He was extremely proud and happy that he had beaten religious extremist Hadi Awang in the race, never mind it was Hamas who started the latest conflict.

The narcissist also bragged about how he had a phone call with the Hamas terrorist. He lectured the world about the oppression of the Palestinian people, and called for a ceasefire. While condemning Israeli “apartheid administration”, Anwar has forgotten that his own country also practices apartheid and discrimination against minorities ethnic Chinese and Indian.

Conveniently ignoring the fact that Hamas had kidnapped – even slaughtered – women, children and even babies, Anwar was incredibly hungry for global attention as a Muslim leader. He wanted to be as vocal and popular as former premier Mahathir Mohamad, whose legacy as Malaysia’s longest serving prime minister (1981-2003) included his anti-Semitic and anti-Western speeches.

Domestically, the 10th Prime Minister hoped his anti-Jews rhetoric could win the support of Malay Muslim voters, about 80% of whom did not vote for him. Malaysia, where about 60% of the population are Muslims, is a strong supporter of Palestinian rights largely thanks to previous Mahathir government-controlled news media that trumpeted Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.

Therefore, the latest conflict in the Middle East provides a golden opportunity for Anwar to promote himself as a Muslim hero. He argued that because the Zionists had confiscated land and property belonging to the Palestinian people, it was justifiable for Hamas to butcher unarmed and innocent Jewish people. Trying to score political mileage, he also criticised the international community who supports Israel.

As expected, Middle East also saw some Muslim leaders reluctantly expressed their support for the Palestinians. They had to show their displeasure, or at least pretend to be angry, at Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as the conflict is seen as a war between Muslim and non-Muslim. While the Arabs rushed humanitarian aid to the Palestine, none has offered troops to defend Gaza and Palestinians.

Despite the Arab League’s 3-million active military personnel and US$180 billion military expenditure, which is 10 times more than Israel’s US$18 billion, Saudi and its allies were not interested to fight Israel, let alone help the Palestinians. In fact, Saudi does not give a damn about the Gaza Strip as long as Israel fights the Shia-Muslims led by Iran, along with proxies like Hamas.

Had the Arab states genuinely wanted to help their Palestinian brothers, they would have offered land and money ages ago instead of letting them suffered in the Gaza Strip – widely compared to an “open-air prison”. In fact, Egypt has rejected the United State’s proposal to establish corridors for civilians – suggesting that even Cairo does not welcome the Palestinians.

Is it true that Palestinian land had been illegally seized by Israel? Perhaps Anwar should read about the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War and the birth of international terrorism. Yes, everything started after the Six-Day War or the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, otherwise known as the Third Arab–Israeli War, which was fought between 5 and 10 June 1967 by Israel and the neighbouring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.

Before 1967, the 6.5-million minority Jews were forbidden from praying at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, because the Jewish areas had been colonized – militarily – by Arabs following the 1948 Israel’s War of Independence, which would lead to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War – also known as the First Arab-Israeli War. Actually, the Arab Muslims, not Israel, were responsible for all the Palestinians’ problem today.

During the 20-year Arab occupation, the Jews could not live in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, where their ancestors had built homes for thousands of years. They were forbidden from attending classes at the Hebrew University at Mt. Scopus. Heck, they could not even seek medical care at the Hadassah Hospital there. So, it was the Jews who had been oppressed and expelled from their home.

Here’s what happened – on 15 May, 1948, a joint force of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attacked Israeli forces and Jewish settlements. When the Jordanian, then the strongest force of all, occupied the historic Jewish sites, they destroyed whatever leftovers of Judaism – including schools and cemetery. Guess what the Muslim world and the United Nations had done.