{"id":1393,"date":"2006-07-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/05\/that-other-zion-conspiracy\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T16:50:16","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T21:50:16","slug":"that-other-zion-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/that-other-zion-conspiracy\/","title":{"rendered":"That other Zion conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>The conspiracy is almost too big for words and its secrets have been protected through the ages by a hidden society around the world.<\/p>\n\n<p>It has given birth to organizations large and small, from local Lions Clubs to the Communist Party. It has started revolutions and manipulated the world\u2019s wars. Using their great wealth, the conspirators control mass media and steer the churches.<\/p>\n\n<p>No, this isn\u2019t part of \u201cThe Da Vinci Code.\u201d <\/p>\n\n<p>This is a different Zion conspiracy. This is the great Jewish plot, as described by an early covenant in the Islamist organization Hamas. Where can one learn the truth?<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cZionism scheming has no end, and after Palestine, they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates River,\u201d proclaims article 32. \u201cWhen they have finished digesting the area on which they have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion. Their scheme has been laid out in the \u2018Protocols of the Elders of Zion.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n<p>Sooner of later, anyone who studies modern anti-Semitism ends up studying this infamous document, with its 24 chapters that claim to reveal the minutes of a vast Jewish network that rules the world. Although its origins are the subject of debate, scholars agree that it emerged in 1905 in Russia and has become a touchstone text for conspiracy insiders around the world.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cConspiracy theories are, by their very nature, insidiously seductive. It doesn\u2019t matter if you are talking about who shot John Kennedy, who blew up the World Trade Center or who is driving up oil prices,\u201d said Daniel Greene, curator of a U.S. Holocaust Museum exhibition entitled \u201cA Dangerous Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cA great conspiracy theory answers all kinds of questions in a very uncomplicated way. It gives you the secret information that you need to know to understand why some people are oppressed and others are powerful. And, of course, if anyone says they have evidence that proves that the conspiracy theory is wrong, then that just proves that they are part of the conspiracy. You can\u2019t win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>This conspiracy can be summed up in four words: \u201cThe Jews did it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>As could be expected, Nazi Germany produced 23 or more editions of \u201cThe Protocols.\u201d By this time, explained Greene, Adolf Hitler did not need to quote the text by name, because its ideas had become part of the air he was breathing. There is also evidence that German leaders knew the book was a fake. <\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cI believe that \u2018The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion\u2019 are a forgery,\u201d wrote master propagandist Joseph Goebbels. However, he also said, \u201cI believe in the intrinsic, but not the factual truth of the \u2018Protocols.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n<p>The current exhibit, which precedes a larger project about propaganda scheduled for 2008, demonstrates that this text\u2019s unique brand of hatred knows no borders \u2014 especially not in the Internet age.<\/p>\n\n<p>There is a copy of industrialist Henry Ford\u2019s 1920 book entitled \u201cThe International Jew: The World\u2019s Foremost Problem.\u201d There is a Pakistani edition of \u201cThe Protocols\u201d that King Faisel of Saudi Arabia offered to foreign diplomats as a gift. There is another another edition in Japanese, which is a mystery to many scholars since there are fewer than 1,000 Jews in Japan, out of a population of nearly 130 million.<\/p>\n\n<p>An edition recently published in Syria suggests that the 9\/11 attacks were planned and executed by Jews, seeking a way to further involve the United States in the Middle East. An infamous Spanish edition is even more cynical. It shows finger puppets representing the U.S. economy, the Masons, the Communists, Christianity and the Nazi swastika \u2014 all being controlled by a palm marked with the Star of David.<\/p>\n\n<p>Yes, there are anti-Semites who insist that Jews planned the Holocaust as a deadly gambit that would give them the ultimate \u201cvictim\u201d trump card in international affairs.<\/p>\n\n<p>Do they really believe this? <\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThey may want to believe that it is true because, to them, it feels true,\u201d said Greene. \u201cSo there is truthiness out there and, from the beginning, \u2018The Protocols\u2019 has been an assault on the very idea of truth. But people are supposed to debate the facts, not what they feel in their gut. If people will use their heads, they will be able to see this kind of hatred for what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The conspiracy is almost too big for words and its secrets have been protected through the ages by a hidden society around the world. It has given birth to organizations large and small, from local Lions Clubs to the Communist Party. It has started revolutions and manipulated the world\u2019s wars. Using their great wealth, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[66,432,1538],"class_list":["post-1393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-antisemitism","tag-holocaust","tag-judaism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>That other Zion conspiracy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The conspiracy is almost too big for words and its secrets have been protected through the ages by a hidden society around the world.It has given birth to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/that-other-zion-conspiracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"That other Zion conspiracy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The conspiracy is almost too big for words and its secrets have been protected through the ages by a hidden society around the world.It has given birth to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/that-other-zion-conspiracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-07-05T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T21:50:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/that-other-zion-conspiracy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/that-other-zion-conspiracy\/\",\"name\":\"That other Zion conspiracy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-07-05T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-30T21:50:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"The conspiracy is almost too big for words and its secrets have been protected through the ages by a hidden society around the world.It has given birth to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/that-other-zion-conspiracy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/that-other-zion-conspiracy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2006\/07\/that-other-zion-conspiracy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"That other Zion conspiracy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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