A politician from the main opposition party in Greece has caused an uproar after posting an anti-Semitic rant on his Facebook page accusing the Greek prime minister of heading a Jewish conspiracy.
Theodoros Karypidis, the left-wing Syriza Party’s candidate for governor of Western Macedonia, said Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was at the head of a Jewish plot to visit “a new Hanukkah against the Greeks.”
At the heart of Karypidis’ theory was a move last year by Samaras to shut the allegedly corrupt Hellenic Broadcasting Authority and replace it with the New Hellenic Radio and Television, known by its Greek acronym NERIT.
According to Karypidis, NERIT is derived from the Hebrew word for candle, “ner,” which he links to the festival of Hanukkah.
“Samaras is lighting the candles in the seven branched candelabra of the Jews and lighting Greece on fire after his visit to the Thessaloniki Synagogue,” wrote Karypidis. “He is organizing a new Hanukkah against the Greeks.”
Samaras visited the synagogue as part of the commemorations marking the destruction of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki by the Nazis.
If Karypidis had done a bit more research, he would have discovered that Nerit computes 661 in Gematria, the system that ascribes a numerical value to every letter of the Hebrew alphabet. That is the same number that is the equivalent of the word “Esther,” as in the Persian Queen Esther who helped saved the Jews from extinction from Mohammed Ahmadinejad’s ancestor Haman.
Since Nerit and Esther have the same Gematria number, it proves without a doubt that the prime minister indeed is the head of a Jewish conspiracy.
Furthermore, Nerit in Gematria also is the numerical equal of the phrase “lo yishma al peev,” the Hebrew words for “it shall not be heard in thy mouth.” That is an obvious secret code for Nerit, the Hellenstic Broadcasting Authority. It all is too much of a coincidence to be ignored, and Nerit clearly has an agenda no make sure that Karypidis’ words shall not be heard.
If that is not enough proof of a Jewish conspiracy, “Samaras,” the name of the prime minister of Greece, comes out to 361 when spelled in Hebrew, and the sum total of 361 is 10, a direct reference to the Ten Commandments that form the basic laws of Judaism
Regardless of the overwhelming evidence that Nerit and Samaras are part of a plot to destroy Greece, a spokesman for the prime minister condemned the comments as “unacceptable, racist and anti-Semitic.”
In recent years most of the anti-Semitic vitriol in Greece has come from the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party. But Syriza also has a clear anti-Israel stance. Several of its members took part in the flotilla to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.
Karypidis’ statements also drew condemnation from the American Jewish Committee.
“Vile, outrageous expressions of anti-Semitism in Greece are coming not only from Golden Dawn on the far right but also, as Theodoros Karypidis’ Facebook post illustrates, from the far left,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris in a statement.
“Whipping up hatred of Jews, for all kinds of alleged conspiracies, is an all-too-familiar and long-time tactic of political extremists with nothing constructive to offer about real-life issues facing their country,” he said.
By the way, Karypidis in Gematria comes out to 466, which is the equivalent of “ma-shehu lo hegyoni,” or “something not logical.”
JTA contributed to this report.