After finishing the book I was unsure if this was satire, it seemed like it was made to sound egotistical or to villainise a certain group of people, in this case the Jewish. The narrator was certainly not one themself because they constantly mentioned “We the Jews” as if to convince the public that this was written by Jews. The entire book seems to try and instill fear into the public and convince them that the Jewish are trying to take over the world, which fed the conspiracy theory at the time. The theory that Jews were behind every global event, meaning that all wars were planned by them. Although over exaggerated and frankly impossible, this fear and hostility turned the Jewish population into easy Scapegoats, where organizations and political leaders then could blame them for everything.
The book is set up to appear like professional meeting notes from this “council of Zion”, the structure of the text is very similar to A Modest Proposal, where it actually sounds logical. The book’s protocols are divided to cover every part of society: economy, financial markets, media, education, etc. The Narrator attempts to make themselves look like they’re doing a favour for the world by weeding out all the Non Jews (Mainly Christians).
Anyone could see that the book is trying to pin the blame on Jews, yet if I was a middle or working class citizen in the early 20th century, where fear and uncertainty filled the streets… I would easily believe this text was legit. It would feed my perception, that my suffering is caused by someone else.
It’s true that in the book, they say the public is easy to sway. As long as they believe that their suffering is caused by someone or something else, they’ll hold onto it because who would want to believe you or your nation caused your own problems? Then they’ll reach towards a saviour who will get rid of their problems. Which is exactly what happened during Nazi Germany. (Corrupt) Political leaders will use anything to their advantage the manipulate the public to point their fingers at someone else, which further supports their fascist agenda.