Occupy Wall Street: Anti-Semitic Smears

Earlier this week, ThinkProgress, reported on “vulture capitalist” hedge fund manager Paul Singer’s financing journalists to write attack articles opposing the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. In addition, a campaign to infiltrate and sabotage the movement has now been documented. Those protecting the Wall Street criminals have proven they’re willing to say and do anything to undermine and diminish the 99 Percenters in the OWS movement.

However, goons of the financial elite have sunken to a new low. The right-wing is now attempting to label the OWS movement as anti-Semitic. According to MJ Rosenberg, writing in the Jewish Journal, The New York Times columnist David Brooks, was one of the first widely respected conservatives to suggest an anti-Semitic element to the movement. Essentially, Brooks accuses the magazine AdBusters, who helped promote the protest, as having an anti-Semitic bent due to an article it published back in 2004.  Here is what Brooks said in his column, dated October 10, 2011:

“Take the Occupy Wall Street movement. This uprising was sparked by the magazine AdBusters, previously best known for the 2004 essay, “Why Won’t Anyone Say They Are Jewish?” — an investigative report that identified some of the most influential Jews in America and their nefarious grip on policy. “

Actually, thanks to Brooks providing the link, we can all read the article and know exactly what the articles is about. To summarize, the article points out that 50 percent of the top 50 most influential neocons in the Bush Administration were not only Jews, but had ties to Israel’s far right Likud party. The article notes that while only 2 percent of the U.S. population is Jewish, 50 percent of Bush’s influential neocons were Jewish. The AdBusters article then asks, “If half the neocons were Palestinians would the U.S. have invaded Iraq?

AdBusters knew when they published the article that some folks would immediately start hurling charges of anti-Semitism at them: “Drawing attention to the Jewishness of the neocons is a tricky game. Anyone who does so can count on automatically being smeared as an anti-Semite…The point is simply that the neocons seem to have a special affinity for Israel that influence their political thinking and consequently American foreign policy in the Middle East.” Personally, I find this point to be very interesting and worthy of reporting. If half of Obama’s national security advisors were Muslims, or followers of a particular Christian orthodoxy, I would find that equally worth reporting.

MJ Rosenberg points out, “[a]n ugly old tradition is back: exploiting anti-Semitism to break the backs of popular movements that threaten the power.”

Rosenberg goes on to provide a brief history on the misuse of anti-Semitism: “Perhaps its most famous use was by the viciously anti-Semitic Czar Nicholas, whose supporters concocted the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” at the start of the 20th century to prevent Russians from joining socialist movements and other reform efforts that were fighting to get the czar to cede some power to an elected parliament.

The Protocols were a forged document purporting to show that a cabal of Jews met regularly to solidify their supposed control of the entire world. According to the Protocols, Jews were behind socialist and liberal movements but also ran the banks and Wall Street. (A modern version of this ridiculous theme was a staple on Glenn Beck’s television program that ran on Fox News until being canceled this summer.)”

Now we see a consorted effort by the right-wing to discredit the OWS movement by pinning the word anti-Semitism on the protesters. The tactics they are using to discredit the OWS movement are highly deceptive. Take for example this quote from an online blogger quoting Abe Greenwood:

“The Jew-hatred among protesters and sympathizers is diverse and unapologetic. It is, in fact, atmospheric. Tune in randomly to live television coverage of the spectacle and you’ll see—as I did—placards scapegoating Israel, Zionism, or “Hitler’s Banker.” Check out the continuous flurry of protest-supporting tweets and blog posts, and you’ll get more of the same.”

Well, I searched YouTube for a video clip of the “Hitler Banker” sign and found the guy shouting anti-Semitic comments amongst the OWS protesters. What Greenwood doesn’t say in his comment is that the OWS protesters had surrounded the Hitler Banker guy and were holding up handmade signs that read “He’s Not With Us”,with arrows pointing to the Hitler Banker guy. But what is more telling is, if you listen closely, you can hear all the actual OWS protesters are telling the Hitler Banker guy to “Go Away” and “Nobody wants your hate” I found stories about the Hitler Banker guy on a half dozen website and not one commented on or included the audio of the actually OWS protesters shouting out “Nobody want your hate.”

This video tells a starkly different story then the “unapologetic” “Jew-hatred” portrayed in the online article. When it comes to manuplating videos and stories, the right-wing has had a very seedy past recently. Taking events out of context in order to distort the facts and smear their political opponents, James O’Keefe and his buddy Andrew Breitbart of Big Government have been found in numbers legal investigations to have used “selectively”, “heavily” and “deceptively” edited videos in order to leave a “false impression” and to portray their political rivals in a bad light. Many Journalists have called O’Keefe deceptive videos “unethical” and Fred Barnes, of the conservative paper the Weekly Standard, has even called O’Keefe a “political hit job.”

This same unethical tactic is now being employed on the OWS movement. However, I don’t think this desperate tactic is not going to work this time. First of all, the OWS protesters are now onto the fact that the right-wing has infiltrated the crowds and are attempting to disrupt and discredit the movement. They know there are right-wing agent provocateurs in their midst That is why you see in the above video clip the protesters quickly making sure the video camera knew the Hitler Banker guy was not part of the movement and not welcome. It’s no coincidence that as soon as an idiot shows up with a racist sign, Glenn Beck TV shows up with a camera crew.

Second, there are plenty of liberal Jews amongst the protesters. After all, most American Jews are actually liberal progressives, not the neocons found in the Bush Administration. This year, Yom Kippur fell on the 21 day of the OWS protest. To celebrate, the night was filled with Jews and non Jews singing and dancing. Check out this video. There is not a single anti-Semitic image in the crowd.

The fact is, if you scour the official_statements by the OWS movement and look at the official Tweets you will not find a single shred of anti-Semitism. Nonetheless, I’m sure there are some corrupt right-wing nut bars spewing racist comments amongst the OWS activists in order to discredit the movement. I’m also sure that as soon as the provocateurs show their face, Glenn Beck or James O’Keefe will miraculously have their cameras in place. Unfortunately, it’s just the type of world we live in.

 

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national/adl_urges_protest_organizers_condemn_anti_semitic_incidents

 

Right-Wing Calls for Provocateurs

Nelson/AP

Originally published in The Daily Censored for Project Censored.

Back in August, 2009, I published a small article titled “Goons With Guns” that linked to a memo from a Right-Wing Tea Party organization called Right Principles. The memo called for their supporters to disrupt and harass those that showed up to town hall meetings in support for health care reform. Here is a small excerpt from the memo, “… pack the hall… spread out … rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation…to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early….yell back and have someone else follow-up with a shout-out … to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda…stand up and shout and sit right back down.” The memo brags about how 30 protesters disrupted a town hall meeting with 150 people.

As a result, the debate over the health care bill heated up. Unions that planned on showing up to town hall meetings started receiving death threats from the angry Tea Party supporters. At the AFL-CIO office, an official described what he called a, “pretty direct threat” after the organization announced it was planning to attend an upcoming Democrat held town hall meetings. The message said, “I will be going to a local town hall this weekend, all you union members BEWARE!” an emailer wrote at 9:40 Saturday morning. “We will be waiting for you. Better make sure you have arrangements with your local ER. Today is the day when the goon meets the gun. See you there.”

Once again, the corporatists Tea Party thugs are up to their old tricks of intimidation, disruption, and disinformation. Yesterday, The Political Carnival revealed an memo from Tea Party Express leader and racist Right-Wing radio talk show personality Mark Williams. In the memo, Williams is encouraging his Tea Bagging buddies to act as impostors and provocateurs in order to disrupt and discredit the union supporters.  Here is the body of the memo, highlighted by The Political Carnival:

“(1) I signed up as an organizer (2) with any luck they will contact me and I will have an “in”  (3) in or not I will be there and am asking as many other people as can get there to come with, all of us in SEIU shirts (those who don’t have them we can possibly buy some from vendors likely to be there)  (4) we are going to target the many TV cameras and reporters looking for comments from the members there  (5) we will approach the cameras to make good pictures… signs under our shirts that say things like “screw the taxpayer!”  and “you OWE me!” to be pulled out for the camera (timing is important because the signs will be taken away from us) (6) we will echo those slogans in angry sounding tones to the cameras and the reporters.  (7) if I do get the ‘in’ I am going to do my darnedest to get podium access and take the mic to do that rant from there…with any luck and if I can manage the moments to build up to it, I can probably get a cheer out of the crowd for something extreme.”

The memo goes on:

“Our goal is to make the gathering look as greedy and goonish as we know that it is, ding their credibility with the media and exploit the lazy reporters who just want dramatic shots and outrageous quotes for headlines.  Even if it becomes known that we are plants the quotes and pictures will linger as defacto truth.”

Mark Williams’ goals are clear. While Williams claims he does not want to instigate violence. However, he believes his provocative actions might help expose the union supporters as goonish, thus dinging their credibility. This is the classic act of a provocateur.

Thus far, the protests in Wisconsin have been overwhelmingly peaceful . Yesterday, with over 70,000 supporters of the union’s right to collectively bargain were out in force. An additional hundred or so proponents of the Right-wing corporatocracy came out to peacefully counter demonstrate. As a result, Wisconsin proudly showed the world what the First Amendment looks like.

However, as the protesters build momentum, the opposition will become more desperate. What we are seeing in the repugnant thugs that follow Mark Williams is an overt plan to ramp up the rhetoric and provoke a confrontation. Once again, we witness the Right-wing use the dishonorable tactic of falsely setting up their opponents in order to discredit them. It is a shameful tactic, but one the supporters of the corporatocracy commonly use. With the Right-wing plotting to disrupt the peaceful protesters this week, we should not be surprised if things get ugly. The supporters of the middle class and worker’s rights must remain calm. They must not walk into the traps the Right-wing extremists are now setting.