Recent anti-Israel propaganda seems, more and more, to be mixed with traditional antisemitic images and themes.
[Louis] Farrakhan, speaking to a crowd of 20,000 followers at Chicago’s United Center on Sunday, said that Obama’s political problems began when he, according to the Chicago Sun Times report, stood up to the Jewish lobby during a White House meeting. When they left the White House, his problems began,” Farrakhan said, adding that “the Zionists are in control of the Congress.”
Minister Farrakhan also referred to the U.S. president’s chief economical advisors, Timothy Geithner, Henry Paulson and Larry Summers, asking “Who does he have around him? The people from Goldman Sachs.” [Geithner and Paulson are not Jewish — ed.] The leader of the Nation of Islam added that “bloodsuckers of the poor” were rewarded with a bailout…
Further on in his address, Farrakhan also reiterated his claims that the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was “an inside thing…”
At one point during his address, Farrakhan implied that the validity of Holocaust records should be open to debate. “[You] can’t even engage in constructive argument over the veracity of the figures of the Holocaust. We know something happened, sure, but you can’t talk about [it]. In certain cities in Europe they arrest you and put you in prison for denying such.”
“There’s not a vote that the pro-Israeli lobby wants that doesn’t get bipartisan support,” Farrakhan said. “Why? Because the Israeli lobby controls the government of the United States of America.” — Ha’aretz
There’s more, but you get the idea. He hits all the buttons. Abe Foxman of the ADL criticized Farrakhan harshly, saying
Louis Farrakhan is at it again … After his near-silence on Jews over the last several years, we thought Minister Farrakhan had put his long history of anti-Semitism and racism behind him, or at least had held his views in check. Apparently, that was wishful thinking. Once again he is clearly comfortable with putting his bigotry on display, unfettered and unhidden for his supporters and the world to see.
Farrakhan isn’t the only one who finds himself “comfortable” expressing antisemitic views today:
Israel lodged a formal complaint with Spain on Sunday, charging certain individuals in Spanish schools of promoting anti-Semitic and anti-Israel ideas among young children. The letter comes after Israel’s ambassador to Spain, Rafi Shotz, recently received dozens of anti-Semitic postcards from Spanish elementary school students.
The postcards bore statements including “Jews kill for money,” “Leave the country to the Palestinians” and “Go somewhere where they will accept you.” A Foreign Ministry official said the handwriting appears typical of children six to nine years old. — Ha’aretz
How adorable. “Now children, today we are going to do a special project and write to those bloodthirsty Zionist pigs and tell them to go to Hell.”
Keeping to the program of mixing anti-Zionist sentiments with antisemitic imagery, here’s a picture displayed this week in an anti-Israel exhibition in Cologne, Germany:
Antisemitic imagery in Cologne, Germany
There really does seem to be an increase in antisemitic expression lately. Antisemitic websites are flush with visitors. Here are a pair of examples:
Alexa statistics for stormfront.org
Alexa statistics for rense.com
What’s going on? It’s clear that the economic meltdown and the Gaza war have been seized upon by antisemites as proof of Jewish turpitude, but the sudden jump in the middle of 2009 is strange. Operation Cast Lead seems to have no immediate effect; compare, for example, Al Jazeera:
Alexa statistics for aljazeera.net
The huge peak around January, of course, was the war. Now look at some anti-Zionist sites:
Alexa statistics for electronicintifada.net
Here we see the same peak at the time of the war; but look also at the strong growth starting around the middle of the year.
“Mondoweiss” is one of my ‘favorite’ sites because it lives on the interface between anti-Zionism and antisemitism (and, of course, its owners are of Jewish extraction):
Alexa statistics for mondoweiss.net
Wow! he didn’t even move the needle until June. What happened?
So what do I conclude from this highly non-rigorous ‘research’? Not a lot:
- There is an increase in antisemitic expression recently, and it is closely associated with anti-Zionism.
- Something seems to have energized the antisemites (yes, I include “mondoweiss” in that category) around June 2008. Suggestions?
- Anti-Zionist sites are becoming more popular.
- If you write a good blog that nobody reads, don’t look at Alexa.
Technorati Tags: antisemitism, anti-Zionism
I would just note that despite this rise in visits to Anti- Semitic sites many of which are based in the United States, Israel’s popularity in the United States shows no sign of diminishing.
I have no idea of why there was such a spike in hits on Anti- Semitic sites in June 2009. Economic hard- times, high- unemployment , difficulty in life often calls for a ‘scapegoat’. The world’s favorite scapegoat is now targeted by the Islamists, the Radical Leftists, the seemingly more marginal and primitive Neo- Nazis. But from my reading of replies on many Websites there is also a fourth – category, people whose own odd reading of the world leads them to be obsessed with Jews and Israel.