Great" back into its name, if only Mr Lee could invoke his Singaporean magic as British Prime Minister.

But those who espouse this war on terror use it to contain secessionist pressures within its borders that has nothing to do with terror: Britain, with its cancerous sore of the IRA; Russia and Chechnya; India and Kashmir; the US and al-Qaeda; Israel and Palestine; China and Tibet; the Philippines and Mindanao, to name a few.

The biblical battle of the Israeli David and the Philistine Goliath continues apace, with David now the Palestinian and Goliath the Israeli. Even more frightening is that Israel wants to inflict a Holocaust on the Palestinian as the Nazis on the Jew. The language of Israel is the language of Nazi Germany. And Israel forgets when that Palestine terrorist groups like Hamas and the Al Aksa Brigade behave towards Israel and Israeli groups like the Stern and Irgun groups -- one of whose leaders, Mr Manechem Begin, was an Israeli prime minister -- against the British colonial government in Palestine. So murderously they attacked the British that it got a state of their own. The Palestinians were not consulted, and their unhappiness has escalated into a 54-year fight for security by Israel that can only continue. Ironically, the more the Israeli military pressure, the more murderous the response would be.

We know what suicide bombers do. The suicide bombers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, inflicted so horrendous a damage upon the Sri Lankan and Indian body politic that if there is a common enemy in Colombo and New Delhi, it is its leader, V. Pirabakaran. The Indian prime minister, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, the Sri Lankan security minister, Mr Lalith Athulathmudali, amongst others fell victim. He forced the 20-year civil war into a stalemate that it was Colombo which blinked and wanted peace. The Palestinian suicide bombers cause as much havoc on the Israeli body politic that its prime minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, reacts, like the Sri Lankan government at the time, with overwhelming military force. Like in Sri Lanka, Israel is forced to reflect upon its policies that however strong its prime minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, might be in Israel, he is, internationally, an eagle with its wings broken. Its staunchest supporter, the United States, is forced to consider downgrading its backing for it.

Singapore likes to keep its citizens on its toes by pointing to the fear of their neighbours. Its defence policy is based on a probable attack from Malaysia, and its whole demeanour is to be an Israel in Southeast Asia in a hostile Malay sea. Malaysia, for its part, has not addressed this as it should; Instead, she reacts not after thought but emotion. The tudung affair therefore provided much grist to the Malay mill. The rights and wrongs of that is not what we are concerned about. It should have been: Why Now?

But Washington cannot disengage as quickly. It has taken the fatal step to be involved in the Afghan quagmire. An aerial bombing is to cause maximum damage and casualties, however "smart" the technology and the bombs. Technology fails; if only a small percentage of bombs is off target, the result, as we begin to see in Afghanistan, is horrendous. The residual anger and hatred manifests itself in violence far from the scene. The car bombs in Israel and renewed fighting in Kashmir could be a direct, perhaps impotent, response to the bombing of Afghanistan.

What should frighten the Crusaders is that this would fester in ways not thought of. No one thought Lord Balfour would have caused the havoc in the Middle East 80 years after his death, but it is the one single document, the Balfour Declaration, which the West has forgotten but not the Middle East, where that is an insuperable stumbling block against a juridicial settlement over Palestine and Israel, and peace. To this must be added this bombing of Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Middle East is in turmoil yet again. The Sept 11 attacks forced the US to reconsider its solid support of Israel, which clearly unhinged go off on its own to pressure Yassir Arafat and his Palestinian state.

So, when Mr Osama bin Laden delivered the tape to the Al Jazeera television correspondent in Kabul, the element of surprise Washington had thought it had disappeared. And when he had his uninterrupted view in the Middle East of what he thought of all this Christian madness, the battle was lost. Now, no matter what is achieved in this precision bombing -- official post-Gulf War investigations by the Pentagon showed that 70 per cent of the super-secret, super-accurate Patriot missiles could not stop the Scud missiles that Iraq lobbed at Israel; we must assume that the weapons used now would be as claimed and with the same effectiveness -- the battle for the hearts and minds of the Middle East is lost. The bombardment of Afghanistan, with the additional misery and wretchedness this brought about, would be another bone of contention in this millennial Crusade.

Mr Osama and his network, on the other hand, is clear in their minds, however wrong or galling that might be to the West, that the United States is the enemy and nothing shifts them from their belief. Arab hurt and anger at Western double-dealing in the Middle East, not just towards Israel but towards Arab nations, has worsened with the Palestinian issue. The West reacts only to terror. The British gave in to the creation of Israel because Israeli terrorists, one of whom, Mr Menachem Begin, rose to be prime minister, responded to the occupation with the terror the Arabs now dispense.

The United States could not destroy Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Ho Chi Minh; it had better Osama Bin Laden if it wants its reputation in the Middle East to be other than as a staunch ally of Israel.

We see that now in the aftermath of this carnage and destruction. But would it resolve the matter? It would not. For America's enemies are no longer states and ideologies but those who are marginalised by its policies around the world. Washington went into the Middle East like a bull in a china shop, its neutrality heavily leaning towards Israel.

The United States had looked upon the world with isolationist intent through most of the 20th century, confident that an invasion on mainland USA is well nigh impossible. She came in at the right time during the First and Second World Wars to take much credit. But when they ventured alone, it was at heavy cost. The Vietnam and Korean Wars, its absolute support for Israel amongst others.

So, Dato' Chin's cliche-ridden comments talk of unrequited love, worried the disinterested suitor would run loose when sworn in. He wants us to believe Mr Gore would spend his working hours to destabilise Malaysia. Issues of Israel, Palestine, Middle East, relations with Japan and China, multilateral trade talks, and others that regularly pile upon his desk would be set aside to squash Malaysia. Should Gore win, Malaysia gives notice, writes Dato' Chin, that relations would not improve until he apologizes. An ant, proving his, ah, anthood, makes love to an elephant which bellows when its foot gets caught in a trap. The ant, solicitiously asks her: "I am sorry I hurt you, dear!" Malaysian officials behave like that ant. A retired secretary-general of an important ministry talked recently on United States-Malaysian relations, in which he dismissed the United States disparingly, a country of no consequence, while he extolled Malaysia's virtues. He was sure Washington spent its waking hours to destroy Malaysia's unassaillable peace.

The New Straits Times, in a front page banner headline today, screams: BANK OF Israel DOESN'T ACCEPT DEPOSITS FROM INDIVIDUALS; a strapline above it reads: Embassy official dismisses claims that our ministers have accounts with it. Two NST reporters commendably telephoned the Israeli Embassy in Singapore to check on alleged bank deposits maintained with the BoI; the first secretary of economic affairs, Mr Oren Tamari, very correctly pointed out that as a central bank, it does not accept deposits from individuals. "The Bank of Israel is like Bank Negara in Malaysia, which supervises and regulated financial institutions," he said. "So, it is impossible for any one to keep accounts there. There is no way the bank will accept such deposits." Yes, the Bank of Israel had representative offices in several cities of the world, with one in Hong Kong, not Singapore.

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