From the Editor

The Chamish Conspiracy

In the January Outpost, we warned that elements of the anti-Oslo right wing had bought into the ludicrous "theories" of Barry Chamish. Indeed we received several indignant missives from his followers. And now Chamish himself has joined in, with -- naturally -- a conspiracy theory. According to Chamish, AFSI is being manipulated by the Council on Foreign Relations (a favorite bogeyman of conspiracy theorists) which has organized "a campaign of discordant falsehood" to discredit him among right wing American Jews. Its chief "pawn" (to use Chamish's term) in this campaign? Hold your breath. It is none other than terrorism expert Daniel Pipes, whom the Council on Foreign Relations has ordered "to neutralize 'conspiracy' theories" and "to spread hatred against Islam" even as his "CFR [Council on Foreign Relations] superiors...draw up battle plans to capture the Middle East."

In sober fact (both words to which Chamish is allergic), the Council on Foreign Relations, now eighty years old, is a collection of notables with an interest in foreign policy from every part of the political spectrum. It publishes Foreign Affairs, a magazine of high reputation and -- like the New York Times, whose attitudes it generally reflects -- often foolish policy prescriptions. But in Chamish's fevered brain, it is a real-life Elders of Zion, a sinister group controlling the world. Prime Minister Sharon is merely another puppet on the CFR string. According to Chamish, Sharon's CFR-assigned "role was to infiltrate and destroy the Herut movement and he succeeded nearly completely." For Chamish, "one of Sharon's goals was to destroy Begin and his Herut movement through his conduct of the [Lebanon] war; a pre-agreed CFR policy." Sharon's failure to shut down the Palestinian Authority today is also, according to Chamish, attributable to the CFR. "His CFR masters clearly wouldn't like it if he did and one can only imagine what is making him obey them." As a result, writes Chamish, Israelis have been turned "into the sitting ducks of the CFR."

In Chamish's fantasy-land, the conspiracies of the Council on Foreign Relations span generations. Writes Chamish: "After World War I, the CFR and their British buddies created the new Middle East." Moreover, according to Chamish, "Labor Zionism was their creation." (It would presumably come as quite a surprise to such early Labor luminaries as Aaron David Gordon, David Ben Gurion, Yitzhak Tabenkin, Berl Katzenelson, Chaim Arlosoroff and Yitzhak Ben Zvi to discover that they were agents of the Council on Foreign Relations, an organization one can safely assume most had never heard of.) Chamish declares that it is "their oil companies" [again those of the CFR and their British buddies] that "run Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States." And it is the CFR "and the State Department they control" who are "directly and deliberately responsible for the slow bleeding death of Israel at the start of the new century."

Chamish literally spouts conspiracy theories. Does the Israeli government claim that Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi was murdered by Arab terrorists? Chamish knows better. Prior to his death, writes Chamish, "Zeevi went on the war path against Peres, which was not a wise strategy. Others have tried and others have died." Chamish hints darkly at connections between Peres and the French and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He writes: "It would have been no trouble for Peres and the French to order the PFLP to knock off Zeevi. All we have to do is prove it." (There's unconscious humor for you. Chamish? Proof? A ramble down free association lane is Chamish's notion of "proof.") Chamish promises that the "answer, ultimately will lead to the same organization which murdered Yitzhak Rabin." (Peres, needless to say, was behind that one too.)

Nor does Chamish confine his unique talents as murder sleuth to Israeli politicians. Chamish has the real explanation for the death of Scottish tourist Alisdair Rosslyn Sinclair who according to Israeli police hanged himself in police custody in April 1998. Chamish has concluded Sinclair was killed because "he may not have realized it, but he was one of the leading members of the [thousand year old] Knights Templar hierarchy" and was caught up in their "secret battle" to gain control of the Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

In the spirit of Barry Chamish, we have come up with our own conspiracy theory. Chamish was planted by Shimon Peres to destroy the credibility of the right. How do we know? It's obvious. In any whodunnit, the first question is, "Who benefits?" If we ask who benefits from Chamish's theories, the answer is indisputably the Israeli Left, above all Shimon Peres. Each day new murders of Israeli citizens reenforce the obvious truth that Oslo was a mad folly and the New Middle East Peres promised so confidently as its aftermath an insane delusion. For Peres, who even now clings to Oslo and a non-existent "peace partner" in Arafat, it becomes ever

(Continued on p.10)

Outpost               - 2 -               March 2002