Jews have been unfairly blamed for a lot of things, but getting the weather gods to unleash Hurricane Helene as part of a plot to take over America is certainly a new one. Abraham, who may be viewed as the first Jew, was an aristocrat from the highly civilized Sumerian city of Ur but even Ishkur, the local weather god, might have balked at such a request from pre-Yahweh Abe. However, Marjorie Taylor Greene ascribes to the Jews an uncanny control over the weather.
I do wonder which Jews Greene was referring to. Is this an ability inherent in Jews or do only some of us have that power? Perhaps, as Jim Carrey’s “Liar Liar” character exclaimed as he exited a crowded elevator, “It was me!” Or maybe a coven of Jewish masterminds inside a hollow mountain in Wyoming.
Jews have always been aware of the anti-Semitism lurking below, and at times breaking through, the surface of American life. Still, for a while, as in Germany in the early 20th century, we came to believe that it festered in America only in pools left behind by a retreating tide.
Jews haven’t lately been primary targets in America of the propaganda and policies of hate. Blacks, Latin-American immigrants, women, LGBTQ people, Asian Americans during covid, and Muslims crowd us out. Still, anti-Semitism is a go-to prejudice when a demagogue invokes remote, mysterious powers conspiring to establish the white supremacist concoction of a Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) or its equivalent. Marjorie Taylor Greene, no stranger to white supremacism, posted on Facebook in 2018 that California wild fires were started by space lasers wielded by California utility PG&E and the Rothschilds, the most prominent Jewish bankers. A few days ago, Greene proclaimed that Hurricane Helene was the product of a conspiracy because “they can control the weather”, the context leading many to think she was again blaming the Jews. Odious but not as bad as her saying the Sandy Hook murders were faked. That’s who her Congressional district re-elected in 2022 with 65.8% of the vote.
Elon Musk isn’t far behind her. When not jumping up and down at a Trump rally he rides herd on X’s (ex-Twitter) orgy of anti-Semitic diatribes. On X, ten Helene-related anti-semitic hate posts had 17.1 million views as of October 7th. Many hits may have been Russian bots, but since Musk purchased X, it has become action-central for the global anti-Semitic chorus.
This public revival of inane malicious fantasies is not a matter of a few donkeys braying in the wind. Several Jewish officials vital to the recovery in North Carolina have been targeted on social media fueled by the likes of Musk and Greene. According to the Asheville Watchdog, a volunteer journalism organization that serves the city, the Web is awash with anti-Semitic rants against Asheville’s Jewish Mayor, Esther Manheimer, Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that along with Manheimer, FEMA Director of Public Affairts Jaclyn Rothenberg and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have been targeted, including “Another post that has acquired nearly a million views features photos of Rothenberg, Mayorkas and Manheimer and identifies each as ‘jew.'” While the three officials are not allowing these attacks to impede them doing their jobs, the atmosphere generated by this storm of lies and hate can only prove a distraction to the entire relief effort and shows just how toxic our political atmosphere has become.
This malicious nonsense, however, does serve broader strategic purposes. Sprinkling inflammatory gasoline over the subterranean of the faithful intensifies the vague but pressing anxiety that drives many people to demagogues in the first place. It creates a sense of solidarity and mission, as enemies, real or imagined, are always used to unite a core group of followers.
Indeed, electoral and global implications belie the nutty impression of the words themselves. It is no secret that Jews strongly support Democratic candidates. Rousing old anti-Semitic grievances reinforces the explicit notion that liberals, Zionists, Democrats, and the federal government represent a single force that the far-right often labels as “satanic”. It also invokes the anti-Semitic sub-text of extremist Christianity. Those evangelical pastors that Jewish conservatives cozy up to because they “support” Israel do so because Israel’s Mount Megiddo was prophesied long ago as the site of Armageddon, the final shoot-out between good and evil that will sweep all true Christians into heaven on the winds of the Rapture, a cosmic OK Corral. Many evangelicals see militant U.S. support for Israel as hastening their—and our—departures. With friends like that…
Meanwhile, the world has been justifiably horrified at the scope of Israel’s savage response to the gruesome massacre of October 7th. Many recognize that whatever Israel’s reasons for extending the war into Lebanon, the conflict between Israel and Iran draws us closer to a final world war. Iran is a close ally of Russia. October 7th, which was given the green light by Iran through the agency of Hamas, was almost certainly encouraged by Putin to distract the West from his invasion of Ukraine and to create political difficulties for Biden in the 2024 election. Subsequently, Kamala Harris’s failure to break with Biden’s Gaza policy has increased the chances of a Trump victory.
Anti-Semitic rhetoric, then, implies that Jews are using the Democrats’ for their own ends, i.e., to control the global economy and betray the U.S. to forces unknown. It also places pressure on Ukraine and its allies to sign a cease fire that cedes eastern Ukraine to Russia, a policy strongly supported by Elon Musk. The tie-in of this policy with Trump and the presidential election is reinforced by Bob Woodward’s soon to be published revelations that Trump has been in touch with Putin at least seven times since his presidency ended. Trump’s stated intentions to undermine NATO and allow Putin a free hand in European affairs basically makes him a treasonous asset of the ex-KGB man.
Ultimately, though, the goal of racist, misogynist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic rhetoric is to corrode the civil foundations of society. The more factionalism and internal dissension in a nation, the more room for demagogues to provoke the violence and disorder that opens the door to a dictatorial crackdown on rights. The lies of Trump, Musk, Greene, and others need not be explicitly believed as long as they enter into the slipstream of public opinion and undermine the ability of people to distinguish truth from fantasy, the propaganda of hate from the complexities of reality. Bigotry debases an already debased political discourse, as sound-bytes like “Build that wall” and “Lock her up” yield to outright slurs. We grow accustomed to a politics of cheap arousal. Just watch old clips of Mussolini or Hitler’s speeches. Or a modern Trump rally where Trump apes Mussolini’s gestures to a tee. The products they all were selling are hatred and rage. In this coming election, that means opening the way to permanently altering the nature of American life and disabling Constitutional government.
Barton Kunstler, Ph.D., writes about creativity, social justice, education, technology, and leadership. His book, The Hothouse Effect, describes the dynamics behind history's most creative communities. Other published work includes poetry, numerous academic articles, and fiction. His monograph for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence addresses leadership's future in light of the human singularity. He writes for www.huffingtonpost.com and his writings, including a column on communication strategy, appear at www.bartonkunstler.com. He can be reached at barleeku@comcast.net.