Combating Hate: Domestic Extremism & Terrorism

The Occidental Observer: Online Anti-Semitism's New Intellectual Voice

An online publication called The Occidental Observer has become a primary voice for anti-Semitism from far-right intellectuals. Founded in October 2007 as a "Webzine," or online magazine, it is one of a number of publishing efforts that have grown out of the Charles Martel Society, a group founded by William Regnery II, a Chicago, Illinois-based heir to the Regnery publishing fortune.

Kevin MacDonald's influence

Ideologically, the magazine is guided by the ideas of Kevin MacDonald, an anti-Semitic professor of evolutionary psychology at California State University, Long Beach, who regularly writes for the publication.

This is evident in the magazine's "mission statement," which speaks repeatedly of "ethnic identity and interests" and asserts that whites, once they become a minority, will "develop a stronger sense of their own identity and interests." A "group editorial" from November 2008 says that Jews could partner with "European-Americans" so long as they "acknowledge the role of the organized Jewish community in the dispossession of European America." Both of these ideas are common tropes in MacDonald's writings, and parrot the type of language he uses.

Blatant anti-Semitism

Articles in The Occidental Observer are often explicitly anti-Semitic in comparison to similar far-right "academic" publications that seek to couch their bigotry as legitimate intellectual inquiry. This is likely a direct result of MacDonald's influence. In addition to MacDonald, Edmund Connelly (who calls himself a "freelance writer, academic, and expert on the cinema arts), is a chief writer for the publication and has also contributed articles with anti-Semitic themes.

Examples of anti-Semitic articles in the publication include:

• A "group editorial" from November 2008 says that Jews could partner with "European-Americans" so long as they "acknowledge the role of the organized Jewish community in the dispossession of European America."

• A January 4, 2009 article entitled "Bernie Madoff's Ethno-Nepotistic Ponzi Scheme," by an anonymous writer who used the pseudonym "James Murray" and described himself as an "American sociologist." The article claimed that the alleged Bernard Madoff financial scheme was in truth a plot to allow Jews to steal from non-Jews, and that this plot had succeeded.

• A September 24, 2008 article entitled "The Sandra Bernhard Monstrosity" charged that "hostility to whites and to Christianity is a mainstream Jewish phenomenon."

• A September 12, 2008 article by Edmund Connelly, entitled "The Washington Post's Willing Executioner?" argued that that Jews want to exterminate American whites.

• An article from the summer of 2008 alleged that anti-Semitic Arab cartoons sometimes tell the truth, as when they charge that Jews control American politics.

Sister publication

In addition to The Occidental Observer, The Charles Martel Society publishes The Occidental Quarterly, a racist print publication that mimics the look and style of academic journals and has been in existence since 2001. In its own words, it hopes to "defend the racial group that created and sustains our civilization." The Occidental Observer seeks to distinguish itself from The Occidental Quarterly by printing shorter and more obviously opinionated articles.

Both Kevin MacDonald and Edmund Connelly have contributed articles on Jews to The Occidental Quarterly, though that publication is generally far less anti-Semitic than The Occidental Observer.