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Commentary
The Wall Street Journal

Amid the Pandemic, Anti-Semitism Flares Up

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
A Hasidic man walks by a police car in a Jewish Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn on April 24, 2017 in New York City.
Caption
A Hasidic man walks by a police car in a Jewish Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn on April 24, 2017 in New York City.

The world’s newest disease has unleashed another wave of the world’s oldest hate. Difficult as it might be for the uninstructed mind to make a connection between a global pandemic originating in China and the Elders of Zion, the world’s anti-Semites have risen to the challenge.

Coşkun Başbuğ, a retired colonel who appears frequently on Turkish state television, shared his views about the coronavirus in an appearance on the A Haber television network. Apparently, the Jews who engineered this virus were following up on their earlier work with avian flu. The goal was the usual: global domination. Also in Turkey, Fatih Erbakan, head of a small Islamist party in Turkey and son of a former prime minister, declaimed that “this virus serves Zionism’s goals to decrease the number of people in the world and prevent it from increasing. Important investigations confirm this fact.”

It is not always clear how the plot is supposed to unfold. Some think reducing the world population ranks high on the “Jewish” agenda; others focus on the opportunities for insider trading that a shock like the coronavirus develops. A Jewish member of the Brazilian delegation that accompanied President Jair Bolsonaro to visit President Trump later tested positive for Covid-19. For some conspiracy theorists, this was enough to demonstrate a Jewish plot against Messrs. Bolsonaro and Trump.

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