ZGram - 9/4/2003 - "Foxman is mighty worried!"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

September 4, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

No commentary needed - just ponder the quotation marks:

[START]

Two years after 9/11, anti-Semitic theories are still going strong
By Nathan Guttman

WASHINGTON - Next week will see the second
anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the
United States, which also spawned a whole new
branch in international anti-Semitism.

A survey published this week by
the Anti-Defamation League
finds that "hateful conspiracy
theories" - claiming that Jews
and Israel were behind the
attacks in which 3,000 people
were killed - are still being
disseminated. In fact, these
theories are gaining strength
rather than dying out.


"The 9/11 attacks have fueled an entire new
genre of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories
leading to an environment where rumors about
Jews are finding acceptance in the mainstream,"
says Abe Foxman, the league's national
director.

The last year, for example, has seen radical
right-wing groups in the United States publish
two documents: "The truth about 9/11: How
Jewish manipulation killed thousands" and "Did
Israeli spies have advance knowledge of the
9/11 attacks?" The documents seek to spread the
theory that Israel was behind the terror
attacks.

The ADL's survey, "Unraveling Anti-Semitic 9/11
Conspiracy Theories," finds that Arab and
Muslim groups, and not just the radical right,
are sometimes involved in spreading such
theories.

The conspiracy theories, mostly disseminated
over the Internet, had be categorized into a
number of groups: first, there are those
claiming the Mossad carried out the attacks.
One such theory, for example, purports that the
Mossad and CIA wanted to take over the
"Afghan-opium-derived" heroin trade and thus
cooked-up the attacks to provide "a pretext for
an American overthrow of the Taliban, which
gave the U.S. control of the country's opium
production."

Other theories talk of an "Israeli art student
spy ring" where Israeli spies passed themselves
off as art students and tracked those suspected
of carrying out the attacks but did not do
anything to stop them or inform the
authorities. There are also the claims that
Israeli firms operating in the U.S. actually
ran this spy ring and were used as a cover.

A more "classic" anti-Semitic theory claims that
the Jewish owners of the Twin Towers
orchestrated the attacks to get the insurance
money. A number of Web sites also claim that
the Jews carried out the attacks to get
international attention and criticism over the
intifada away from Israel.

In order to strengthen their theories, the
groups use two "fables" that managed to gain a
foothold in public opinion following the
September 11 attacks. The first claims that
"4,000 Israelis who worked at the World Trade
Center were warned by Israeli intelligence to
stay home on 9/11." A slight variation talks of
"3,000 Jews" who received the same warning.

The second fable talks of the arrest of five
Israeli "spies" who were "caught videotaping
and celebrating the destruction of the Twin
Towers." This is based on the fact that five
Israelis were arrested shortly after the
attacks after they drove their van toward
Manhattan. The five, who worked illegally in
the U.S., were eventually released without any
charges being brought.

The ADL says in the report that what feeds such
conspiracy theories are well-known anti-Semitic
motives, a "modern manifestation of the
anti-Semitic, [19th century] `Protocols of the
Elders of Zion'."

The report concludes by saying that
"anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists have gone
beyond just alleging that Israel was behind the
9/11 attacks. They have focused on Israel as an
evil force ready to destroy anyone who gets in
the way of its interests."

The ADL says it is concerned that the "success"
of these conspiracy theories will fuel
anti-Semitism and "have laid the foundation for
the proliferation of similar conspiracy
theories about other global disasters." Israel
is already being blamed for the Space Shuttle
Columbia disaster; apparently Israeli astronaut
Ilan Ramon was actually a "spy." Israel and the
Jews are also being blamed for "pushing" the
U.S. into the war in Iraq.

[END]

(Source: 
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=336521&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y)

(Source