Zionist Occupation Government
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Zionist Occupation Government or ZOG is an antisemitic conspiracy theory alleging that certain governments are surreptitiously controlled by Jews. This allegation has been leveled by several extremist and antisemitic groups including neo-Nazis in the United States,[1] in Europe,[2] ultra-nationalists such as Pamyat in Russia, and right-wing groups in Poland.[3]
The word "Zionist" in "Zionist Occupation Government" is derived from 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, and intended to portray Jews as conspirators who aim to control the world, as in the forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[4]
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[edit] History
The name first appeared in the article Welcome to ZOG-World, written by the American neo-Nazi Eric Thomson in 1976[citation needed], and appears to have first been brought to widespread attention in a December 27, 1984 article in The New York Times about robberies committed in California and Washington by a white supremacist group, 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."[citation needed]
The Order of the Silent Brotherhood was an offshoot of the Aryan Nations, an organization founded in the early 1970s by Richard G. Butler; the latter had since the 1950s been associated with another anti-Semitic group, called the Church of Jesus Christ Christian. Both of these groups trace their origins to anti-Semitic activists, like Gerald L. K. Smith, and have interacted with the Ku Klux Klan.
The name was publicized extensively in Aryan Nations literature. In December 1984, almost ten years before the appearance of the World Wide Web, Newsweek magazine reported that the Aryan Nations had set up a bulletin board called "Aryan Nation Liberty Net" to offer information such as, for instance, the locations of Communist Party offices and "ZOG informers".
In 1985, the Oregon-based radical group Posse Comitatus announced: "Our nation is now completely under the control of the International Invisible government of the World Jewry."[5]
In 1996, the Aryan Nations posted on its website an "Aryan Declaration of Independence", in which we find 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." Holding "the eradication of the White race and its culture" as "one of its foremost purposes", the "ZOG" is accused of relinquishing "powers of government to private corporations, White traitors and ruling class Jewish families."
Since 1996 the name has spread in usage, and is now popular with many other anti-Semitic organizations. Swedish Neo-Nazis, for example, say that Jews (in what they call the Swedish Zionist Occupied Government) are importing immigrants to "dilute the blood of the white race". [6] Websites such as Jew Watch accuse the entire spectrum of Western nations, and other countries like the Commonwealth of Independent States of being ruled by "Zionist Occupation Governments"[citation needed]. Satirical references to the phrase are also common, for example the website Creedish Occupied Government!, which claims that the government is controlled by the Amish.
[edit] References
- ^ Descriptions of ZOG allegations in the US:
- "Conceptualizations of class and state converge in the white supremacist discourse in the characterization of the United States government as the "Zionist Occupation Government" (ZOG)... As indicated by the ubiquitous reference to the state as "ZOG" ("Zionist" is equated with "Jewish") within these publications, the state is depicted as inherently "Jewish", a racial identity within the discourse. The government, as well as the corporate elite, is supposedly "occupied" and controlled by Jews." Daniels, Jesse. White Lies: Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in White Supremacist Discourse, Routledge (UK), ISBN 041591289X, p. 45.
- "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." (A Rumor About the Jews: Reflections on Antisemitism and "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" by Stephen Eric Bronner (2000) - Palgrave Macmillan. p.136)
- "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 movement have helped to legitimize racist and anti-Semitic hate groups..." (Encyclopedia of Fundamentalism by Brenda Brasher (2001) - Routledge. p.305)
- "... 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." (Hate and Bias Crime by Barbara Perry (2003) - Routledge. p.325)
- "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." (Encyclopedia of Bioterrorism Defense by Richard F. Pilch, Raymond A. Zilinskas (2005) - Wiley. p.114)
- "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." (Homeland Security by Mark Sauter and James Carafano (2005) - McGraw-Hill. p.122)
- ^ "... the neo-Nazis have proclaimed themselves a white/aryan resistance movement fighting the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) and racial traitors." (Fascism and Neofascism: Critical Writings on the Radical Right in Europe (Studies in European Culture and History) (2004) - Palgrave Macmillan p.208)
- ^ see Żydokomuna
- ^ "One of the most widely distributed anti-Semitic tracts in history is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a book of 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." (Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World by Rabbi Sidney Schwarz (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2006) ISBN 1580233120. p.96)
- ^ Christian Posse Comitatus Newsletter, n.d. quoted in Kenneth S. Stern, A Force upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate (NY: Simon & Shuster, 1996) p.50
- ^ Allan Pred, Even in Sweden, University of California Press: 2000.
[edit] See also
- Antisemitism
- Jewish Bolshevism
- Zionism
- William Pierce
- "Betrayed", film (1988 by Costa-Gavras)
- Blood in the Face (1991 film)
