‘Alien reptile’ and cloaked figure in Yair Netanyahu’s meme have old-new origins

The cartoon posted to Facebook by Yair Netanyahu on Friday contained no Stars of David, no swastikas, and no anti-Jewish text. However, hidden in plain sight within the since-removed meme were two of the most potent anti-Jewish narratives: the colonizing alien-lizard Jew, and the scheming Illuminati Jew.

The portrayal of Jews as other-than-human and engaged in a global conspiracy is not new, and can be traced to the notorious canard, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” More recently minted is the Netanyahu meme’s green reptile-man, a stand-in for Jewish aspirations popularized by British conspiracy theorist David Icke.

Since the early 1990s, Icke has regaled fellow travelers with tales of shape-shifting reptiles who dominate global affairs. The reptilian take-over is understood to be about Jews, who are capable of inhabiting and controlling people’s minds. In recent years, Icke has packed stadiums across Europe with this mash-up of sci-fi horror and old-fashioned anti-Semitism.

“People know how to decode the code about reptilians — whether Icke means it or not, it doesn’t change that fact,” said Jan Rathje of the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung, an anti-racism group in Germany. “It seems ridiculous, but the conclusion that Icke draws is that because he thinks the reptilians are pulling the strings behind it, therefore the Holocaust didn’t happen – that’s anti-Semitism,” said Rathje.

In the realm of reptilian domination, leaders ranging from the British royal family to Egypt’s pharaohs have been used by Jews as “elite corporal hosts,” also known as “reptilian overlords.” In this “New World Order” conspiracy theory, gentile proxies — ranging from Jeb Bush to Kris Kristofferson — are foot soldiers in Jewry’s quest for domination.

“I’m not talking about one earth race, Jewish or non-Jewish,” said Icke in a 2001 book about extremists. “I’m talking about a genetic network that operates through all races, this bloodline being a fusion of human and reptilian genes,” said the activist, who also believes the moon is hollow.

One of Icke’s main targets is George Soros, the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and billionaire who — in the meme posted by Yair Netanyahu — dangles our planet as bait. Soros is positioned as the ultimate “feeder” of humanity to the extra-terrestrial Jew, that green alien holding an Occult symbol in front of the meme’s third boogeyman.

In his native Hungary, where Soros survived the Nazi occupation, the 87-year old investor is seen as the proverbial “evil frog in the well,” a demon bent on erasing borders and flooding the country with immigrants, drugs, and homosexuality.

“George Soros is a multi-functional Luciferian who serves primarily as a political agent of disinformation,” according to New World Order Wiki. “Soros unites various nations and companies in deals that will benefit the Satanic hierarchy,” and “he is very close to the upper echelons of the Occult,” according to the site’s section on the Jewish philanthropist.

‘The Happy Merchant’ and Illuminati conspiracies

In place of George Soros baiting the alien reptile in Yair Netanyahu’s meme, an earlier version of the scene used a so-called “happy merchant” as the main catalyst.

Like an anti-Semitic “Where’s Waldo,” the smirking merchant appears in all kinds of places. Clad in a yarmulke, he has a hooked nose, frizzy hair, and rubs his hands together with malice. The merchant often photo-bombs images unconnected to Jews, including when he gleefully hovers over scenes of hurricanes and earthquake devastation.

According to the website “Know Your Meme,” the happy merchant is based on anti-Semitic ideas including, “a Jewish conspiracy to control the world; greedy Jews, or blaming corporate greed on Jews; fabricating the Holocaust; and blaming the Jewish conspiracy for promoting feminism, homosexuality, race-mixing, or causing any current calamity.”

By all accounts, the happy merchant has conquered large swaths of the Internet in recent years. He also appears on sunflower seed packaging, as a custom background for Visa credit card holders, and — of course — as a wearable mask.

“It’s unquestionably the most popular anti-Semitic image on the internet, and if one pauses to think about the scope and reach of the internet, it’s easy to make an argument that “Jew-bwa-ha-ha.gif” [the image’s name] is the most widely seen anti-Semitic image in history,” according to a 2015 BuzzFeed article about the trend.

The Netanyahu meme’s third and final string-puller is — like George Soros — seen rubbing his hands together. The sorcerer-like figure grins while baiting former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak with money. With his mix of Semitic features and Occult symbols, the man is a stand-in for Illuminati Jews, or Freemason-controlling Jews, who have been behind every war and revolution in modern history.

As with the “reptilian overlord” theory advanced by David Icke, not all Illuminati conspirators are Jewish; however, it is always Jews who direct the secret society. To distance himself from hate speech, Icke has started claiming that “fallen angels” and “alien invaders” were the real authors of his favorite Judeophobic canard, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” This assertion, according to the Anti-Defamation League, is an attempt to mask incitement with old-new conspiracy theories.