Nigel Farage criticised for ‘anti-Semitic tropes’ on US talkshow

Nigel Farage is under fire from Jewish groups after it emerged he discussed conspiracy theories with a far-right US talkshow host.

The Brexit party leader appeared six times on the show of Alex Jones, discussing concepts which are traditionally tied-up with the anti-Semitic trope that Jewish financiers are plotting to replace nation states with a global government.

In the appearances, which date back as far as 2009, Farage uses words and phrases such as “globalists” and “new world order”, which regularly feature in antisemitic motifs. He said “globalists” are trying to engineer a world war as a means to introduce a worldwide government.

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The Guardian says the interviews reveal one of two things about Farage: “At best, he is a politician happy to fit in with even the most unsavoury opinions of a flattering host; at worst, he is one who genuinely believes a series of demonstrably false conspiracy theories of a kind most commonly propagated by the anti-Semitic far right.”

Responding to the news, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said: “It is vital that our politicians distance themselves from conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists, including those who trade in anti-Semitic tropes.”

The Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitism, said Jones was “a notorious conspiracy theorist” and that for Jones’s “conspiracy-minded audience”, the “references to ‘globalists’ and ‘new world order’ will be taken as familiar codewords for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories”.

During his appearances on the controversial show, Farage claimed that members of the Bilderberg gathering of political and business leaders are plotting a global government and that the banking and political systems are working “hand in glove” to try to disband nation states.

In the most recent appearance, from April 2018, Farage argued the “deep state” could be behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria. He has also claimed that climate change is a “scam” intended to push forward a transnational government.