Zionist and Infowars: conspiracy theories about the Illuminati

Zionists and Infowars offer differing conspiracy theories about the identify of the illuminati. INFOWARS uses anti-Zionist perspectives to fight the New World Order, suggesting that the illuminati has its tentacles at the top of the Zionist leadership hierarchy. In a recent example, Paul Joseph Watson attempted to refute an editorial by UCLA professor Judaea Perl called: “Is anti-Zionism hate? Yes. It is more dangerous than Anti-semitism, threatening lives and peace in the Middle East.”

Ignoring the campus sponsored anti-Zionist hate fest that masqueraded as scholarly debate and gave rise to Perl’s editorial, Watson linked a foundation created in honor of Judaea's murdered son Daniel Perl to "Eliezer" Wiesel whom he called controversial "for his support of Jewish terrorist group Irgun and his indifference to historical massacres of Palestinians" and whom Noam Chomsky criticized for having said “I support Israel—period. I identify with Israel—period. I never attack, never criticize Israel when I am not in Israel.” Watson then used this de-contextualized statement of personal conduct by Elie Wiesel (who is never mentioned in Perl's article) from 1982 as fodder for summarizing Perl's argument as requiring that essentially "everyone, particularly academia, should adhere to Wiesel’s mantra and refrain from criticizing the government of Israel and its policies."

This is a straw man argument. The anti-Zionism that Perl opposes “rejects the very notion that Jews are a nation -- a collective bonded by a common history -- and, accordingly, denies Jews the right to self-determination in their historical birthplace. It seeks the dismantling of the Jewish nation-state: Israel.” In this definition, Perl is clearly not suggesting that violations of Wiesel’s refusal to have his policy differences with Israel publicized so they can be exploited by Israel’s enemies is categorically anti-Zionist. Perl argues that “[t]he discriminatory, immoral and more dangerous character of anti-Zionism….” lies in its denial to “the Jewish people [… that which] it grants to other historically bonded collectives (e.g. French, Spanish, Palestinians), namely, the right to nationhood, self-determination and legitimate coexistence with other indigenous claimants.”

Watson claims that Perl justifies his strawman position on anti-Zionism by conflating religion, race, and nationalism. Conflation occurs “when the identities of two or more individuals, concepts, or places, sharing some characteristics of one another, become confused until there seems to be only a single identity…. Conflating words with different meanings can help to clarify or it can cause real confusion” (wikipedia.org). Ironically, it is Watson who seems to confuse by conflation. For example, Watson answers his question of whether “Jews are a nation?” with “that’s news to me – last time I checked Judaism was not a race or a nation, it was a religion.” This obscures differences between Jewish people and Jewish religion, thereby promoting anti-Zionism’s denial to Jews the right to nationhood. The obscured difference between the Jewish people and the Jewish religion is the relationship of each to Zionism. For Jews, Zionism provides political protection against threats to the survival of the Jewish culture and people. For Judaism, Zionism is part of the Jewish people’s response requirement of G-d. For Zionism, the Jewish people are current generation nation builders and Judaism prescribes a relationship between the Jewish people and G-d that, from a Zionist perspective, is a hypothesized source of the nation’s viability. These are all among the cultural values inherited at the individual behavioral level and they are all component characteristics of Jewish cultural evolution.

Just as the valuing of Jewish life often varies with the valuing of Israel’s survival and of Jewish religious continuity, the conflated devaluation of Jews, Israelis, and Judaism often varies with the valuing of Islamic-Arabic transnationalism’s territorial agenda the aggressive promotion of Jihadist “religious” values. and anti-Zionist outrage over the suffering of anti-Zionist people serving as human shields or soldiers of anti-Israel terrorist attackers. A Muslim who self-identifies as an anti-Zionist and an Arab (or Jihadist) is like a Jew who self-identifies as pro-Israeli and Torah-observant except the former consistently seeks the death of the latter while the latter only requires the survival of the latter.

Watson seems to argue that the Jewish people are (or have, or behave according to) a religion and that this somehow disqualifies them from being, having, or behaving as citizens of a nation. Yet nationhood and religion are separate but integral components of the cultural inheritance of many Jews. According to Wikipedia, a “nation is a cultural and social community. In as much as most members never meet each other, yet feel a common bond, it may be considered an imagined community. One of the most influential doctrines in Western Europe and the Western hemisphere since the late eighteenth century is that all humans are divided into groups called nations. Nationhood is an ethical and philosophical doctrine and is the starting point for the ideology of nationalism; a nation is a form of self-defined cultural and social community. Members of a "nation" share a common identity, and usually a common origin, in the sense of history, ancestry, parentage or descent. A nation extends across generations, and includes the dead as full members.[citation needed] Past events are framed in this context: for example, by referring to "our soldiers" in conflicts which took place hundreds of years ago. More vaguely, nations are assumed to include future generations.”

Jewish-Israeli Zionists should be natural allies of INFOWARS in their struggle against the overthrow of sovereign nation states by the New World Order elite. It is curious, therefore, that people at INFOWARS are such natural allies of the New World Order’s War on Jewish people, religious values, and nationalist aspirations.