A short history of the Jewish/Zionist octopus in antisemitic cartoons

Antisemites liked to show Jews as octopuses with tentacles reaching the entire world:

Here’s one of the earliest examples, from 1894:

Nazi Germany used the motif often. Mein Kampf referred to Jews as octopuses, and this Nazi cartoon portrayed Churchill as a Jewish octopus:

The transition from octopus-as-Jew to octopus-as-Israel is keenly shown here in a 1952 Syrian book cover:

The Soviet Union also freely used the octopus as both symbolizing Zionism and Jews:

Nowadays, the octopus is used for “Zionists,” although it is very clear that they mean Jews, both the modern antisemites:

 

The octopus motif shows that that there is no difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

(h/t Tomer)

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