‘In the most unlikely of places, anti-semitic tropes find new life‘, New Matilda, 11 August 2015
The author notes slogans ‘Victims of the Rothschilds’ on signs at the Light Horse Interchange, a war memorial road exchange at Eastern Creek, outside of Sydney. The reference is to the Jewish alleged financial cabal that was supposed to have caused European wars in the century after Waterloo.
The most striking thing about this vandalism is what it says about the enduring currency of centuries old anti-Semitic myths. It underscores the recent words of Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, that “reports of anti-Semitism have risen [in Australia], reflecting growing anti-Jewish feeling around the world”.
The vandalism is local evidence of the fact that what began as a European phenomenon has now gone global. It is a surprisingly common belief, which permeates online forums and some fringe media in the West (or some mainstream media in the Middle East), that a Jewish cabal controls the United States Government, and that this cabal orchestrated the September 11 attacks as an excuse to conduct war on the Arab world …
The anachronistic vandalism on the Light Horse Interchange is a dog-whistle to these contemporary anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. It is a neat illustration of the cogent line that connects today’s brand of the anti-Semitic “Jewish cabal” myth to its European ancestry.
