The Blood for Israel/Oil Meme Recirculating

Apparently there really is a meme machine on the Left. How else do you explain the fact that at least three Lefty blogs all jumped on a very old story about reopening an oil pipeline that used to run between Iraq and what is now Israel? The story was actually first published on Auguest 25, 2003---nearly four years ago. Oh, and the pipeline never got built. It never got past the exploratory phase after which all agreed it was, literally, a pipe dream.

The giveaway? The Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky, quoted in the article, was forced to resign in 2004. Good catch Israel Matsav, but it isn't Memerandom's fault. It's the people on the Left that won't let the meme die.

Professor Juan Cole, an "expert" on the Middle East, goes so far as to use the old article, which he seems to think is "news", to say this today:

You just worry that this crackpot idea was one of the motives for the Neoconservatives for the Iraq War. What a waste.

TPM Cafe uses the old story to say this today:

So this is one of the main reasons American troops are dying in action. Action directed against Iraqi civilians. Actions that have killed close to ONE MILLION Iraqi civilians to date and laid waste to that nation.

All of this death and destruction so Iraqi oil could be shipped to Israel. My, that must be a comforting thought to all of those parents still grieving the loss of their son or daughter, killed in action. Killed fighting not for Democracy, but for Israel.

I'd laugh if it wasn't so sad that a lot of people actually believe this. What's worse is that Dr. Juan Cole, a frequent talking head, also seems to at least toy with the idea. It adds an air of legitimacy to the discussion.

So, how did this old story happen to hit the Leftosphere on the same day? Doesn't that strike you as peculiar?

The wackiness of the underlying conspiracy theory aside, I will say in the Left's defense that the Haaretz archives are undated. So any one following a link to the cached article would only find one date on it, today's. That explains how they were duped into believing the U.S. is still exploring the idea of a pipeline to Israel, but what it doesn't explain is how all these blogs linked the same old story on the same day.

PS-The Newshoggers link the old article, but their post is actually pretty good and in no way do they even hint that they buy into the blood-for-oil/neocon/Zionist narrative. But still, how is it that the author there just happened to come by this four year old article today?

UPDATE: Fester, from Newshoggers, says that he found the article via Memerandom. So, how did Juan Cole and TPMCafe find it?

Ace speculates that maybe this has something to do with Ezra Klein's new secret e-mail list for 'elite lefty bloggers'.

I, for one, get e-mails daily that I also know get distributed to other right-of-center bloggers. Some of those e-mails, invariably, are from Ron Paul supporters who want me to link this or that about North American Union or about how anything but the Gold Standard is unconstitutional. Guess what? They go straight to the spam box.

Hint to Lefty bloggers: when the guy sending you tips starts connecting the dots between the "Zionists", "big oil", the "military-industrial complex", and the war in Iraq, you might just want to think about adding his e-mail addy to your spam list.

Oh, wait, that assumes you don't already believe that AIPAC is behind the war. My bad.

Posted by: Rusty at 10:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 617 words, total size 4 kb.