Ron Paul, the father of modern day conspiracy theorists?

Ron Paul got up in front of Congress and very simply in about two sentences, stated that Israel created Hamas. (Video below)

The problem of course is that as a politician he created himself some wiggle room in case he is ever confronted, after all he could spin this in a multitude of ways. He could easily say “Israel never stopped Hamas from forming, therefore they helped create them”.

Whatever, not the point. What Ron Paul did however is set off a virtual firestorm among his constituency and much more importantly, among the anti-Israeli crowd as if they need any additional encouragement. Just perusing the YouTube videos alone, will give you an indication of how passionate and emboldened his supporters are upon hearing this. They praise him for being a lone voice of reason, a hero, etc.

The truth is that Ron Paul is either purposely spreading vague misinformation or somehow – I have a hard time believing this – truly believes this garbage. For now we have the effect of people truly believing that Israel not only created Hamas, but are now enjoying the fruits of their labor as this guarantees perpetual war.

Here is the actual truth about Israel creating Hamas. (First my synopsis and then an interview from a Hamas founder)

Hamas formed out of the Muslim Brotherhood something Israel would not touch with a 20 foot pole. Due to their size, Hamas originally concentrated on charitable work to win over the minds and hearts of the Palestinian people.

The PLO was convinced that Israel was helping Hamas in the hope of triggering a civil war. Since Hamas did not engage in terror at first, Israel did not see it as a serious short-term threat, and some Israelis believed that extremists like Hamas would indeed harm and undermine the PLO. They were right.

Israel’s assistance was more passive than active, that is, it did not interfere with Hamas activities or prevent funds from flowing into the organization from abroad. Yet, Jordan and probably Syria and later Iran were very much in the business of funding and helping Hamas grow. Remember, Jordan had it’s own problem with the PLO and it would very much behoove them at the time to create an organization that would cripple and render Arafat useless.

Finally, I have an excerpt from an interview with a founder of Hamas – Khaled Meshaal.

Interviewed by Rainer Rupp
Global Research, December 18, 2006
Global Research, Originally published in German by Junge Welt, Berlin

“R.R. For many years there has been the suggestion in the Western media that Israeli intelligence was instrumental in the creation of Hamas. I suppose you know about this story?

K.M. Unfortunately this tale is told by some Arabs, Palestinian Arabs. It is an attempt to distort the image of our movement. We consider this charge as something so ridiculous, that we don’t even bother to deny it. It is so illogical. How come, that Israel should establish an organisation that will combat Israel, how is that possible?

R.R. The argument is, the Israelis helped to create Hamas in order to divide the Palestinian resistance and weaken the Fatah movement.

K.M. Indeed, during the seventies the main Palestinian force that was combating Israel was the Fatah-movement. Consequently Israel concentrated its fighting against Fatah and the other, smaller groups of Palestinian resistance, which existed in this period. At that time, however, Hamas was not yet properly established. We were only starting to build our social base in Palestinian society, by focusing entirely on social affairs, organizing help, building hospitals and schools, looking after the sick and deprived. In that era we were only involved in peaceful actions. This is why Israel did not do anything against us.Because they did not know at the time, what was going on in our minds. But, while we were focusing outwardly only on social and educational work, at the same time we were secretly already training and preparing for our future resistance projects. Because the Israelis did not see this danger they concentrated their actions against other brigades, not against us. And it is this Israeli inaction against us, which some Palestinian Arab elements unfriendly towards Hamas present as “proof”, that Israel was supporting the creation of Hamas.”

What the Hamas leader does not know, is that not only Arab leaders believe this. (Scroll to about 1:30)

Ron Paul supporters take the good doctor’s words as gospel and immediately begin distributing the information – without actually verifying or confirming any of the facts. This has the horrific impact of infiltrating the minds of Americans with nothing more than vague sniplets of pseudo-facts and intricate theories explaining the unexplainable.

Further still, Ron Paul’s vehement dislike of the Fed has brought out of the woodwork all the NWO/Illuminati/Jews run the World theorists into the spotlight. While I still believe RP dislikes the Fed for the same reason I do – that is, the Fed actually causes more economic harm than the good he was intended for – others, believe there is a darker more sinister reasoning to RP’s repeated Fed bashing. A simple google search on “Who owns the fed” opens a floodgate of “proof” and “evidence” suggesting that a group of powerful international bankers are holding the world hostage. Most of these people, I assure you – are Ron Paul supporters. Of course, as luck would have it – the 9/11 seek the truth crows is generally close behind. This of course should be no surprise, once a conspiracy theorist, always a conspiracy theorist.

Ron Paul is damaging the psyche and the moral fibre of many people. Even though his libertarian views are something I am willing to fight for, the deliberate dissemination of conspiracy evoking rhetoric is making it very difficult for me to support this man. He is supplying the void of the unknown to those seeking answers at whatever cost. Thus, creating a religion for themselves founded on a pile of conspiracies, errors, omissions and distortions. So while on one hand RP has reinvigorated the libertarian movement and united people of all walks and life. Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that Dr. Ron Paul is causing more harm than good to the people behind the libertarian movement. A fight against the oppression of centralized government, individual liberties and freedoms have morphed into something inane and truly perplexing.

Finally, even though Ron Paul has not created any of these theories – many of which have been around for decades – he has inspired a new generation of dangerous zealots hell bent on pushing their truth on anyone willing to listen.

Further reading: Myth about Israel creating Hamas