We are living at a time when conspiracy theories are flourishing. Partly this is a product of the anxieties that suffuse civilization, about the economy, about terrorism, about global warming. Partly it is a product of the Internet, where conspiracies and rumors spread like wildfire and take on an aura of authenticity.
It is likewise not surprising that in this environment, conspiracy theories about Jews are surfacing and spreading in a way that we haven't witnessed for decades. Since at the very core of anti-Semitism as a phenomenon is a conspiracy theory writ large -- Jews are not what they seem to be but are a hidden, poisonous, powerful cabal -- when conspiracy theories are broadly popular they almost inevitably end up focusing on Jews.
We have seen this process at work regarding the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq and, more recently, the WikiLeaks phenomenon.
Some of the conspiracy accusations are so ludicrous -- for example, the charge coming out of Egypt that a shark attack was a Mossad plant -- that it raises the question as to when such things need to be taken seriously and when they should either be ignored or parodied.
The temptation to play down some of the more outrageous accusations is undermined by the experience with two of the most dangerous and enduring ones: the denial of the Holocaust and the charge that the Mossad was behind the 9/11 attacks.
When the first efforts appeared in the 1970s to argue that the Holocaust was a fantasy concocted by Jews for a variety of nefarious purposes, the initial reaction was: who will pay attention to such nonsense? After all, even by then there were scores of books writing in detail about the horror, not to mention the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials and a variety of other documentations. And yet today, Holocaust denial has developed a life of its own, particularly in the Arab and Muslim world, but not limited to it. As absurd as the arguments by the deniers are, there is a market for such absurdities, whether to prove that Jews control all information in the world and can therefore get everyone to believe whatever they want; or to rehabilitate extreme right-wing parties who have been delegitimized by the Holocaust; or to show that the Jewish state has no moral justification. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is hardly alone in spouting these lies. Recently, a leading Hamas official, Mahmoud al-Zahar, shamelessly said that it is a "lie" that the Jews were victims of the Holocaust.
Similarly with regard to the 9/11 theory: When six days after the terrorist attack, Hizbullah television put out a short "news" item that 4,000 Israelis were working at the World Trade Center and none showed up for work that day, no one could have imagined how such a bold-faced fabrication would take off. After all, Israelis and Jews were among the nearly 3,000 who died that day, and Osama Bin Laden had taken credit for the attack, so who could believe that Israel was behind it all, as Hizbullah implied.
And yet, according to a Gallup poll more than a year after the event, millions of people in nine Muslim countries believed that it was Israel, not Al Qaeda, that was behind it all. This notion also continues to surface in Europe and elsewhere.
In the final analysis, while we don't have the luxury to dismiss any of these phony accusations, we need to distinguish those that are most dangerous from the others. None, in my view, is more threatening than the charge that Jews control American policy, particularly regarding the Middle East.
This notion, most prominently expressed by Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, is in today's world the one that resonates the most, appears both in extremist and mainstream venues all over the world, and has the greatest impact on attitudes and policies toward the state of Israel and the Jewish people.
Here too, like other such theories, it is far more fantasy than a description of reality. As Edward S. Walker, a longtime State Department hand and former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and Israel, put it, from the vantage point of decades of work in government on Middle East issues, he could not recognize how policy was actually made from the description of it by Mearsheimer and Walt.
The repeated pounding away of this message -- by the professors, by former President Jimmy Carter, by many left-wing and Muslim anti-Israel advocates in Europe, by Middle Eastern government officials, editorialists and cartoonists -- poses a threat to Jewish communities, to Israel's relations around the world, and to a rational approach to foreign policy decision-making. Much like the mother of all anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, if Jews have so much evil power, then anything one does to defend oneself against it is legitimate.
What to do about this proliferation of anti-Semitic theories? We must expose them for what they are. We must get good people, particularly non-Jews, to stand up. And we must deal rationally and responsibly with those global issues which create the anxiety that acts as a tail wind moving these dangerous fantasies swiftly through society.
I get the impression you think anyone who questions Israeli policy is either anti-Israel or worse, anti-semitic. I am pro-Israel and shocked at Israeli policy in the settlements and what appears to be a deliberate under-cutting of the peace process. And in terms of conspiracy theories, you might excuse folks their imagination when one realizes some of the best "conspirers" in the world reside in Mossad. And even as we talk, there are rumblings of a "conspiracy" in the Wikileaks docs about Israel preparing to go to war with Iran over the nuclear facilities.
So please don't think everyone who disagrees with you is your enemy...Americans want real dialog (not rubber stamping), with Israel on policies that effect America. Criticism does not constitute de-legitimization.
Confusion should anyway not be made between Semitism or any other fact of being born into any culture, any race or any religion (which is not a choice at birth) and any country's policies (which conduct is a choice).
Arafat poisoned say British experts
Baltimore News.Net
Tuesday 11th January, 2011
The late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, may have been poisoned by a lethal dose of thallium in his food or drinking water.
A new report from British forensic experts has thrown suspicion on the Israelis after former special advisor to Arafat, Bassam Abu Shareef, made the report public.
Shareef has said he will soon present more information to an investigation committee probing the Arafat death, which he had previously blamed on Israel.
In the past Shareef alleged Israel poisoned Arafat through food or drinking water that he received when he was under siege in his headquarters in Ramallah.
Arafat died of a mysterious disease in a French hospital on November 11, 2004.
Thallium is a highly toxic substance, with poisoning usually happening after oral ingestion.
In lieu;
1.If you aim to call out another as anti-Israel, the country, please consider calling them “anti-Israel” and make it clear.
2.If you feel, the person is a bigot and is “anti-Jewish”, make sure to call them “anti-Jewish” so that its’ clear.
3.Please use phrase “anti-Semitic” if you are describing someone who is anti-Middle Eastern including but not limited to Arab peoples
Finally, as you make your case forward, please consider that;
■Not all Jews are Zionists
■Not all Zionists are Jews
■Zionism is NOT a religion but a political movement
Using correct phrasing and terminology, I strongly encourage all Americans to make their cases forward when it comes to U.S. Middle East Policy and let’s together figure out what’s in the best interests of the United States of America. "
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/06/07/what-exactly-is-an-anti-semite/
"Many good people, who feel no hatred at all towards the Jews, but who detest the persecution of the Palestinians, are now called anti-Semites. Thus the sting is taken out of this word, giving it something approaching respectability... Not only does Israel not protect Jews from anti-Semitism, but quite to the contrary - Israel manufactures and exports [anti-Semitism] around the world."
Mr. Foxman would also do well to note the comments of Binyamin Ben-eliezer:
Yediot Ahronot, July 1/10
"Israeli Minister of Trade, Industry and Labor, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, says the world is tired of Israel...
" 'We're not the ones maintaining a blockade. We're blockaded, utterly isolated. We're in a situation where the world is tired of us. They're tired of hearing our explanations, of showing empathy for our troubles, even if they're real troubles. [The world is] Tired of understanding us. This business just isn't working anymore. After 43 years, nobody wants to hear any more explanations about why this occupation is continuing and how we have nobody to talk to.' "
your argument would make considerably more sense.
Classic Anti-Semitism is somewhat unique from most other forms of racial/religious/ethnic bias because in most other examples, the group being disliked is alleged to be guilty of certain specific transgressions, habits, crimes and/or other well defined issues. Jews are subject to that set as well. But additionally, classic anti-Semitism finds Jews blamed for anything and everything that goes wrong, such as the bubonic plague. If not that many things are going wrong, things are made to look as if they are going wrong, as to create a platform by which to blame Jews. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_desecration
As Palestinian-American attorney Kamal Newash said on Al Jezzera: "We have to stop blaming Jews every time a sewer pipe breaks in Damascus"
Until that happens, (and the world has not been moving in that general direction--quite the contrary) the Israelis will view their nation (rightly) as a safe-haven and refuge. As such, special rules should apply and do apply. Get used to them. Your reversal of the 'chicken' for the 'egg' will not change the 'chickens' intent not to be barbequed.
(Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)
Of course, this entire debate requires that "Zionism" actually exists as a cohesive, coherent and at least semi-well-defined premise.
I submit that it does not. You would say "Zionism", I would say: "boogie-man".
So the first (perhaps the only) relevant question is: "What is "Zionism" in 2010 and how does it vary from being pro-Israeli? The answer is: It doesn't. In the minds of most of its advocates, "Zionism" is merely the legitimacy of the nation of Israel. To its adversaries, "Zionism" is both the illegitimacy of any uniquely Jewish nation in "Palestine" as well (naturally) the illegitimacy of all its various aspects, whether real or imagined. This would generally include (for example) the perceived legitimacy of Palestinian~Arabs born in Syria as displaced but rightful Israeli citizens while dismissing as illegitimate their citizenship in the nation where they were born.
"Zionism" no longer exists. Israel exists. It is not a concept, it is a country.
We no longer refer to women's rights advocates as "suffragettes" or advocates for black people's civil rights as "abolitionists". Like these antiquated terms, "Zionism" lost its practical definition and application when Israel became a nation in 1948.
What about the mass Islamophobia? Guess that doesn't matter right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EII5Km3jN3U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J7iqMO4EaQ&feature=related
http://riccioli.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/christians-persecuted-in-israel-palestine/
Sure radical Islamic Mullahs are a key part of the problem but without the Israel and Palestinian conflict most the anti-Semitic statements and the violence they cause would go away but likely not all.
Would you try and say that President Obama's policies are a "main cause" of racism?
what was the main cause before 1967? Or before 1948?
(PS, there is a CBC radio show by that name, and a book out by the same person under that title. Although the focus is exclusively on the commercial aspects of the techniques, knowing them gives one a bit of protection when the similar techniques of the propagandists are encountered)
Sounds a lot like Democracy Now
"ADL fights anti-Semitism and ALL forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all." (Note: I served as media relations manager for ADL from 1988 through 1991).
IMO The effectiveness of that particular Hasbara tactic diminishes from overuse as more and more people are seeing through it.
I personally have been inspired by the courage and integrity of progressive Jews who (while shrugging off the slur of 'self-hating Jew') denounce the Israeli colonization project in the WB and the many injustices perpetrated against Palestinians.
If they can do that, I can shrug off spurious charges of 'Anti-semitism'.
The Askenazim don't like the Sephardim or Mizrahim. The seculars resent the Othrodox and the settlers for sucking up so much of the budget. The Zionists vs the humanitarians. The internal conflict has been pretty intense.