America is „run by Zionists“

America is „run by Zionists“ – says a leading ideologue and elected Parliamentarian of the „Alternative for Germany“

On March 13, 2016, there were state elections in three German states: Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saxony-Anhalt. In all three states, the biggest winner was the „Alternative for Germany“ (Alternative für Deutschland) or AfD with 12.6% of the votes in Rhineland-Palatinate, 15.1% in Baden-Württemberg and unprecedented 24.3% in Saxony-Anhalt. Baden-Württemberg is the third biggest and third most populated state in Germany with almost 11 million inhabitants.

It is an economic workhorse of Germany; the headquarters of Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Bosch are located there. Baden-Württemberg is among the richest states in Germany and has a very low rate of jobless people (3.7% compared to 6.4% in all of the FRG, which is an all-time low in Germany since the „reunification“ in 1990). So much for those who believe, poverty or a high rate of jobless people creates right-wing extremism. Instead, the reason might be a mixture of being proud of German history, national identity and hatred of diversity, the left and greens, feminism, immigration, Islam, America and the Jews, and Zionism, as we shall learn soon.

Never before, since 1949, did a new party win so many votes in its first election, let alone an extreme right-wing party. In late May and early June, 2016, there was outrage about an elected member of Parliament in Baden-Württemberg, Wolfgang Gedeon (born 1947), due to his antisemitism. Gedeon is a retired doctor and book author. In 2012, he published his pamphlet „The Green Communism and the Dictatorship of Minorities. A Critique of the Western Zeitgeist.“

In his book „The Green Communism“ he argues against the „Judaization of Christianity“ and the „Zionization of Western politics“. In particular, he aims at the United States and says US foreign policy is run by Zionism. Like many antifeminists today, he argues for „family values“ and against homosexuality as well as against Alexandra Kollontai, the Russian revolutionary feminist, who was in favor of „free love“. Feminist campaigns like „my body is mine“ and the right to abortion is framed as „ethnosuicide“. In addition, he argues against „a cult of being gay“. Tell this the city of Tel Aviv and the Gay Pride, the one and only in the entire Middle East, a safe haven for freedom, democracy, pursuit of happiness and independence. He uses the word „holocaust of abortion“ and has fun with this kind of Holocaust distortion.

Then, Gedeon argues for imprisoned Holocaust denier and neo-Nazi Horst Mahler and calls him a „dissident“. Mahler is portrayed as someone who was fighting for a true German „national identity“ and Gedeon mentions a lecture on that topic Mahler gave in 1997 with former Nazi Party member and prime minister of the state of Baden-Württemberg, Hans Filbinger, attending.
The AfD politician pleads for neutrality in the Middle East and rejects the term „reason of state“ when it comes to Israel. He fights „autonomy“ and Immanuel Kant, the philosopher of freedom of mind. Again, he then jumps to the Holocaust and calls it a „civil religion,“ an antisemitic term well known not just from neo-Nazis, but also from anti-Zionist scholars.

The Far Right is not alone in mocking the uniqueness Holocaust. For example, in 2012, the editor-in-chief of the „Journal of Genocide Research,“ the official organ of the „International Network of Genocide Scholars,“ historian Dirk A. Moses, calls the „uniqueness of the Holocaust“ an „article of faith.“ In 2006, extreme right-wing Catholic page „Kreuz.net“ used the term „Holocaust religion,“ as did the New Right journal „BlaueNarzisse“ in 2009. Left-wing daily „die tageszeitung (taz)“ and its Jewish author Iris Hefets published an article in 2010 entitled „Pilgrimage to Auschwitz. Holocaust remembrance has become a kind of Religion.“
Wolfgang Gedeon, Parliamentarian of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Baden-Württemberg since March 2016, in his 2012 book uses historian Yuri Slezkin’s anti-Zionism for another diatribe: according to Gedeon’s reading of Slezkin, the Nazis had framed (negatively) the Jews as „chosen people“ and after 1945 the „Western world“ has framed the Jews (positively) as their „chosen people.“

Finally, and most shockingly, Gedeon denies that the „Protocols of the Elders of Zion“ are a forgery. Imagine! This happens today in one of the biggest German state parliaments, in 2016. A quasi neo-Nazi like Wolfgang Gedeon accepts the forgery of the Protocols and says it is not directed against „World Jewry“ but against „Zionism“ and he embraces anti-Zionism wholeheartedly. For him, „Zionist cliques,“ mainly in the US, but also in Europe and elsewhere, are following the „Protocols.“

Gedeon is against „feminism,“ „sexualism,“ and „migrationism.“ These are core elements of what he calls „green communism.“ Gedeon is against communism, because he rejects a „secular religion of humanity,“ deriving from socialist or communist ideology, starting with „Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.“ He is against „humanism“ and „egalitarianism“ and this is indeed a core element of all New Right and Far Right ideologues, whether in the AfD in Germany, the FPÖ in Austria, the Jobbik or Fidesz in Hungary, the national conservatives in Poland, the Sweden Democrats, the Front National (FN) in France, the Lega Nord in Italy. Even those who are not hardcore homophobic, like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and his Freedom Party, share the core element of anti-Islam and anti-immigration with Mr. Gedeon and the German AfD. In addition, Far Right politicians like Wilders combine their outspoken pro-Israel agenda with anti-Jewish politics inside the Netherlands, like the rejection of circumcision or shechtia.

For Gedeon four elements of „green communism“ constitute a threat:
1) the end of „the family“ and the development of shared or collective forms of living (in German „Wohngemeinschaften,“ where several people share an apartment)
2) „the abolition of races“ (!) „by supporting of a universal mixture of races, aiming at a world hybrid race“
3) „the liquidation of states and nations“
4) „defeat of Christianity“ by „secular state religion.“

Gedeon ends his antisemitic pamphlet by framing the Second World War as a „victory“ for the US (of course, it was) and „total defeat of Germany.“ He is sad about the defeat for Germany and mocks the Nuremberg trial. He trivializes the Shoah by equating the Soviet Gulag or Hiroshima to Auschwitz.

Holocaust denial is illegal in Germany. For Gedeon, this is a result of policies by a „Zionist minority“ (!). Immigration and antiracism are result of Zionist, read: Jewish, conspiracy to undermine national identity. This is a classical antisemitic trope. This kind of insinuation and agitation, e.g. based on the „Protocols of the Elders of Zion,“ was an essential component for the rise of National Socialism and led to the Holocaust.
This antisemitic book by Wolfgang Gedeon –“Green Communism“ (published 2012) – was displayed in recent years at party conventions and no one had any problem with that book, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. Also, those 15.1% of voters in the state of Baden-Württemberg had no problem with Gedeon. Instead the party and their voters embraced Gedeon. Now, the party distanced themselves from Gedeon, a typical tactic, as too many articles have been published against this antisemitic politician. However, a few days ago, another AfD parliamentarian in Baden-Württemberg supported Gedeon in Parliament and framed those criticizing him as „using Nazi methods.“

Another party leader and elected parliamentarian in the state of Brandenburg, Alexander Gauland, number two in the party hierarchy behind leader Frauke Petry, insinuated in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine that Germans „like football star“ Jerome Boateng, who is a member of the German national team at the EURO 2016 in France – but they „don’t want him as a neighbor.“ Boateng is a German, born to a mixed couple, his father is from Ghana. This kind of racism is widespread in Germany, not only among voters for the extreme right-wing AfD.
Nationalist, Goebbels wannabee and leading politician of the AfD, Björn Höcke, in December 2015 praised Gedeon for his pro-German approach and for fighting for a German „collective identity,“ as Höcke wrote in Facebook, December 7, 2015.

What struck me, too, was the reluctance by many German, French or American anti-Islamist activists to frame parties like the AfD as right-wing extremist, antisemitic, anti-Zionist, anti-feminist and anti-Islam. There seems to be much confusion, like in the US, about how to fight Islamism.
The biggest mistake possible is support for brown fascism or Nazism in order to fight green fascism of Hamas, Iran or Islamism in general. Some anti-Islamist authors in the UK or America, even praise and promote the founder and leader of PEGIDA („Patriots against the Islamization of the Occident“), Lutz Bachmann, who once posed with a Hitler hair-cut in social media. In that interview with Bachmann by Raheem Kassam, Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the Middle East Forum and editor-in-chief of Breitbart London, Bachmann agitates against the circumcision. According to media reports, Bachmann called refugees and immigrants „animals“ („Viehzeug“). Currently, Bachmann faces a court trial in Dresden due to his racist agitation.

Friends of mine, pro-Israel and anti-Islamist bloggers, who also work in the IT-business, told me that they intend to leave Dresden. Why? The PEGIDA movement created a racist, nationalist and nasty climate in the entire city. I was told that they used to have interns in their company from America, for example. Recently, however, some interns declined to come, due to the nationalist climate in Dresden. The company now thinks of moving to another part of the country, as Dresden seems to be lost to nationalism, racism and PEGIDA.

As shown, the New Right or Far Right in Germany, represented by the party Alternative for Germany (AfD), has some of the most antisemitic members in their ranks. They detest America and see America run by „Zionists.“ Brussels and the EU are equally seen run by this „green communism,“ based on a Zionist conspiracy.

Thinkers and agitators like Renaud Camus, the main thinker of the French nationalist party Front National, is published in Germany by antaios publishing house, run by extreme right-wing or New Right activist Götz Kubitschek, who has good connections to the entire neo-Nazi scene. Renaud is infamous for his take on immigration and Islam. He calls for „Revolt against the big Replacement.“
Finally, all those right-wing populist, New Right, Far Right, or right-wing extremist parties and groups have not really a problem with Islamism. They love authoritarianism, like Islamists do also. 9/11 was not at all a shock to German right-wingers, on the contrary, many embraced the attack on their enemy America. Others still follow conspiracy myths about 9/11.

Those in the US, the UK or elsewhere, who argue against Islamism must be aware of their allies and followers. They must know who the AfD or the Front National and Camus are. Camus is also a leading theorist for the neo-Nazi movement „Bloc Identitaire“ in France, of the „Generation of National Identity“ in the UK and the „Identitäre Bewegung Deutschland.“ They are known for violent attacks in Austria, France, Germany and other countries.
Fighting Islamic fascism by collaborating with brown fascism or Nazism will led to violence all over Europe, resulting in the murder of leftists, Muslims, immigrants, antifascists, and Jews.

Wolfgang Gedeon, the AfD politician in the Parliament of Baden-Württemberg, calls Jews the „inner enemy“ of the West and Islam the „enemy from outside.“ Antisemitism fuels hatred of Islam in this case. Regardless of what steps the party takes against Gedeon, his book has been available for years, was displayed at party conventions of the AfD and no one cared about his antisemitism, nationalism and hatred of feminism, diversity, homosexuality and his Holocaust distortion, praise for the forgery „The Protocols of the Elders of Zion“ and his support for Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis like imprisoned Horst Mahler. For several years now, Jörg Meuthen, a professor of economy, head of the AfD fraction in the Parliament of Baden-Württemberg, was well aware of the antisemitism and nationalism in Gedeon’s writing, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Meuthen was skeptical about Gedeon, not because of the antisemitic intent, but because of possible public reactions to them.

In Europe, more „national identity“ leads to more antisemitism, anti-Zionism and racism. When will the world finally learn that lesson? Never, I fear.

Von Dr. Clemens Heni

The author is a political scientist, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Contemporary European Antisemitism (JCEA, Academic Studies Press), and Director of the Berlin International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (BICSA). He is the author of Antisemitism: A Specific Phenomenon (2013).

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