The Overland Park murders, anti-Zionist conspiracy theories, and the blame game
While Fraiser Glenn Cross Jr. alone was responsible for the shootings, the intersection between neo-Nazi and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories is worthy of examination.
When Anders Behring Breivik shot and killed dozens of Norwegians in 2011, the media was quick to assign responsibility to authors Brevik had read, as reflected in Breivik’s diaries.
The New York Times, for example, broadly laid blame at the doorstep of what it called “anti-Muslim thought in the U.S.“:
The man accused of the killing spree in Norway was deeply influenced by a small group of American bloggers and writers who have warned for years about the threat from Islam, lacing his 1,500-page manifesto with quotations from them, as well as copying multiple passages from the tract of the Unabomber.
That “influence,” of course, was disputed by the named authors, who also pointed out that Breivik praised Jihadists. Nonetheless, there were demands from the left that the authors whose names appeared in the diary be banned by the media.
While it was improper, in my view, to ascribe blame for the shootings to the authors linked, the general issue of whether Breivik was motivated by any particular ideology or religion was fair game — so long as the examination of motivation itself was fair.
One of the people to jump on the Norwegian shooting blame game was Max Blumenthal, the virulently anti-Israel author and activist, who frequently speaks on campuses against Israel and in favor of divestment, and is the author of an anti-Israel book that has even harsh liberal critics of Israel cringing.
In the aftermath of the Norway shootings, Blumenthal tried to tie the shooting not only to writings of the people mentioned in Breivik’s diaries, but also to the broader international Zionist movement, Anders Behring Breivik, a perfect product of the Axis of Islamophobia:
When I wrote my analysis last December on the “Axis of Islamophobia,” laying out a new international political network of right-wing ultra-Zionists, Christian evangelicals, Tea Party activists and racist British soccer hooligans, I did not foresee a terrorist like Anders Behring Breivik emerging from the movement’s ranks. At the same time, I am not surprised that he did. The rhetoric of the characters who inspired Breivik, from Pam Geller to Robert Spencer to Daniel Pipes, was so eliminationist in its nature that it was perhaps only a matter of time before someone put words into action.
As horrific as Breivik’s actions were, he can not be dismissed as a “madman.” His writings contain the same themes and language as more prominent right-wing Islamophobes (or those who style themselves as “counter-Jihadists”) and many conservatives in general. What’s more, Breivik was articulate and coherent enough to offer a clear snapshot of his ideological motives. Ali Abunimah and Alex Kane have posted excellent summaries of Breivik’s writings here and here and a full English translation is here. It is also worth sitting through at least a portion of Breivik’s tedious video manifesto to get a sense of his thinking….
While in many ways Breivik shares core similarities with other right-wing anti-government terrorists, he is the product of a movement that is relatively new, increasingly dangerous, and poorly understood. I described the movement in detail in my “Axis of Islamophobia” piece, noting its simultaneous projection of anti-Semitic themes on Muslim immigrants and the appeal of Israel as a Fort Apache on the front lines of the war on terror, holding the line against the Eastern barbarian hordes….
There is no clear evidence that Breivik’s support for the Israeli right played any part in his killing spree. Nor does he appear to have any connection with the Israeli government. However, it is worth noting that in November 2010, the Israeli government joined the right-wing pile on, accusing the Norwegian government of “anti-Israel incitement” for funding a trip for students to New York to see the “Gaza Monologues” play….
Breivik’s writings offer much more than a window into the motives that led him to commit terror. They can also be read as an embodiment of the mentality of a new and internationalized far-right movement that not only mobilizes hatred against Muslims, but is also able to produce figures who will kill innocent non-Muslims to save the Western way of life.
The ideological blame game in the Norway shooting was completely unfounded as it related to blaming authors for the shooting. Authors have no control over who reads or links to them, taking words and views out of context and as part of an often delusional violent fantasy. The shooter was to blame in the Norway shooting, and no one else.
But it was fair to examine the ideologies to which the Norway shooter ascribed. Just as it is fair to examine the ideological or religious motivations of other shooters. Where you go with that examination, however, in terms of generalizing to a broader group, is quite a different matter.
Fast forward to yesterday’s Overland Park, Kansas murder of three people at Jewish institutions (two of the dead were not even Jewish) by Fraiser Glenn Cross Jr., (aka F. Glenn Miller) a KKK and neo-Nazi leader who shouted “Heil Hitler” as he was led away.
Blumenthal, again, was quick to look for ideological blame for Cross’ actions:
Was such a rush to judgment fair?
Cross also was an anti-Zionist conspiracy theorist, in addition to all his other pathologies.
Who is to blame for the Overland Park shooting? Fraiser Glenn Cross Jr.
Who did Fraiser Glenn Cross Jr. read, among others? None other than Max Blumenthal.
As first uncovered by Nurit Baytch, someone who appears to be Cross posted (using the name Glenn Miller) in a neo-Nazi forum a link to an article referencing Blumenthal’s theories about Jewish influence in the 2012 election, specifically the claim that Bibi Netanyahu was trying to influence the election.
Here’s a Blumenthal interview posted by someone else just below that entry on the forum page:
The Blumenthal interview and the Cross posting appear to reference an article written by Blumenthal about Netanyahu being behind Jewish money in the 2012 election:
In the past, America’s Israel lobby sold the US-Israel alliance as a marriage of two vibrant democracies united by shared liberal values. In the current environment of heightened polarization, the special relationship is increasingly marketed to Americans as a united front of besieged bastions of Western civilization against an incipient Islamic onslaught. Rapture ready evangelicals, right-wing ultra-nationalists, and Republican Jews are far more likely to be attracted to this sort of alliance than cosmopolitan liberals. And this may be exactly the way Netanyahu wants it.
Assuming Cross linked to Blumenthal’s conspiracy theories about the 2012 election, would that mean Blumenthal is responsible for the Overland Park shooting? Absolutely not.
Is the intersection between neo-Nazi and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories worthy of examination? Absolutely.
We have seen in Europe in particular how anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism go hand-in-hand, often based on conspiracy theories about Jewish and Israeli influence.
Those types of consipiracy theories regarding the alleged manipulations of Jewish money and interests are as old as hate itself.
That is a fair subject of discussion. I wonder if the mainstream media will go there, as it did in the Norway shooting.
[Note – there were some wording changes shortly after publication.]
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
This story really brought out the hatred of the Jews, as well as some seriously twisted trolling over at The GatewayPundit.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/04/kc-jewish-center-shooter-identified-fraser-glenn-cross-jr-of-aurora-missouri/
I think this thread is instructive as to the identity and tactics of the leftists. There’s a strong strain of false accusations of racism on part of ordinary conservatives coupled with rancid hatred of the Jews. For this reason, one of the trolls was outed and banned.
There is no such thing as anonymity on the Internet. I suggest we cultivate the ability to identify these individuals.
I’ve often thought the same thing… imagine a site where employers, and potential employers, could go to find out what an individual has been writing/saying on the Internet.
There was one particularly nasty troll on a site I frequent, and last year I got tired of his vitriol and figured out who he was. It wasn’t that hard to do for a computer nerd like myself. I didn’t fully ‘out’ him, but I posted enough for him to know that I knew who he was. I never saw him there again. I suspect he probably just changed his name and continued trolling, but the point remains that these disgusting troll types are partially fueled by their perceived anonymity.
My sweetheart immediately dismissed the story as just another paranoid psychotic with a gun. “Anyone shooting and yelling Hiel Hitler is just crazy.”
Maybe she is right. But, I cannot bring myself to dismiss the act so easily.
Whenever Muslims commit acts of terrorism and mass murder and assorted types of mayhem, people like Max Blumenthal think it’s outrageous to attach any significance to what the perps have been reading, or the people they have been listening to, or even the inspiration and motives they have explicitly advertised, because that would be “guilt by association” and it would be “smearing all Muslims because of the actions of a tiny minority of extremists who have perverted the teachings of a great religion etc.”
Funny how the standards can change. Islam cannot conceivably have had any part in provoking violence by people who claim Islamic motivation and quote the Koran and hadith as their authority — because, you see, “most Muslims aren’t terrorists.”
Okay. And how many of the people who have read Spencer or Geller or Fjordman have killed anyone, let alone cited those writers as justification?
Meanwhile, the left-wing commentariat overlooked a great many people named or quoted by Breivik, focusing only on those they already wanted to silence. And they ignored the blazingly obvious fact that Breivik did not target Muslims either.
May we, please, cease using the words “liberal” and “leftist” and in their place use the word “criminal”?
This part of the Breivik story was glossed over in the MSN. The link is from a Daniel Greenfield article.It’s Google translated.
Anders Behring Breivik has sent out a letter Expo Today has reviewed several international media. The letter he describes as a sort of first step in a “peace negotiation” with their political opponents. In the letter, Anders Behring Breivik, to some extent changed the rhetoric from the one he held in his so-called manifesto. He says that he sent a manifesto “counterjihadistisk” rhetoric to protect the “ethno-nationalist” and instead launch a media drive against anti-nationalist counter-jihad supporter. He calls this strategy of “dual psychology”.
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fexpo.se%2F2014%2Fbreivik-vill-deportera-illojala-judar_6336.html&edit-text=
Wow, Max Blumenthal and the KKK!
As this point, we know the suspect Miller was a traditional KKK-Democrat: ‘Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., Kansas Jewish Murder Suspect, Made Democrat Congressional Bid in 2006’.
“His candidacy had the far-left hate site Daily Kos freaking out, ‘Racist felon running for the Dem nomination in MO-7’.”
But I’ll read this, and Pamela Geller’s update as well, and forward my update. Thanks William!
No, he did NOT run as a Democrat in 2006. He TRIED to get his name placed on the Republican line, the Libertarian line, and the Democrat line that year, but all three parties rejected his bid.
The Secretary of State’s office took the check for his Democratic filing fee, but the Democrats refused to accept it, citing the guy’s bigoted views. F. Glen Miller sued the SoS’s office to force MO to put him on the ballot as a Democrat because that office had taken his check, but he lost that lawsuit, and ran as an “Independent” write-in that year, receiving 23 votes.
So for those who think his “party affiliation” (which seemed to be any one that would get him on the ballot in a given year) in some way reflects on that party–and to be clear, I DO NOT–the last time he ran as a partisan, in 1986, it was as a Republican…and he received 6,662 votes. But he also ran as a Democrat in 1984…and got 5,790 votes in that primary, too. (And to me, the fact that he got that many votes in either party AFTER having starting his “White Patriot Party” in 1980, is one of the more frightening parts of this guy’s electoral history.)
The discussion of anti-zionism leading to anti-Semitic hate crimes is something that the left must be having right now. But are they?
So Blumenthal says that Breivik took inspiration by reading Spencer, Geller et al, and now it turns out that Miller/Cross read and quoted Blumenthal. Talk about what goes around comes around.
Blumenthal was tweeting earlier about the 13 KC truck shootings as if to “put this in perspective”. Then the revelation comes out about Miller reading Blumenthal’s rants about Israel’s US supporters.
Bad day, eh Max?
Leftists (I use the word the cover the gamut from soft to hard) always attack conservatives from their self-appointed position of absolute moral superiority.
This is why conservatives need to hit them hard on their actual immorality/amorality.
A prize example is Blumenthal.
You use HIS tactics against him. You make HIM live up to his moral superiority.
Bugger “fairness” — we’re in a war here. They know it. They started it.
[…] William Jacobson, Legal Insurrection: ”The Overland Park murders, anti-Zionist conspiracy theories, and the blame game.” […]
[…] Miller finally found a Jew he liked. Max Blumenthal, a far left progressive liberal Democrat hack who previously worked for Media Matters was a favorite of Miller. Max Blumenthal is notorious self loathing Jew who constantly bashes […]