Jews as Contested Ground in Post-Modern Conspiracy Theory

Normally conspiracy theories remain at the margins of a culture. But when conspiracism moves from the margins to the center, and from passive responses to active ones-Nazis and communists in the twentieth century-it can produce convulsions of paranoia and violence that leave tens of millions dead. After World War II, Western culture appeared to have definitively marginalized conspiracy theory. And yet, at the turn of the twenty-first century, there has been an aggressive rise in (traditional) Muslim conspiracism, and a remarkable vulnerability to conspiracy theory in the West. In response to 9/11, a "postmodern" and politically-correct conspiracism has developed that reverses the normal pattern: it accuses "us" and exonerates "them." Thus highly self-critical Westerners acknowledge the accusations of paranoid jihadists. As always with modern conspiracy thinking, the Jews, especially the Zionists, stand at the center of the storm.

Edward Said and the Culture of Honor and Shame: Orientalism and Our Misperceptions of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

The following is an article published in the latest issue of Israel Affairs, Volume 13: 4 (October 2007), pp. 844 – 858. I have not put the endnote numbers in the text (sorry for my lack of sophistication in these matters of formatting), but will try to in the near future. The final version of the article with numbered footnotes is available for more than a book should cost at the Routledge website. It is part of a collection of articles entitled, Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israel Conflict. Many worthwhile articles.