Protocols of the Elders of Zion
From SkepticWiki
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forged document, which purports to be a record of the plans for world domination by a Jewish conspiracy.
The Protocols are considered by some to be the original example of the modern paranoid Conspiracy Theory. They contain many elements now associated with such theories: secret cabals, censorship and media control, control of financial and government networks.
Despite repeated debunkings, they continue to be accepted as truth in many societies. In the twentieth century, the Protocols were used repeatedly for propaganda purposes, often resulting in bloody persecution of the Jewish people.
Contents |
[edit] Content
The Protocols purport to describe a secret conspiracy for Jewish world domination, in an instructional style, suggestive perhaps of a training manual for a new conspiracy member.
The expressed purpose of the described program is to bring the Gentile world under a single government, headed by a king from among the Jewry. In preparation for this, it is necessary to eliminate all rival nations, governments, religions and economic systems.
While the actual domination of the world is to take place through violence, the preparation takes place through subtle sabotage of existing systems. Stressed is the need for the masses to welcome their enslavement. This condition is to be effected by:
- Use of loans and usury to bankrupt and control states
- Use of mass media to control the minds of the masses
- Artificial creation of discord, war, and economic depression
- Establishment of democratic or republican governments
The Protocols frequently refer to a powerful and massive “agentur” to carry out the directives of the conspiracy, as well as an enormous cache of gold at their disposal. They also refer repeatedly to secret societies such as the freemasons as a front for their covert operations.
[edit] History
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is considered a forgery, but more descriptively, it is a forgery of a plagiarism of a satire based on a fiction.
[edit] Dialogues in Hell
The Protocols began as a satirical pamphlet by Maurice Joly, entitled Dialogues in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu. This work did not involve Jews, but described a plot hatched in Hell that coincidentally matched the political ambitions of Napoleon III. Joly plagiarized heavily from a novel by Eugene Sue, Mysteries of the People.
[edit] Enter the Jews
The next revision came in 1869 when German spy and anti-Semite Hermann Goedsche plagiarized Joly, for a book chapter entitled “The Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel”. Goedsche changed the setting from a dialogue in hell to a secret centennial meeting of a secret Jewish conspiracy.
[edit] Tsarist Russia
In the late 19th century, translations of Goedsche’s book began circulating in Russia, where they were used by tsarist factions to discredit the growing popular radicalism, and to distract attention from dissatisfaction with the monarchy.
In 1905, the Russian mystic and political reactionary Sergei Nilus published the Protocols, identifying them as originating from the First Zionist Congress in Bern. This was easily debunked, since the Congress had been open to the public. He then claimed instead that the document had come from a secret meeting of the “Elders of Zion”. Tsar Nicholas II launched an investigation, which quickly determined that the Protocols were a forgery.
[edit] European Dissemination
Following the 1917 Revolution, the Protocols spread outside Russia, where they were used as anti-Bolshevik propaganda. As such, they were translated into all the languages of Europe, and printed throughout Europe and America. Again, the document was debunked as a forgery, and the connection to Joly’s work was famously exposed in The Times of London and in a book by Herman Bernstein. This did not put the matter to rest; the Protocols were still widely believed.
[edit] World War II era
Following the Great Depression, the climate was ripe for some major political scapegoating in Europe and America, and the Protocols once again came into play as propaganda. In the United States, Henry Ford sponsored the publishing of a half million copies. In Nazi-dominated Germany, the Protocols were required reading in schools. They are specifically mentioned in Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
[edit] Today
Today the Protocols have been widely accepted as truth in Muslim nations, especially Iran and Egypt, where they gained popularity after the Six-Day War of 1967. The Hamas Charter refers specifically to the Protocols. Saudi Arabian school textbooks contain summaries of the Protocols, which are presented as factual.
In Europe and America, belief in the truth of the Protocols is prevalent in racist subcultures. They are held as factual by many Palestinian student groups and newspapers. Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam distributes copies as factual.
There has been much controversy over the publication by “respectable” outlets due to the book’s hateful content. The Wal-Mart store chain in America discontinued the printing after protests. Amazon.com still carries it.
[edit] Quotations
“The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on. They are sixteen years old, and they have fitted the world situation up to this time.” —Henry Ford (1920)
“To what extent the whole existence of this people is based on a continuous lie is shown incomparably by the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion… [W]ith positively terrifying certainty they reveal the nature and activity of the Jewish people and expose their inner contexts as well as their ultimate final aims.” —Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf (1926)
“All the evils that currently affect the world are the doings of Zionism. This is not surprising, because the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which were established by their wise men more than a century ago, are proceeding according to a meticulous and precise plan and time schedule, and they are proof that even though they are a minority, their goal is to rule the world and the entire human race.” — al-Akhbar (Egypt) newspaper article, 3 Feb 2002
“The Zionist plan is limitless. […] Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.” —Hamas Charter, Article 32.
[edit] Do They “Fit”?
In the quote above, Henry Ford makes the claim that the Protocols “fit” the current events of the day. Nearly every apology for the truth of this document sidesteps the evidence of forgery, and merely asks whether the document accurately describes the current situation. In attempting to answer this question, we find the same difficulty as in any other Conspiracy Theory, namely, any contrary evidence can be explained as the devious manipulation of the supposed conspirators. The theory is quite simply, totally unfalsifiable.'
Even should some kind of "fit" be found to current events, the Protocols are very general in their descriptions. They describe plans for wars, political unrest, and economic crises. It's not too hard to predict the occurrence of any of these things in a general sense, and one observes that these things have occurred more or less continually throughout human history. Thus, the fact that these general facts fit any particular period does not speak to the authenticity of the Protocols in any way. It certainly does not validate the more specific but less demonstrable claims of secret plots and evil conspirators.
[edit] References and Further Reading
- Complete text of the Protocols Warning: this links to a racist or “hate” site, and accessing it may violate your ISP or intranet policies.
- Debunking the Protocols, from Emperor’s Clothes.
