Mahathir continued to attract controversy in retirement for remarks on international affairs. He is a strident critic of Israel and has been accused of being antisemitic. In his 1970 book "The Malay Dilemma", Mahathir wrote "The Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively," sentiments he reiterated in a 2018 BBC interview in which he also disputed the number of Jews killed in The Holocaust. In a 2012 blog post, he echoed past claims by writing that "Jews rule this world by proxy." Also in 2012 he stated: "I am glad to be labeled antisemitic [...] How can I be otherwise, when the Jews who so often talk of the horrors they suffered during the Holocaust show the same Nazi cruelty and hard-heartedness towards not just their enemies but even towards their allies should any try to stop the senseless killing of their Palestinian enemies." Mahathir established the Kuala Lumpur Initiative to Criminalise War Forum in an effort to end war globally, as well as the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission to investigate the activities of the United States, Israel and its allies in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. He has also suggested that the September 11 attacks of 2001 might have been staged by the United States government.