NP Conspiracy Theories

[jbor]

Interesting _Guardian_ article:

Nazi-style propaganda at a UN conference? Conspiracy theories blaming Jews
for September 11? Linda Grant finds evidence of a virulent new anti-Semitism
whose roots this time around lie not in Europe, but the Arab world.

[ ... ]

Why Jews? Because if America has been branded the enemy, the Great Satan,
and Jews are widely believed to "control" America, in the gruesome logic
that follows, it becomes "obvious" that Jews have a "secret plan" to destroy
Islam and the Arab world.

These ideas are neither of recent origin, nor confined to the Middle East.
But worryingly, alliances are being made between Muslims who buy into such
theories, and the American neo-Nazi and white supremacist parties that have
found in them a gullible new audience to advance (on Web sites and in
magazines/newspapers) theories discredited in the West for more than 50
years.

[ ... ]

Until now, when Jews looked for support at a time of rising anti-Semitism,
their natural allies were the anti-racist Left. But because anti-Semitism is
now inextricably linked with the situation in Israel and Palestine, and
because of the resurgence of the Zionism is Racism argument, which rejects a
two-state solution, some critics of Israel no longer seem willing to make a
distinction between those Jews who support and those Jews who oppose Israeli
occupation.

Any support of Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state under any
conditions at all is branded as Zionism, and hence collusion in racism and
apartheid. Beyond the Left there is a widespread belief in Britain,
reinforced by news reporting and comment pieces, that the attack on
September 11 would never have happened if it had not been for Israeli
brutality in Gaza and the West Bank.

Others go further and argue that the existence of Israel and its support by
the US is a threat to world peace. Many Jews now feel that they are being
made the scapegoats for a complex phenomenon combining globalisation, the
rise of fundamentalism, oil interests, anti-Americanism and Middle East
politics - that if the third world war begins it will, as usual, be blamed
on "the Jews".

The anti-Semitism unleashed in the past three months poses complex questions
for Jews, Muslims and those who campaign against injustices suffered by
others. It will be interesting to see, in time to come, how well any of us
does in addressing them.

As a British Jew I can offer some ways in which some of us can begin to
construct a defence against anti-Semitism. It would involve the Left
realigning itself: ceasing the demonisation of the Jewish majority who
defend Israel's existence; making alliances with Jews, such as those who
support Peace Now and Gush Shalom, which are actively seeking an end to the
horrific violence of the past year, one which would provide a just solution
to the long agony of the Palestinians.

Both the Left and Muslims (in Western countries) would have to begin to
recognise the massive rise of anti-Semitism in the Arab and Muslim world for
what it is: anti-Semitism rather than any cogent analysis of the problems of
the Middle East. It would involve these Muslims announcing in their press,
their mosques and their community centres that Muslims are being manipulated
into believing myths, urban legends and racist slanders peddled by those
with no interest in tolerance, human rights or justice; that Islamophobia
and anti-Semitism fall under the same heading.

Jews (in Britain and elsewhere) have long been embroiled in an argument
among themselves that mirrors the fierce debates inside Israel. It seems
axiomatic to some of us who have maintained our faith with the Israeli peace
activists that if justice were to be delivered to the Palestinians in the
form of a state based on UN Resolution 242, and solutions found to the
problems of the division of Jerusalem and the status of the refugees, most
of the Arab anti-Semitism would wither away.

[ ... ]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0201/12/spectrum/spectrum3.html

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