by NILE BOWIE
Malaysian leader defies threat of US sanctions while grandstanding for populist effect; he may be targeted by Israel’s Mossad intelligence arm
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s vocal support for the Palestinian cause could blow back on Malaysia as the United States tables legislation to sever funding for Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups through economic and financial sanctions on their foreign supporters.
Anwar’s administration has played up its resistance to US and Western pressure to review its stance on Hamas, which Malaysia has refused to condemn or label as a terrorist organization.
Malaysian police, meanwhile, have warned of possible economic sabotage, espionage and even security threats to the premier allegedly emanating from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad.
The Muslim-majority nation has long stood in solidarity with Palestine and long rejected diplomatic relations with Israel even as certain Arab nations have recently pursued normalization with Tel Aviv.
Putrajaya views Hamas as the legitimately elected government of Gaza, according to Anwar, owing to its victory at 2006 parliamentary polls. Hamas members are known to reside in Malaysia to work or attend university and have been alleged targets of Israel’s spy agency.
But Anwar’s unflinching stance is just as much about local politics as he seeks to curry favor with Muslim ethnic Malays who represent a national majority and are thus crucial to his government’s survival and potential re-election.
Analysts say the premier cannot afford to be seen as equivocating on the plight of the Palestinians at a moment when his nearly year-old administration has lost electoral ground to the pro-Islamist Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition.
Both Anwar’s multiracial government and the conservative opposition bloc have recently staged competing mega-rallies denouncing Israel’s bombardments of Gaza.
“There is a strong domestic imperative for the prime minister to support the Palestinian cause,” said Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst at consultancy firm Solaris Strategies Singapore.
Anwar seeks to “portray himself as a strong and principled statesman in the eyes of the domestic populace by not bowing to American political pressure,” he said.
Addressing parliament late last month, Anwar said the US Embassy had issued three demarche notes as a “warning” to Malaysia to review its informal ties with Hamas after killed civilians and took hostages in an October 7 surprise attack on Israel. “I said that we, as a policy, have a relationship with Hamas from before and this will continue,” the premier told the legislature.
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