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Jews control the world. They have infiltrated the top echelons of American politics. They dictate policy and tirelessly pursue their “Jewish” agendas.

While this is mostly untrue, I only wish it were so.

Far from being ashamed, I proudly salute the prominence, prestige and vast contributions of the Jewish people.

In fact, my people are so beautiful and so ethical that I wish we controlled more. Much good will come of our extended inclusion in society and politics.

Former Malaysian Prime minister Mahathir Mohamad recently reiterated the age-old canard that Jews rule the world.

What could he have meant by such a statement? Do Jews not deserve power? Surely it is bigoted to mark people of a certain faith as unacceptable for assuming prominent positions.

To treat Jews specifically by a double standard is an attribute of anti-Semitism, pure and simple.

Beyond the stupidity of such a statement, it is flat out ignorant. Jewish contributions to the world are as numerous as they are wonderful. They should be cherished – not stigmatized and repelled.

From the shackles of Egyptian enslavement to the Holocaust, Jews have suffered a long and arduous history.

And throughout it all we have found refuge in belief, customs, debate and upright morality.

Based on our own suffering, the Jewish people have gained a unique insight into the anguish of the weak, the cruelty of absolutist ideology and the consequences of indifference to evil.

From the beginning, Jews have been among the leading voices denouncing genocide and crimes against humanity.

Starting in 1915, America shamefully looked away as over 1 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire.

The United States chose neutrality and silence, hardly issuing a whimper of disapproval.

It was up to Henry Morgenthau, Sr. – a Jew – to vociferously oppose the Armenian Genocide. As American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Morgenthau spoke out against the viciousness of Mehmed Talaat, the Turkish interior minister, and the flaccidity of American policymakers.

Similarly, the United States barely condemned the Khmer Rouge and their notorious killing fields on which 2 million Cambodians died. Later, America even supported that same genocidal regime.

But a brave few, led by Jewish Congressman Stephen Solarz, were outraged at the pathetic response to the genocide.

Solarz drew upon his people’s history in the Holocaust to understand such evil. He spent a year and a half trying to pass a resolution in the House urging President Carter to stop the killings.

Israel, the Jewish homeland, was in fact the first country to speak of the Cambodian genocide in the United States. Jewish New York Times columnist William Safire assiduously called on the world to act against the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.

Christopher Hitchens, another writer of Jewish descent, remains one of the foremost Kurdish sympathizers and supporters. While the world stood by as Kurds were massacred by Saddam Hussein’s poison gas, Hitchens advocated well-deserved Kurdish autonomy, protection and human rights.

Of course, this is not to say that every Jew is a good person. Good and bad people obviously exist among every faith.

Nor is this to say that Jews are better than anyone else.

In the final analysis, it is one’s actions, not gender, religion or nationality, that matters most.

That said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with patriotic and believing Jews attaining positions of power in America or anywhere else.

What, for example, do Jews do with our supposed vast sums of money? We donate to charity.

In one year alone, in the 1990s, the “United Jewish Appeal raised more money than any other charity in America, including the Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Catholic Charities and the American Cancer Society,” according to one study.

Jews also put their brains to great use. Vitamins and the vaccine for polio were invented by Jews. Forty percent of America’s Nobel Prize winners in science and economics have been Jews as well.

Not bad for a people that constitute about 2 percent of the American populace.

Perhaps most importantly, it is directly from Jewish tradition and the Hebrew Bible that the world received the basis for our system of Western ethics – not to mention the radical idea of absolute monotheism.

The lessons of Jewish history have taught us great justice, morality and a keen understanding of humanity.

Just as the prophets did in ancient times, today’s Jews serve as a conscience to the world.

Anti-Semitic slander, such as comments from Malaysia’s former prime minister, are utter rubbish and only do a disservice to the world.

From the Ten Commandments to advocating human rights, the Jewish people’s deeds and accomplishments should be celebrated and emulated by all.

Keyes is a third-year Middle Eastern studies student. E-mail him at dkeyes@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.