The Arab world, from Baghdad to Beirut, has been simmering with resentment against the US-led West’s unequivocal support for the Israeli government’s aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip. The sentiment of the Arab world resonated among the countries of the Global South.
Major world powers like Russia and China have called for an immediate ceasefire to end the catastrophic violence, but the US continues to remain nonchalant over the ongoing bloodshed. However, the US support for Israel, which uses the façade of supporting the Jewish community, reeks of sheer hypocrisy.
Most of the US corporations that have extended support to the Zionist state have a history of collaboration with Nazi Germany and played an active role in either its extermination of Jews or helped its economy and military-industrial complex.
The fluidity of the American corporations—and their celebrated “non-profit” funds—in switching from anti-Semitism to pro-Zionism is unprecedented in the world. They have been those who had been vocal anti-Semitists at one point in time in history and have been the strongest allies of the Zionist government.
The Ford story
Henry Ford’s anti-Semitism
Henry Ford is often hailed as an icon of American entrepreneurship. He established the iconic Ford Motor Company in 1903. He was a vocal critic of the First World War and was one of the major anti-Semitist voices in the US in the early 20th century.
In 1918, Ford acquired the Independent, a dying newspaper in Dearborn, Michigan. Under Ford’s ownership, the Dearborn Independent started publishing with a new tonality from January 1919 onwards. Ford hired Detroit News editor Edwin G Pipp as the editor of the Dearborn Independent.
For Ford, the Dearborn Independent was a platform to amplify his diatribe, mostly against the Jews whom he held responsible for the war. For this purpose, the Dearborn Independent dedicated a full editorial page to Ford, named “Mr. Ford’s Own Page”, where op-eds were reportedly written by William J Cameron, who later replaced Pipp.
From May 22nd, 1920, the Dearborn Independent started publishing a weekly series—The International Jew: The World’s Problem—on its front page under Ford’s byline. This series, under which over 90 articles were published, was extremely anti-Semitist and vilified the Jews as the source of the US’s and the world’s problems, including wars, Bolshevism, revolution and anarchy.
After a brief halt in 1922 and due to immense opposition from the Jewish community and the US political circles, Ford finally had to shut down the Dearborn Independent in 1927.
Even though the Dearborn Independent died a natural death in 1927, it had done great damage by that time. One of the major damages is that it provided enough propaganda ammunition to a former German corporal named Adolf Hitler, who was striving to build his political career on extreme anti-Semitism at the beginning of the 1920s.
Ford’s collaboration with Nazi Germany
Hitler was reportedly inspired by Ford’s anti-Semitist diatribe to such an extent that as the head of the newly-founded fascist National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi), he told the Chicago Tribune in 1921, when Ford decided to run for the presidency, “I wish that I could send some of my shock troops to Chicago and other big American cities to help (Ford)”[i].
“It is Jews who govern the stock exchange forces of the American Union”, Hitler wrote in his Mein Kampf two years later. The book became a bible for the Nazis in Germany and in this book, Hitler outlined his anti-Semitist views, influenced by Ford’s writings.
“Every year makes them more and more controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty million; only a single great man, Ford, to their fury, still maintains full independence”, Hitler further wrote, hailing the American tycoon.
The ideological companionship wasn’t enough. Hitler awarded Ford with the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the Nazi regime’s highest award for foreigners. It wasn’t merely for his anti-Semitism that Ford won this award. Rather, it was for the Ford Motor Company’s German subsidiary’s role in building the German war machinery.
Ford was accused of not only maintaining close ties with the German Wehrmacht (Defence Ministry) during the initial years of the Second World War but also of maintaining the collaboration even when the US had entered the war.
Moreover, there were accusations of using forced labour from concentration camps in the Ford Motor factory, where military vehicles were manufactured to add teeth to the German offensive.
While the Ford Motor Company later denied the charges of collaborating with the Nazis even after the US entered the war, it didn’t deny the use of forced labour but put the blame on its German subsidiary.
However, while Ford’s son Edsel Ford was trying to distance the American corporation from the German subsidiary in the post-war period, the company didn’t shy from seeking compensation on behalf of the latter.
In 1965, Ford Motor Company even sought higher compensation from the US Foreign Claims Settlement Commission for the Allied bombings on its factories and facilities in the Nazi-occupied territories, where production was in full swing.
Ford joins the Zionists
While before the war Henry Ford was an unapologetic anti-Semitist and his son Edsel collaborated with the Nazis during the war, the grandson of Henry Ford, Henry Ford II became a champion of the Zionist cause after the establishment of the Israeli state on the occupied Palestinian land.
At the age of 28, Ford II became the president of the automobile giant and ran the company for two years during his grandfather’s lifetime and many more in the years to come. Under him, Ford Motor Company became one of the forerunners among the US corporate giants to invest in the Zionist state.
Unsurprisingly, the Zionist state didn’t mind Ford Motor Company’s anti-Semitist precedence and history of collaboration with the Nazis.
While his father was pursuing the claims settlement for the Allied bombings targeting the Ford facilities in the Nazi-occupied territories, where forced labour was used in galore, especially the Jews who were waiting for their turn to get exhumed in the gas chambers, Ford II was busy setting up the Nazareth assembly plant of Ford, which eventually started in the spring of 1968.
Before the Ford assembly plant in Nazareth was operational, Ford II donated $100,000 to the Israeli Emergency Fund during the Six-Day War in 1967. The automotive giant continued its business in Israel between 1968 and 1985 from Nazareth in collaboration with its local partner Israeli Automobile Corp.
“It was just pragmatic business procedure… I don’t mind saying I was influenced in part by the fact that the company still suffers from a resentment against the antisemitism of the distant past. We want to overcome that. But the main thing is that here we had a dealer who wanted to open up an agency to sell our products – hell, let him do it (sic)”, The Jerusalem Post quoted Ford II’s clarification on why he needed business in Israel at the cost of irking the Arabs.
However, Ford had to finally cave into the pressure exerted by the Arabs through their boycott call for the company. “We are going to continue doing business in Israel, and if we can do business in an Arab country, all the better. So we can do business on both sides… I assume that no one would seriously wish us, in a kind of reverse-boycott fashion, to abstain from doing business in Arab countries simply because of our dealings with Israel (sic).”– Ford II had said.
Even after the Nazareth facility stopped functioning, Ford’s business went on in Israel. Later, in 2019, Henry Ford’s great-grandson Bill Ford followed in the footsteps of Ford II and went to Israel to open the Ford Research Center in Tel Aviv. The facility, which was into the research and development of autonomous vehicles, is closing down according to a September 5th report published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Ford Foundation in Israel
As a part of the CIA’s Cold War-era agenda to use American corporations in shaping public opinion in favour of the West using “non-profit” entities, the Fords launched the Ford Foundation, which became an official partner of the CIA in the 1950s. The Ford Foundation has a unique approach, while it’s heavily tilted towards the Zionist forces, it’s also involved in providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian victims.
According to NGO Monitor, the Ford Foundation granted a total of $40m to civil society NGOs in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza between 2003 and 2013 through the New Israel Fund (NIF). However, in 2013, the Ford Foundation announced that it wouldn’t issue any further grants to the Israeli NGOs.
The NIF, which received the largest share of grants from the Ford Foundation in the ten years of the latter’s engagement with Israel, was founded in 1979 and has been balancing its activities by supporting the existence of occupation and by providing aid to Palestinians.
It has been at loggerheads with the Israeli government from time to time due to its opposition to the far-right parties in power. The Israeli Parliament Knesset passed laws in 2010 to bring transparency in the funding of the NGOs, especially after it was alleged that NGOs like NIF are using foreign grants to demonise Israel.
The Ford Foundation’s grants were used for civil rights movements, Arab-Israeli rights, education, and other social sectors. However, it appears that most of it was used to shape public opinion, on both sides, in favour of the CIA. Although the “non-profit” provided grants to the organisations that work for civil rights and justice in Israel, it helped the CIA extend ideological control over both sides in the battlefield named Palestine.
The Rockefeller story
The Rockefeller Foundation is one of the oldest US-based “non-profits” in the business of philanthropy. It’s owned by the Rockefellers in the business of oil. A relatively newer fund named Rockefeller Brothers Fund was set up in 1940 by the family.
Charles Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton combined his theory of evolution with the genetics theory of Gregor Mendel to a theory for the “improvement of the human race”, which is known as eugenics. The theory of eugenics, which proposed the creation of a master race, aided in shaping the Nazi doctrine in Germany and later in other parts of the world.
John D Rockefeller Jr, the head of the Rockefeller Foundation since 1897, had a strong interest in eugenics. He believed in the population control theory after learning about the so-called ill effects of population growth and immigration from his professors at Brown University.
Rockefeller Jr wasn’t the sole believer in the theory of eugenics. Rather, the US elites started pondering on the subject to ensure that the land their ancestors occupied from the indigenous American people remained racially superior.
To spread the eugenics theory throughout the white people’s territories, the Rockefeller Foundation provided funds to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society established in Germany in 1911. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society started research into eugenics, which got extensive support from the Nazi regime after Hitler usurped power in 1933.
According to Edwin Black’s article “Eugenics and the Nazis – the California Connection”[ii], the total grant that the Rockefeller Foundation provided to the German eugenics research until 1926 amounted to $410,000—nearly $4m at current rates—which was used by hundreds of researchers.
In the same year, the Rockefeller Foundation provided a grant of $250,000—nearly $2.5m at current rates—to help establish the German Institute for Psychiatric Research under the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. This institute in Munich was a centre for eugenics researchers to establish links between races and mental disorders.
Thus, before Hitler even established his monstrous Third Reich, the Germans were linking eugenics with racism, which paved the way to the future “cleansing” of the German nation.
Even after Hitler usurped power in 1933, the Rockefeller Foundation continued to fund the research by the institute, which aided none other than the Nazis in building public opinion for their fanaticism.
The head of the institute in Munich, Ernst Rüdin, supported Hitler’s racist policies and played a key role in the Nazi regime’s forced sterilisation project[iii]. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, which was headed by Eugen Fischer, helped the Nazis with the German Mapping Project.
The German Mapping Project mapped the racial variation in Germany. It provided the key data on which population resided in which area. This programme, which the Rockefeller Foundation officials masked as a cultural atlas of Germany, received $125,000 in grants from it.
Hitler used people like Rüdin and Fischer to popularise the eugenics theory. The Nazi regime vilified the Jewish population and the so-called “non-Aryan” races while glorifying the superiority of the Aryan race. With the help of eugenics research, the Nazis went ahead to kill over 11m people in their concentration camps and forcefully sterilised over 375,000.
The Rockefeller Foundation’s support for the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and the German eugenics study ended only after Hitler attacked Poland and then targeted Britain. The officials of the foundation shrugged off the criticisms of supporting the eugenics programme that led to the killing of millions by the Nazi regime.
The Rockefeller Foundation and the Zionists
After supporting the eugenics research and helping the Nazis in killing millions, the Rockefellers didn’t take much time in plunging into the Arab-Israel conflict. While the Rockefeller Foundation is careful in its low-profile engagement in the region, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund has been involved in several controversial fundings of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs that oppose Zionist occupation.
Playing on both sides, especially by aiding NGOs that promote the idea of Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) against Israel, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund has been able to carve a niche for itself among the pro-Palestinian forces in the US and in Israel. The fund is also operational in Gaza and the West Bank, where it aids NGOs involved in healthcare and social service.
The NGOs that receive grants from Rockefeller Brothers Fund in Israel and Palestine include Defense for Children International – Palestine, Palestinian Medical Relief Society, Al-Shabaka, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Breaking the Silence, Akevot, Gisha, Yesh Din, and Who Profits.
Israel’s pro-Zionist NGO Monitor alleges that these NGOs act against the interests of Israel at home and abroad. The sponsoring of such organisations by a US-based “non-profit”, with a problematic past, shows that while the US establishment throws its weight behind the Zionist forces during their aggression against the Palestinians, the American capitalists are in full control of the anti-Zionist movements and narratives.
This way, the US and the Zionists ensure the sustainability of the occupation project where both the oppressors and the oppressed—their narratives, contradictions, movements, etc, —remain under Wall Street’s close watch. In these circumstances, the Zionist occupation benefits from the funding that the Rockefeller Brothers Fund provides to its so-called opponents.
The Coca-Cola story
Coca-Cola entered the German market in 1929, when Hitler wasn’t in power, but did good business between 1933 and the end of the war. Perhaps, Coca-Cola was the only brand that was intrinsically attached to the soldiers in the opposite trenches.
The Atlanta-based transnational corporation continued to profiteer from its German business, which was headed by Max Keith (pronounced Kite), and became a favourite one for the Nazis, as its advertisements conformed with the National Socialism rhetoric.
It was in Nazi Germany, that Keith, who admired Hitler and used the Nazi banners in the company’s factories and offices, innovated what’s now known as Fanta. The drink was necessitated due to the lack of American syrups for the original drink.
Years after the Third Reich was uprooted by the Allies, primarily the Soviet Union in 1945, Keith was reinstated, and his Nazi past was washed off by the soda drink manufacturer. The public relations department of Coca-Cola was swift enough to clean the company’s blood-laced trail in Nazi Germany. The corporation claimed that as it wasn’t technically associated with the German Wehrmacht, it can’t be held responsible for the Nazi crimes.
Coca-Cola’s Zionist ties
From 1966 onwards, the Coca-Cola company became a supporter of the Zionist occupation. After 30 years of continuous support to the Zionists, the Israel Economic Mission honoured Coca-Cola in 1997.
Coca-Cola reportedly bankrolls the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce Awards, honouring businesses that contributed significantly to the Israeli economy. In 2009, the Coca-Cola-sponsored award went to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which is a pro-Israel lobbyist. The award was given to AIPAC for lobbying with the Senate to reject a UN call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the continuation of its siege by the Israeli forces.
Coca-Cola also honoured an Israeli war criminal of the Six-Day War, Ben Eliezer at its headquarters in 2009. Eliezer is accused of executing over 300 Egyptian prisoners of war during the Six-Day War.
Due to its continued support for the Israeli occupation, Coca-Cola also enjoys its share of the booty. The transnational corporation is accused of owning dairy farms in the illegal Israeli settlements of Shadmot Mechola in the Jordan Valley. It also runs a plant in the occupied Golan Heights’ Katzerin.
The Israeli government’s bonhomie with Coca-Cola isn’t affected by the company’s past collaboration with the Nazis. The Israeli government did penalise Coca-Cola in the past for unfair monopolistic acts, but not for its German subsidiary’s loyalty towards the Nazis. On its part, Coca-Cola has paid back to the Zionists through massive investments in the occupied territories.
The IBM story
IBM was among the first corporations to condemn the Hamas attacks and express solidarity with the Israelis following the October 7th attack. Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna issued a statement extending support to Israel following the attack in which one of its staff was reportedly killed.
While IBM’s involvement in the Zionist territory started in 1972, it had travelled a long way with the Nazis in Germany and provided the technical support in their census operations that helped in the extermination of the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s.
IBM, through its German subsidiary Dehomag, developed the infamous punch card and Hollerith systems that helped the Nazis in identifying and tracking the Jews. The Hollerith/punch card system helped the Nazis in their holocaust, for which Hitler was quite obliged towards the American corporation.
Thomas Watson, the founder of the IBM, helped the Nazis with the census. He received a medal from Hitler for his services to the Third Reich, and he fought to retain control of Dehomag even after Germany occupied France and started a war against Britain[iv].
Within 24 years of the formation of the Zionist state, IBM began its business there without any qualms regarding its association with the Nazis in the past. The Zionist government also wasn’t bothered about IBM’s murky past and remained contended with increasing investments from the American corporation.
American double standards
Over 150 American corporations aided Hitler’s Third Reich in its holocaust and war efforts. American giants like General Motors and Ford helped the Nazi Wehrmacht with military vehicles, Standard Oil fuelled the Nazi juggernaut, while many others provided support for money in other formats.
Capitalism’s rules make nothing immoral in the market. Thus, American corporations have no remorse for their past deed that aided the holocaust and killed millions. But they also love business opportunities.
So, when the Zionist Israel was founded with Nazi-type violence against the indigenous Palestinian people, the American corporations found their interests lying in collaboration with the Zionists. It was also important for the corporations to support the Israeli regime as it remained a close ally of the US during the Cold War with the Soviet Union and beyond that.
The Zionist state also needs validation, support and incessant grants and military equipment supplies. Thus, while it portrays itself as a victim —at the hands of the Nazis and at the hands of the marginalised Arabs— to win the sympathy of the West, it remains tight-lipped about the role that the US-based transnational corporations played in the genocide of Jews.
Thus, the US corporations that stopped their businesses in Russia following Moscow’s special military operations in Ukraine to de-Nazify the latter, remain nonchalant about the Israeli war crimes. None of the corporations dared to quit Israel even after it bombed a hospital in the Gaza Strip.
Therefore, in this you-scratch-my-back-I-scratch-your situation, Israel’s Zionist rulers are very comfortable sharing their bed with the American corporations that have—because they weren’t punished for their complicities in the genocides—the blood of the Jews on their hands.
The American corporations are also happy to support a neo-Nazi-styled government that relies on the genocide of Palestinians and the forceful occupation of their lands and resources for survival. At the end of the day, it’s through Israel that the US and its corporations want to retain military hegemony in the turbulent Middle East.
[i] Quoted by Charles Higham in “Trading With the Enemy”.
[ii] Edwin Black, “Eugenics and the Nazis – the California Connection,” San Francisco Chronicle (San
Francisco), November 9th, 2003,
http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/09/ING9C2QSKB1.DTL&ao=5
[iii] Robert Jay Lifton, “The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide”, New York,
Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1986.
[iv] Black, “IBM and the Holocaust”.
