Islamists: WikiLeaks are an Israeli Conspiracy!

Why did the documents exposed by WikiLeaks contain so much material about Arab regimes asking the United States to contain Iran’s nuclear program? Why there was little material that was embarrassing to Israel? JTA reports that Hizbullah and other jihadi groups see an Israeli conspiracy at work.

The Jewish news agency said that Hizbullah's Al Manar news outlet, and Al Haqiqa, which is affiliated with a Syrian opposition group, have been writing that WikiLeaks director Julian Assange "struck a deal with Israel and the 'Israel lobby' to withhold documents that might embarrass the Jewish state." From the jihadis, the theory is "percolating" to far-left and far-right websites as well.

A December 8 story on leftist Indymedia UK asked: “Why [did] the hundreds of thousands of American classified documents leaked … not contain anything that may embarrass the Israeli government? The answer appears to be a secret deal struck between Wikileaks … [and] Israeli officials, which ensured that all such documents were ‘removed’ before the rest were made public.”

While Israeli officials shrugged off the claims as unworthy of comment, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement last week comparing them to the rumors that Israel was behind the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. ADL National Director Abraham Foxman called the theories “yet another manifestation of the Big Lie against Jews and Israel.”

The “WikiLeaks affair has given new life to the old conspiracy theories of underhanded Jewish and Israeli involvement in an event with significant repercussions for the U.S. and many nations around the world,” Foxman said.

The story has surfaced in the United States, at the Arab Times and the Arab Voice, Arab-American community papers in Texas and New Jersey, JTA found.