Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory

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The Zionist Occupation Government, Zionist Occupational Government or Zionist-Occupied Government (ZOG), sometimes also called the Jewish Occupational Government (JOG), is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming that Jews secretly control the government of the United States. More recent versions apply it to the governments of other countries. [1] [2] According to believers, a secret Zionist organization actively controls international banks, and through them governments, to conspire against white, Christian, or Islamic interests. [3] The term was coined by American neo-Nazis, and the concept was further developed and spread in the 1970s by American white supremacists, particularly Christian Identity activists, before being imported into Europe.

Contents

The expression is used by white supremacist, white nationalist, far-right, or antisemitic groups in Europe [4] and the U.S. [5] [6] [7] Some contemporary militant, authoritarian, and theocratic Islamist and Islamic extremist organizations, including Salafi-jihadist groups, have also used the term "ZOG" in propaganda campaigns. The word Zionist in "Zionist Occupation Government" is used to equate being Jewish with the ideology of Zionism. The theory thus depicts Zionists as conspiring for Jews and Israel to control the world. [5]

Conspiracy

In 2000, Scholar Jeffrey Kaplan called ZOG "at once the most caricatured and the most characteristic facet of the American radical right wing today". [8] The ZOG conspiracy theory is that Jews secretly control the governments of Western states. [1] [2] Kaplan defined it further as "a deeply Manichaean conceptualization of the federal government and of what is seen as its Jewish puppeteers", who are often directly personified as the Anti-Defamation League. [8] Believers in ZOG see it as a secret, all-powerful government entity, sometimes of the whole world. [8] Alternate names for it include Zionist Occupational Government, [9] Zionist-Occupied Government, and Jewish Occupational Government (JOG). [10] [11]

The association of Jews with the control of economic forces is a modern resurgence of an old stereotype, that of the "greedy Jewish merchant", present in the Christian world since the Middle Ages. [3] The conspiracy theory illustrates a specifically American far-right agrarian preoccupation, namely the possibility of extinction allegedly faced by the rural world, seen as the backbone of America, a danger caused by a remote, centralized, power-hungry metropolitan elite corrupted by "alien" influences. [12] ZOG is an evolution of early conspiracy theories of Jewish control of the world. [8] Activists imagine a variety of plots related to the original conspiracy theory—for instance, that as many as 4,000 Jews were warned of the September 11 attacks. Believers also claim that ZOG-like forces control U.S. foreign policy. Most ZOG theories involve the idea of Jewish power over finance or banking, such as control of the Federal Reserve. [3]

History

In late 19th-century France, the insinuation that Jews controlled the French government was commonplace in anti-republican discourse. [12] Early ideological influences on the conspiracy include the antisemitic The Dearborn Independent and the forged tract The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion . [13]

The origins of the ZOG conspiracy specifically are connected to the U.S. civil rights landscape and particularly Jewish anti-hate activist groups. [8] Before the primacy of the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Congress was more prominent. [14] In an effort to stop antisemites like Gerald L. K. Smith and George Lincoln Rockwell from getting attention and therefore more power, the AJC encouraged a "quarantine" of them in the media by asking Jewish groups and newspapers not to react to their provocations. [14] Jeffrey Kaplan identifies Rockwell's frustration with this policy as the origin of the ZOG idea, which served to reinforce his followers' belief in a Jewish conspiracy, as they considered the policy evidence of collusion between these groups and the government. [14]

The term was coined by American neo-Nazis, [15] and the concept and terminology were developed and spread in the 1970s by American white supremacists, particularly Christian Identity activists. It was later imported into Europe. [16] An early appearance of the term was in a 1976 article, "Welcome to ZOG-World", attributed to an American neo-Nazi named Eric Thomson, but Canadian white nationalists also used the term. [17] The concept (though not the term) is a major theme in the 1978 book The Turner Diaries by William Luther Pierce, founder of the National Alliance, a white nationalist organization. [12] [18] Pierce himself identified the U.S. government as "ZOG". [19]

The term surged in usage among the far-right in the 1980s and on to the 1990s. [20] It spread through white power music in the U.S. and Europe, particularly Sweden. [20] It came to the attention of a larger audience in a 27 December 1984 New York Times article about robberies committed in California and Washington by a white supremacist group called the Order of the Silent Brotherhood. According to the Times, the crimes "were conducted to raise money for a war upon the United States government, which the group calls 'ZOG', or Zionist Occupation Government." [12] [18] In 1985, the Oregon-based far-right Posse Comitatus wrote: "Our nation is now completely under the control of the International Invisible government of World Jewry." [21] Though the term initially referred to the U.S., European white nationalists were using it in reference to their governments by the late 1980s. [15]

Christian Identity adherents also use the term. [22] The Order was an offshoot of Aryan Nations, an organization founded in the early 1970s by Richard Girnt Butler, who since the 1950s had been associated with another antisemitic group, the Church of Jesus Christ–Christian. Both these groups trace their origins to antisemitic activists such as Gerald L. K. Smith and have interacted with the Ku Klux Klan. The term appeared extensively in Aryan Nations literature. In 1985, the Anti-Defamation League reported that Aryan Nations had set up an electronic bulletin board system called "Aryan Nation Liberty Net" to offer information about the locations of Communist Party USA offices and "ZOG informers". [23]

In 1996, Aryan Nations posted on its website an "Aryan Declaration of Independence" saying that "the history of the present Zionist Occupied Government of the United States of America is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations [...] having a direct object—the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states." Claiming that "the eradication of the White race and its culture" is "one of its foremost purposes", the declaration said ZOG relinquished government powers to private corporations, white traitors and ruling class Jewish families. It accused ZOG Jews of subverting the constitutional rule of law; responsibility for post-Civil War Reconstruction; subverting the monetary system with the Federal Reserve System; confiscating land and property; limiting freedom of speech, religion, and gun ownership; murdering, kidnapping, and imprisoning patriots; abdicating national sovereignty to the United Nations; political repression; wasteful bureaucracy; loosening restrictions on immigration and drug trafficking; raising taxes; polluting the environment; commandeering the military, mercenaries and police; denying Aryan cultural heritage; and inciting immigrant insurrections. [12] [24]

Since 1996, the term has spread in usage. It is now popular with many other antisemitic organizations. Swedish Neo-Nazis say that Jews—in what they call the Swedish Zionist occupied government—are importing immigrants to "dilute the blood of the white race". [25] The antisemitic website Jew Watch claims that the entire spectrum of Western nations and other countries are being ruled by "Zionist Occupied Governments". [26]

Slovak politician Marian Kotleba, whose party (People's Party Our Slovakia) won two seats in the European Parliament in the 2019 election, [27] claims that the "Z. O. G." controls Slovak politics. [28]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Simonsen, Kjetil Braut (2020-10-19). "Antisemitism on the Norwegian Far-Right, 1967–2018" . Scandinavian Journal of History. 45 (5): 640–662. doi:10.1080/03468755.2020.1726809. ISSN   0346-8755.
  2. 1 2 Larsson, Stieg (7 January 2014). The Expo Files: Articles by the Crusading Journalist. Quercus. ISBN   9781623650650 . Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 Issitt, Micah; Main, Carlyn (16 September 2014). Hidden Religion: The Greatest Mysteries and Symbols of the World's Religious Beliefs. ABC-CLIO. pp. 31–32. ISBN   9781610694780.
  4. ↑ Weitz, Eric; Fenner, Angelica, eds. (2004), Fascism and Neofascism: Critical Writings on the Radical Right in Europe, Studies in European Culture and History, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 208, ISBN   978-1-40396659-9, ...the neo-Nazis have proclaimed themselves a white/Aryan resistance movement fighting the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) and racial traitors..
  5. 1 2 Daniels 1997, p. 45.
  6. ↑ Perry, Barbara (2003), Hate and Bias Crime, Routledge, p. 325, ...vivid philosophy of White supremacy, including the belief that the United States is manipulated by foreign Jewish interests collectively known as the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG). With this conspiracy theory, the strain is "explained" (e.g., the Jews are behind multicultural curricula), and the solution is presented: hate crimes and race war.
  7. ↑ Sauter, Mark; Carafano, James (2005), Homeland Security, McGraw-Hill, p. 122, The Order, a faction of the Aryan Nations, seized national attention during the 1980s. The tightly organized racist and anti-Semitic group opposed the federal government, calling it the 'ZOG', or Zionist Occupation Government.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Kaplan 2000, p. 367.
  9. ↑ Atkins 2011, p. 103.
  10. ↑ Swain, Carol (2003). Contemporary voices of white nationalism in America. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. p.  253. ISBN   0521816734.
  11. ↑ Mogelson, Luke (January 15, 2021). "Among the Insurrectionists". The New Yorker . Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Blamires, Cyprian (2006). World Fascism: A-K. ABC-CLIO. p. 749. ISBN   9781576079409.
  13. ↑ Kaplan 2000, p. 368.
  14. 1 2 3 Kaplan 2000, pp. 367–388.
  15. 1 2 Lee, Martin A. (2000). The Beast Reawakens. Taylor & Francis. ISBN   978-0-415-92546-4.
  16. ↑ Bjorgo, Tore (2014-03-05). Terror from the Extreme Right. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-135-20937-7.
  17. ↑ Thomson, Eric, Welcome to ZOG-World, FAEM, archived from the original on 2012-12-27, retrieved 2007-04-16.
  18. 1 2 King, Wayne (27 December 1984). "Links of Anti-semitic Band Provoke 6-state Parley". The New York Times. p. 7. Canadian White Nationalists use this term as well.
  19. ↑ Bronner, Stephen Eric (2000), A Rumor About the Jews: Reflections on Antisemitism and "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion", Palgrave Macmillan, p. 136, William Luther Pierce, author of the neofascist bestseller The Turner Diaries , for example, identifies the American state as a "Zionist Occupation Government.
  20. 1 2 Kaplan 2000, p. 371.
  21. ↑ Christian Posse Comitatus Newsletter, n.d. quoted in Stern, Kenneth S (1996), A Force upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 50.
  22. ↑ Pilch, Richard F; Zilinskas, Raymond A (2005), Encyclopedia of Bioterrorism Defense, Wiley, p. 114, The importance of Christian Identity (CI) in the context of bioterrorism is that it has been openly embraced by certain U.S. right-wing 'militia' and terrorist cells whose members have expressed interest in acquiring or utilizing pathogens and toxic chemical agents... as weapons against their opponents, including representatives of the 'Zionist Occupation Government' (ZOG) that they feel is controlled by 'satanic' Jews.
  23. ↑ Ianniello, Lynne (1985). "ADL News Release" (PDF). Anti-Defamation League – via archive.org.
  24. ↑ Aryan Nations (12 March 1996). "Declaration of Independence". Internet Archive. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  25. ↑ Pred, Allan (2000), Even in Sweden, University of California Press.
  26. ↑ "Jewish Occupied Governments". Jew Watch. Archived from the original on 21 September 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2008.
  27. ↑ "Súhrnné výsledky hlasovania podľa územného členenia: Výsledky za SR". Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  28. ↑ Paulovičová, Nina (2018). "Holocaust Memory and Antisemitism in Slovakia: The Postwar Era to the Present". Antisemitism Studies . 2 (1). Indiana University Press: 17, 19–22. doi:10.2979/antistud.2.1.02. S2CID   165383570. In Kotleba's eyes, every political skirmish in Slovakia is a "very well prepared performance" directed by Z. O. G. (the "Zionist Occupation Government").

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