Left and right: case studies in hating Israel and the Jews
Lovely guy, that Mamdani.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
Speaking at a New York University event in September 2023, Democratic socialist state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani made one of his most despicable, antisemitic remarks yet. He said, “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it is been laced by the IDF.” …
Contemptible as Mamdani’s dubious connection between the NYPD and Israel is, it was not original. He was merely parroting a talking point from the long-running, anti-Israel “Deadly Exchange” campaign, which was created by the anti-Zionist, left-wing advocacy group, Jewish Voice for Peace. …
At the time, LI’s Samantha Mandeles noted that the campaign, which sought “to blame American Jews and Israelis for alleged U.S. domestic police violence against minorities,” played a large role in “bringing the Middle East conflict to the streets of Los Angeles, New York, and elsewhere.”
She explained:
“The conflict provided a new opportunity for ‘intersectional’ anti-Israel agitators to portray Israel as the common denominator in oppressions all over the world, including racism in the United States.”
In other words, the Jews killed George Floyd, according to Mamdani and many on the left. This approach tries to play on resentment of Jews by other minorities, and to build on it. It’s a variation on older themes, and as we know, it’s become a dominant force on the left.
Meanwhile on the right we have over-the-top anti-Jew conspiracy theorist Candace Owens (I’ve written about her in this post) as well as “duh, I’m just asking questions” Tucker Carlson, who aired the idea that COVID was engineered to spare Jews, and states that “Zionist Christians” – that is, pro-Israel Christians – are people whom he “dislikes more than anybody” and accuses of “heresy”:
Tucker Carlson tells Nick Fuentes he despises Christian Zionists more than anyone on earth, calling Christian Zionism a dangerous heresy within Christianity.
He names Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, John Bolton, Karl Rove, and George W. Bush as examples.
Carlson says Christian Zionism… pic.twitter.com/741M5Tuvbj
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) October 28, 2025
Carlson has millions of followers, and they act as multipliers spreading poison all around. I don’t think it’s a good idea to discount them. Just to take one tiny little example, on one “X” thread that displayed that same Carlson video, there’s this lovely sentiment in a response, “Most Christians agree. Christian Zionism: the belief that God favors a group that rejects Christ and has given them a land where they’re allowed to kill rape and torture without judgment … .”
I see that sort of thing – and worse – constantly online. Although it may not have made enormous inroads yet, it’s gaining. I think that Carlson wants to be Kirk’s successor – although Kirk was, in his own way, certainly a “Christian Zionist” – and to wrest control of the Christian right from the Israel-sympathizers.
Tucker is happy to be owned by Qatar.
You might be right, om.
Properly speaking, “Christian Zionism” is probably related to the dispensationalist belief that the reunion of all Jews in the Holy Land is a necessary event before the return of Christ, the end of things, and the general resurrection. But there are plenty of Christians who, while not holding this particular view, nonetheless support Israel. There’s no telling what eminent theologian (/sarc) Tucker Carlson thinks the term means. The time has certainly arrived for conservatives and Republicans to disavow Carlson, Fuentes, Owens, and any other Jew-haters.
om:
I think it’s worse than that. I think he’s sincere. Thing is, Tucker doesn’t need Qatar’s money. He’s extraordinarily wealthy already
neo:
He has turned out to be quite the tool of Satan. Just because the left wants you destroyed doesn’t mean that you are just or righteous.
I used to listen to Tucker and Candace Owens; but that was before they fell into the abyss of inanity.
The fall of Tucker Carlson has been so disheartening and surprising. And in such a short time. I’ve heard people like Megyn Kelly and Dana Loesch talk about him. It’s like someone who was a great friend who then went off the deep end. You can’t bring yourself to rip into him but you let it be known that a wide chasm has formed and puzzling things have to be answered before (if ever) it goes back to normal. I wonder what caused it?
I suspect it was always there. Once he left Fox and went out on his own he felt free to unleash it. I’m hoping he’s mistaken about that, meaning that there are serious repercussions for his career.
This link is a bit off topic in that it doesn’t have much to do with antisemitism, but I’ve been paying a lot more attention to the “new right” since I totally missed and underestimated its rise.
https://reason.com/2025/09/26/the-american-new-right-looks-like-the-european-old-right/
If you go down that rabbit hole you’re going to soon encounter the name Carl Schmitt. He seems to be one of their most revered political thinkers. The link above discusses his political thoughts. It’s from Reason, so it’s not flattering, but also being from Reason, I don’t think they mischaracterize him either.
I agree wholeheartedly, chazzand. For years, Tucker was a quirky but interesting populist critic of the establishment right, particularly of neoconservatives. One didn’t always agree with him, but he made a lot of valid points that were well worth discussing. His annoying high patched cackles aside, he was thought provoking and engaging.
That all seems to have evaporated. He now appears committed to antisemitic conspiracies, and little else. His bromance with the odious Darryl Cooper was bad enough; but this bizarre, almost fawning interview with the even more odious Nick Fuentes is really beyond the pale.
For any conservative who wonders why Jewish Americans still vote heavily Democrat, despite the party’s open hostility to Israel and mainstreaming of open Anti-Semites like Mamdani, Tlaib, Omar, etc…..the right have a major antisemitism problem too. And it centers around Carlson. Cranks like Cooper and Fuentes are nothing new. But from about the time Bill Buckley drew a line in the sand, they’ve largely been confined to the fringe. Now, they are creeping into the mainstream. Carlson is largely to blame, for giving them a big platform.
I think many of us wonder what happened to Tucker. Is he just out for money and fame, and decided pandering to the Jew hating fringe right is the best way to maintain both? Has he just recently gone down the antisemitic rabbit hole (alas, it happens a lot with conservative populists), or have these always been his true beliefs?
Regardless, there next to be a clean break. I agree with Jonathan Turley’s excellent article; the Trump administration should publicly disavow Tucker, repercussions be damned. Vance should be the one to do it; if the President himself did so, it would cause too much of a stir and could be exploited by the left to drive a wedge in MAGA.
But it needs to be done.
Well that didn’t take long…
“…Terrorist released in hostage deal re-arrested in Bethlehem on suspicion of planning massive terror attack to be carried out on Saturday.”—
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/417051
+ Bonus:
“Meet the Socialist Socialites
As Democrats Prepare to Kiss Mamdani’s Ring.”—
https://www.sashastone.com/p/meet-the-socialist-socialites
H/T Powerline blog.
He’s a NY socialist or NYzi, a Diversitist, Pro-Choice religious, and proponent of redistributive change schemes.
I’m keeping my eye on Vance about this. If he’s going to be GOP nominee in 2028, I need to know that he’s not going to be paying footsie with this garbage.
There’s no “whataboutism” that fixes this, and no ambiguity about it. There’s no way to “finesse” Nick Fuentes and, unfortunately, it’s becoming more difficult to finesse Tucker Carlson.
Vance needs to make clean break.
Bauxite- agreed. Although I’ve always been a fan of Vance, Marco Rubio is starting to look to me like a better choice for 2028.
Vance is a smart guy, and his opinions on most things are solid, so I hope he will become aware of Tucker’s sad slide at some point.
I read Slate.com every morning- it’s entertaining both for political stuff to learn what progressives are thinking, and the multiple advice columns are hysterical due to the infinite variety of their living situations and identities (it’s mostly behind a paywall but that is easy to get around). Their biggest heroes are Zohran, AOC, and others I have never heard of. It’s like how WaPo would be without adult supervision. Fetterman, Schumer are their baddies, Trump is Emmanuel Goldstein.
The encouraging thing about the current situation is that Neo’s denouncing of Tucker, Fuentes, and the like is echoed in multiple other hard right locales (insty, powerline, et al.), but there is no corresponding denunciation of such on the left. We do have enemies to the right, they are being called out by mainstream righties, and we should be proud of that. Our tent is big, but not infinite.
Progressives have no analogous sense of limits or shame- they will embrace any person and accept any concept, however odious, that they believe will increase their grip on power.
The contrast is, and will remain, obvious.
Kate – I find it impossible to believe that Vance is not aware of Tucker. When Vance guest-hosted Charlie Kirk’s show last month, Tucker was the guest.
Yes, but is he up to date on Tucker’s most recent weird opinions and interviews?
I’m quite doubtful that allowing others to put you on some hamster wheel where you’re in the business of denouncing people who appeal to some of the same people you do is a sensible thing to do (particularly if you have to squander time researching what these others have actually said). If you state your own views with clarity, that should suffice.
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I also think poring over the literature of pre-millennial dispensationalism is an activity you should do as a part of your religious education if you can allocate the time. Doesn’t make much sense for most of us more than once in our life.
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I don’t think Fuentes or Owens is a consequential figure. Tucker Carlson is; he appears to be attracted to repellent characters (Darryl Cooper) because he’s an antagonist of people connected to Norman Podhoretz and Irving Kristol in some way. Just decline invitations to his show and leave it at that.
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‘Neo con’ and ‘neoconservative’ are nonsense terms.
Yes, but is he up to date on Tucker’s most recent weird opinions and interviews?
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Vance is a busy man so likely doesn’t have much rent-free space in his head to bone up on Tucker Carlson’s excursions. He does have a scheduling and PR staff which should contain someone who has the maps to the minefield.
Here’s a satisfactory rule of thumb: anyone who accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza is someone you should never take seriously on any subject.
@ Art Deco 1:01 p.m.: Agreed. At some point Vance’s staff will read conservative blogs and commentary and carefully start edging Carlson out.
I was wondering if Bauxite or CC™ would weigh in on Tucker and J D Vance. Is Vance to be the Little White Whale?
@Art Deco:I’m quite doubtful that allowing others to put you on some hamster wheel where you’re in the business of denouncing people who appeal to some of the same people you do is a sensible thing to do (particularly if you have to squander time researching what these others have actually said). If you state your own views with clarity, that should suffice.
100% agree. Denouncing on demand is the sort of thing that incentivizes more of it the more you give in to it.
There are lots of single-issue voters out there, for some it’s guns, for some it’s abortion, for some it’s Israel, and there are plenty of obscure ones. Vance holds the sort of office that, if he’s doing it right, should not be focused on anyone’s single issue.
Land prices in Connecticut and Westchester are exploding as people flee NYC according to a Instapundit post.
First off, while there was a time that I listened to Carson’s podcast, partly because it was long enough to last throughout my workout, I was always put off by his maniacal giggle. I overlooked it, but shouldn’t have because it was a dead giveaway. As time went on and he platformed more and more outliers and verbalized more and more outlandish opinions (always “just asking,” of course) I quit him cold turkey. Now I see that he’s become quite the Jew baiter, but again, “just asking.” I am what most people would call an evangelical Christian and I support Israel to the point that I am disappointed Trump reigned Netanyahu in on the matter of eliminating the cancer on humanity that is hamas. But I also see/hear him disparaging the pro-Israel Christian community as if we are some sort of heretical sect, whereas it is he and his Biblically ignorant blather that is truly heretical. I can sympathize with those who criticize him as an islamic apologist lickspittle.
@ Mile Plaiss > from your link:
Sounds an awful lot like the Old Left to me.
Why are we using the vocabulary of the Leftist to do their dirty work tarring the legitimate conservatives on the “Old Right” by association of the labels?
Remember that THEY are the ones insisting that the Southern slave states and Hitler were “on the right” – we should not buy their snake-oil.
@ Barry > “Meet the Socialist Socialites-As Democrats Prepare to Kiss Mamdani’s Ring.”
Excellent post by Sasha Stone, especially the two embedded TikTok videos by the very eloquent young Iranian woman (exposing Mamdani’s support for Hamas and how totalitarians always promise liberation); and the less eloquent but persuasively sardonic young Russian woman about life in the USSR and how socialism always leads to the same disasters.
TikTok has good stuff – who knew??!!
The left includes all of the NCCNGTA (National Council of Churches Nobody Goes To Anymore).
For them, Christian Zionists have a function. Same as Christian Nationalist and White Supremacist. They are Designated Villain Groups. If you’re flat out of facts or arguments, you accuse your opponent of being one of those. He is supposed to be utterly defeated and there is no response.
Decades ago, Opus Dei was a Designated Victim Group but they wore out.
See how fast, how soon after Oct 7, any denomination of the NCCNGTA was lamenting the plight of the poor, innocent Palestininans.
Correction to above; Opus Dei was a designated villain group.