By Howie Silbiger
The war between Israel and Iran is now well underway, missiles have crossed borders, cities have been struck, and the world is watching nervously as the conflict expands. Yet before the first smoke even cleared from the opening strikes, another familiar phenomenon was already taking shape.
The conspiracy industry went to work.
Within hours of the war starting, commentators on the right, activists on the left, Islamist propagandists, street protesters, and the internet’s professional conspiracy merchants all arrived at the same explanation for what was happening.
Somehow, some way, the Jews must be behind it.
Different camps dress the theory in different clothing. The far right says Jews control governments. The far left says Zionists control governments. Islamist propaganda networks say global Zionism is orchestrating events. The conspiracy influencers on the internet mix in Rothschilds, Epstein, banking cabals, and end of the world nonsense. The street protesters shout that Jews should get out of Palestine and go back to where they came from. A handful of governments openly blame Israel and sometimes Jews for destabilizing the world.
Strip away the packaging and every one of these narratives lands in the same place. The Jews did it.
Start with the nationalist right. In that ecosystem the language is blunt. Israel, they argue, is dragging America into war and Jewish influence is behind the policy. The names circulating in that world are not hard to find. Nick Fuentes and his crowd have been pushing versions of this narrative for years. In their telling the United States is not acting as a sovereign country. It is supposedly being manipulated by Jewish interests who want Americans to fight Israel’s battles.
Move slightly closer to the mainstream and the tone softens but the insinuation remains. A number of populist commentators now frame the conflict as proof that Israel has captured American foreign policy. Tucker Carlson has repeatedly argued that the United States is being pulled into a war that serves Israel more than America. Candace Owens has made similar claims while warning about what she calls the influence of Zionism in Western politics. They rarely say the word Jews. They say Zionists. But the implication is clear enough that their audiences understand the message.
Then there is the activist left. Here the word Zionist becomes the universal explanation for everything. The war, according to that narrative, is the product of a powerful Zionist lobby that allegedly controls governments, media, and military decisions. Influencers such as Jackson Hinkle and commentators in the anti Israel activist world regularly push the idea that Western policy is essentially dictated by Zionist interests.
At the same time, in the streets of Western cities and on university campuses, another chant echoes through megaphones and marches. Jews go home. Jews get out of Palestine. The language changes slightly depending on the crowd, but the message is unmistakable. Jews are illegitimate. Jews are foreign. Jews should leave.
When people shout those slogans they rarely stop to think about what they are actually saying. They are telling the Jewish people to get out of the one place on earth where Jews have lived for thousands of years. The irony is almost too obvious to point out. The same people who claim to oppose colonialism are telling the indigenous people of the region to pack their bags and disappear.
Meanwhile in parts of the Middle East the message is even more direct. Iranian state media and aligned propaganda outlets routinely describe Israel as the source of global instability. In that narrative the war is simply another chapter in what they portray as a Zionist campaign against the Muslim world. Some governments in the region echo similar language, framing Israel as the central cause of conflict across the Middle East.
And then we arrive at the internet’s conspiracy basement, where things get truly bizarre. In that world the Iran war is somehow connected to the Epstein files, secret banking families, and a supposed Jewish plan to start World War III. Telegram channels and fringe influencers mash together decades old antisemitic myths with modern internet paranoia and present it as geopolitical analysis.
What is remarkable about all of this is not that conspiracy theories exist. They always have. What is remarkable is how quickly every political tribe arrives at the same conclusion.
The nationalists blame Jews.
The activists blame Zionists.
The street protesters shout that Jews should get out.
The Islamist propagandists blame global Zionism.
The conspiracy crowd blames Jewish bankers.
Different ideologies. Same target.
There is a certain grim familiarity to it. When markets crash it is the Jews. When wars start it is the Jews. When governments make decisions someone does not like it becomes proof that Jews are secretly pulling the strings.
The Iran Israel war did not create this conspiracy industry. It simply gave it another excuse to say what it always says.
No matter what happens in the world, the answer is always the same.
Blame the Jews.
Howie Silbiger is the host of The Howie Silbiger Show on truetalkradio.com and Political Hitman on israelnewstalkradio.com. He is the Editor-in-Chief of The Montreal Jewish News.
