Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory

Last updated

Antisemitic graffiti reading "Crush ZOG" Crush ZOG graffiti.jpg
Antisemitic graffiti reading "Crush ZOG"

The Zionist occupation government, Zionist occupational government or Zionist-occupied government (ZOG), sometimes also referred to as the Jewish occupational government (JOG), [1] [2] is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming Jews secretly control the governments of Western states. [3] [4] It is a contemporary variation on the centuries-old belief in an international Jewish conspiracy. According to believers, a secret Zionist organization is actively controlling international banks, and through them governments, in order to collude against white, Christian, or Islamic interests. [5]

Contents

The expression is used by white supremacist, white nationalist, far-right, nativist [6] or antisemitic groups in Europe [7] and the United States, [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] as well as by ultra-nationalists such as Pamyat in Russia and various far-right groups including the Freemen, Identity Christians and the Ku Klux Klan. [6]

The word Zionist in "Zionist occupation government" should not be confused with the ideology of Zionism, the movement for support of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. As the conspiracy theorists chiefly name countries outside that area, the usage of Zionist in this context is misleading because it is intended to portray Jews as conspirators who aim to control the world [8] as depicted in the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion . [14]

Origins

The association of Jews to the control of economic forces is the modern resurgence of an old stereotype, that of the "greedy Jewish merchant" which has been present in the Christian world since the Middle Ages. [5] The conspiracy theory illustrates a specifically American far-right agrarian preoccupation, namely the vital possibility of extinction allegedly faced by the rural world, seen as the backbone of America, a danger caused by a remote, centralized and power-hungry metropolitan elite corrupted by "alien" influences. [15]

History

In late 19th-century France, the insinuation that the French government was in the power of the Jews was a commonplace claim in anti-republican discourse. [15] The British fascist Arnold Leese already had the habit of referring to the "Jewish government" of his own nation in the interwar and postwar decades, while Nazis under the Weimar Republic dismissed a so-called "Jewish" hand behind that regime.

An early appearance of the term was in a 1976 article, "Welcome to ZOG-World", attributed to an American neo-Nazi named Eric Thomson, although Canadian white nationalists used the term "ZOG" as well. [16] It also features as the main theme in the 1978 book The Turner Diaries written by William Luther Pierce, founder of the National Alliance, a white nationalist organization. The term came to the attention of a larger audience in a 27 December 1984 article in The New York Times about robberies committed in California and Washington by a white supremacist group called The Order. According to the newspaper, the crimes "were conducted to raise money for a war upon the United States Government, which the group calls 'ZOG', or Zionist Occupation Government." [15] [17] In 1985, the Oregon-based far-right group Posse Comitatus claimed: "Our nation is now completely under the control of the International Invisible government of World Jewry." [18]

The Order of the Silent Brotherhood was an offshoot of the Aryan Nations, an organization founded in the early 1970s by Richard Girnt Butler; the latter had since the 1950s been associated with another antisemitic group, the Church of Jesus Christ–Christian. Both of 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 December 1984, Newsweek magazine reported that the Aryan Nations had set up an electronic bulletin board system called "Aryan Nation Liberty Net" to offer information for the locations of Communist Party USA offices and "ZOG informers."[ citation needed ]

In 1996, the Aryan Nations posted on its website an "Aryan Declaration of Independence", stating that "the history of the present Zionist Occupied Government of the United States of America is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations [...] [all] 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 "ZOG" is accused of relinquishing powers of government 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 freedoms 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. [15] [19]

Since 1996, the term has spread in usage and 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." [20] The antisemitic website Jew Watch claims that the entire spectrum of Western nations and other countries are being ruled by "Zionist Occupation Governments." [21]

Slovak politician Marian Kotleba, whose party (People's Party Our Slovakia) won two seats in the European Parliament in the 2019 election, [22] claims that the "Z. O. G." controls Slovak politics. [23]

Conspiracy theories

A variety of plots gravitating around the original conspiracy theory were imagined by activists, one stating, for instance, that as many as 4,000 Jews were warned of the September 11 attacks before they happened. Believers also claim that ZOG-like forces control American foreign policy. Despite their own singularities, most ZOG theories involve the idea of a Jewish power over the finance or banking, including one imagining a Jewish control on the Federal Reserve. [5]

Neo-Nazi David Lane developed his version of the white genocide conspiracy theory in his c.  1995White Genocide Manifesto, the origin of the later use of the term. [24] [25] [26] [27] Lane claimed that the government policies of many Western countries had the intent of destroying white European culture and making white people an "extinct species". [28] Lane—a founding member of the organization The Order—criticized miscegenation, abortion, homosexuality, Jewish control of the media, "multi-racial sports," the legal repercussions against those who "resist genocide," and the ZOG that he said controls the United States and the other majority-white countries, which encourages "white genocide". [28]

See also

Related Research Articles

Antisemitism has increased greatly in the Arab world since the beginning of the 20th century, for several reasons: the dissolution and breakdown of the Ottoman Empire and traditional Islamic society; European influence, brought about by Western imperialism and Arab Christians; Nazi propaganda and relations between Nazi Germany and the Arab world; resentment over Jewish nationalism; the rise of Arab nationalism; and the widespread proliferation of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories.

Jew Watch was an antisemitic website promoting Holocaust denial and negative claims about Jews. The claims included allegations of a conspiracy that Jews control the media and banking, as well as accusations of Jewish involvement in terrorist groups. The site contained propaganda, according to Sam Varghese of The Age, similar to that used in Nazi Germany. It was widely considered a hate site. Jew Watch received support from Stormfront, a white nationalist and neo-Nazi site. The site described itself as a "not-for-profit library for private study, scholarship, or research [that keeps] a close watch on Jewish Communities and organizations worldwide".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourteen Words</span> White-supremacist slogans

Fourteen Words is a reference to two slogans originated by David Eden Lane, one of nine founding members of the defunct white supremacist terrorist organization The Order, and are accompanied by Lane's "88 Precepts". The slogans have served as a rallying cry for militant white nationalists internationally.

Milton Alexander Linder is an American white supremacist. He is the founder and editor of the Vanguard News Network (VNN), an antisemitic and white supremacist website and forum described by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as "one of the most active white supremacist sites on the Internet."

The Franklin Prophecy, sometimes called the Franklin Forgery, is an antisemitic speech falsely attributed to Benjamin Franklin, warning of the supposed dangers of admitting Jews to the nascent United States. The speech was purportedly transcribed by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, but was unknown before its appearance in 1934 in the pages of William Dudley Pelley's Silver Legion pro-Nazi magazine Liberation. No evidence exists for the document's authenticity, and some of Pelley's claims have actively been disproven.

Jewish Bolshevism, also Judeo–Bolshevism, is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that claims that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was a Jewish plot and that Jews controlled the Soviet Union and international communist movements, often in furtherance of a plan to destroy Western civilization. It was one of the main Nazi beliefs that served as an ideological justification for the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Holocaust.

This is a list of topics related to racism:

Antisemitic tropes or antisemitic canards are "sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications" that are defamatory towards Judaism as a religion or defamatory towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since as early as the 2nd century, libels or allegations of Jewish guilt and cruelty emerged as a recurring motif along with antisemitic conspiracy theories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory</span> Anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic conspiracy theory

The Judeo-Masonic conspiracy is an antisemitic and anti-Masonic conspiracy theory involving an alleged secret coalition of Jews and Freemasons. These theories were popular on the far-right, particularly in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Russia, Serbia, Eastern Europe, and Japan, with similar allegations still being published.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of antisemitism in the United States</span>

Different opinions exist among historians regarding the extent of antisemitism in American history and how American antisemitism contrasted with its European counterpart. In contrast to the horrors of European history, John Higham states that in the United States "no decisive event, no deep crisis, no powerful social movement, no great individual is associated primarily with, or significant chiefly because of anti-Semitism." Accordingly, David A. Gerber concludes that antisemitism "has been a distinctly minor feature of the nation's historical development."

<i>The Protocols of the Elders of Zion</i> 1903 antisemitic fabricated text first published in Russia

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion, is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. It played a key part in popularizing belief in an international Jewish conspiracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Zionism</span> Opposition to Jewish nationalism

Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine—a region partly coinciding with the biblical Land of Israel—was flawed or unjust in some way.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan to achieve global domination. The text was fabricated in the Russian Empire, and was first published in 1903. While there is continued popularity of The Protocols in nations from South America to Asia, since the defeat of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan in World War II, governments or political leaders in most parts of the world have generally avoided claims that The Protocols represent factual evidence of a real Jewish conspiracy. The exception to this is the Middle East, where a large number of Arab and Muslim regimes and leaders have endorsed them as authentic. Past endorsements of The Protocols from Presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Iraqi President Arif, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya, among other political and intellectual leaders of the Arab world, are echoed by 21st century endorsements from the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, and Hamas, to the education ministry of Saudi Arabia.

Economic antisemitism is antisemitism that uses stereotypes and canards that are based on negative perceptions or assertions of the economic status, occupations or economic behaviour of Jews, at times leading to various governmental policies, regulations, taxes and laws that target or which disproportionately impact the economic status, occupations or behaviour of Jews.

Antisemitism in contemporary Hungary principally takes the form of negative stereotypes relating to Jews, although historically it manifested itself more violently. Studies show antisemitism has become more prevalent since the fall of Communism, particularly among the younger generations. Surveys performed from 2009 and beyond have consistently found high levels of antisemitic feelings amongst the general population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White genocide conspiracy theory</span> White supremacist conspiracy theory

The white genocide, white extinction, or white replacement conspiracy theory is a white supremacist conspiracy theory that claims there is a deliberate plot to cause the extinction of whites through forced assimilation, mass immigration, and/or violent genocide. It purports that this goal is advanced through the promotion of miscegenation, interracial marriage, mass non-white immigration, racial integration, low fertility rates, abortion, pornography, LGBT identities, governmental land-confiscation from whites, organised violence, and eliminationism in majority white countries. Under some theories, black people, Hispanics, and Muslims are blamed for the secret plot, but usually as more fertile immigrants, invaders, or violent aggressors, rather than as the masterminds. A related, but distinct, conspiracy theory is the Great Replacement theory.

The Right Stuff is a neo-Nazi and white nationalist blog and discussion forum and the host of several podcasts, including The Daily Shoah. Founded by American neo-Nazi Mike Enoch, the website promotes Holocaust denial, and coined the use of "echoes", an antisemitic marker that uses triple parentheses around names to identify Jewish people.

TruNews is an American far-right fake news website and channel owned and hosted by Rick Wiles. TruNews frequently publishes conspiracy theories in addition to racist, anti-LGBT, antisemitic, and Islamophobic content. It has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The international Jewish conspiracy or the world Jewish conspiracy has been described as "the most widespread and durable conspiracy theory of the twentieth century" and "one of the most widespread and long-running conspiracy theories". Although it typically claims that a malevolent, usually global Jewish circle, referred to as International Jewry, conspires for world domination, the conspiracy theory's content is extremely variable, which helps explain its wide distribution and long duration. It was popularized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century especially by the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Among the beliefs that posit an international Jewish conspiracy are Jewish Bolshevism, Cultural Marxism, Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory, White genocide conspiracy theory and Holocaust denial. The Nazi leadership's belief in an international Jewish conspiracy that it blamed for starting World War II and controlling the Allied powers was key to their decision to launch the Final Solution.

Zionist antisemitism or antisemitic Zionism refers to a phenomenon in which antisemites express support for Zionism and the State of Israel. In some cases, this support may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. Historically, this type of antisemitism has been most notable among Christian Zionists, who may perpetrate religious antisemitism while being outspoken in their support for Jewish sovereignty in Israel due to their interpretation of Christian eschatology. Similarly, people who identify with the political far-right, particularly in Europe and the United States, may support the Zionist movement because they seek to expel Jews from their country and see Zionism as the least complicated method of achieving this goal and satisfying their racial antisemitism.

References

  1. ↑ Swain, Carol (2003). Contemporary voices of white nationalism in America. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. p.  253. ISBN   0521816734.
  2. ↑ Mogelson, Luke (January 15, 2021). "Among the Insurrectionists". The New Yorker . Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  3. ↑ "ZOG". Anti-Defamation League . Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  4. ↑ Larsson, Stieg (7 January 2014). The Expo Files: Articles by the Crusading Journalist. Quercus. ISBN   9781623650650 . Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  5. 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.
  6. 1 2 Perimutter, Dawn (2004). Investigating Religious Terror and Ritualistic Crimes. CRC Press. p. 49. ISBN   9781420041040.
  7. ↑ 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..
  8. 1 2 Daniels 1997, p. 45.
  9. ↑ 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, The National States Rights Party and the California Noontide Press distributed the Protocols during the 1970s and it is still hailed by representatives of right-wing militias: William Luther Pierce, author of the neofascist bestseller The Turner Diaries , for example, identifies the American state as a "Zionist Occupation Government.
  10. ↑ Brasher, Brenda (2001), Encyclopedia of Fundamentalism, Routledge, p. 305, With the racist and anti-Semitic theology of Christian Identity as their justification, they blame the Jewish Antichrist, or the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG), which rules in Washington, taking its orders from internationalist Jews in Israel, the United Nations, and the Fortune 500. Attracting old-line hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and inspiring newer ones like the Aryan Nation Alliance..., the militia and Patriot movements have helped to legitimize racist and anti-Semitic hate groups...
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ Schwarz, Rabbi Sidney (2006), Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World, Jewish Lights Publishing, p.  96, ISBN   1-58023-312-0, One of the most widely distributed anti-Semitic tracts in history is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , a book of antisemitic canards authored in the nineteenth century that portrays Jews as conspiring to seek global dominance. Similarly, American-based racist groups in this last century have frequently leveled accusations against Jews for controlling both banks and public officials..
  15. 1 2 3 4 Blamires, Cyprian (2006). World Fascism: A-K. ABC-CLIO. p. 749. ISBN   9781576079409.
  16. ↑ Thomson, Eric, Welcome to ZOG-World, FAEM, archived from the original on 2012-12-27, retrieved 2007-04-16.
  17. ↑ 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.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ Aryan Nations (12 March 1996). "Declaration of Independence". Internet Archive. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  20. ↑ Pred, Allan (2000), Even in Sweden, University of California Press.
  21. ↑ "Jewish Occupied Governments". Jew Watch. Archived from the original on 21 September 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2008.
  22. ↑ "Súhrnné výsledky hlasovania podľa územného členenia: Výsledky za SR". Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  23. ↑ 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").
  24. ↑ Berger, J. M. "How 'The Turner Diaries' Changed White Nationalism". The Atlantic. Retrieved 24 November 2017. The manifesto itself was soon reduced to the simple phrase 'white genocide', which proliferated at the start of the 21st century and has become the overwhelmingly dominant meme of modern white nationalism.
  25. ↑ Dessem, Matthew (26 December 2016). "Drexel University, Apparently Unfamiliar With White Supremacist Lingo, Censures Prof For 'White Genocide' Tweet". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 24 November 2017. Although it's difficult to date precisely, white supremacist publishing houses being somewhat less reliable than Simon & Schuster, that honor probably belongs to the late David Lane, terrorist, white supremacist, and author of an execrable little essay called 'White Genocide Manifesto'.
  26. ↑ Stack, Liam (15 August 2017). "Alt-Right, Alt-Left, Antifa: A Glossary of Extremist Language". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  27. ↑ Feshami, Kevan A. (6 September 2017). "Fear of White Genocide". Lapham's Quarterly. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  28. 1 2 Jackson, Paul (1 May 2015). "'White genocide': Postwar fascism and the ideological value of evoking existential conflicts". In Cathie Carmichael; Richard C. Maguire (eds.). The Routledge History of Genocide. Routledge. pp. 207–226. ISBN   9781317514848. Duke's current website hosts a variety of essays that develop the idea that white people are being subjected to a genocide. Again we see a key linkage here between raising the idea of a white genocide and decrying liberal political ideals. In one such essay, 'The Genocide of the White Race is Promoted by Liberals', the point is set out as follows: ... The actions being taken by liberal governments to force non-White into every White nation will eventually eliminate the White race itself.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.