By Jonathan S. Tobin
(JNS) — Some of Tucker Carlson’s defenders and apologists have argued that the backlash against him isn’t really about antisemitism.
Given the cozy interviews he’s granted to Nick Fuentes and Holocaust-denier “historian” Daryl Cooper, that’s not an argument anyone should take seriously. There’s no doubt that Carlson is determined to move the Overton Window of acceptable discourse so as to make it acceptable to engage in a wide variety of antisemitic tropes aimed at stigmatizing Jews and anything to do with the Jewish state.
But it’s also true that there is an ongoing debate about foreign policy in which Carlson’s efforts to aid the cause of delegitimizing the Jewish state and its supporters is playing a significant role. As Carlson has made clear, the ultimate target of his attacks isn’t really Jews or even the state of Israel. He’s just as, if not more, interested in taking down Americans who support it, thereby altering American foreign policy in the Middle East.
If he is to be stopped, it won’t be because conservative supporters of the U.S.-Israel alliance speak up in defense of Israel. Rather, it will be because Vice President JD Vance, who is not only Carlson’s avowed friend and ally, does so.
The phrase Carlson uses is “Israel First,” which is an attempt to disparage anyone who backs the U.S.-Israel alliance as not merely unpatriotic but also somehow at odds with President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy. The expression is essentially an antisemitic trope about dual loyalty. That’s why the vice president needs to show that he is prepared to challenge allies to his right. If he fails to do so, it will not only hurt the country; it will also harm Vance’s own chances of following Trump into the Oval Office.
Unlike the left, the overwhelming majority of American conservatives do not hate Israel. Nor are they antisemitic.
But a growing and increasingly loud minority on the right who are hostile to Israel view it as being part of a conspiracy to undermine American sovereignty. They regurgitate Carlson’s canards about Israel’s supporters — both Jews and evangelical Christians — wrongly manipulating the United States into conflicts in which it has no stake. Some of them also believe this is a threat to Christianity and white supremacy. Their support comes from a group of predominantly male youngsters who are influenced by the likes of Carlson, podcaster Candace Owens and the vile Fuentes.
Which faction poses the greater threat to what is left of what was once optimistically termed as a bipartisan pro-Israel consensus? And how do we reach and persuade either variety of Israel-haters — whether on the left or the right — that they’re wrong?
Given that Trump is the most pro-Israel president since the founding of the modern Jewish state, and that the base of the GOP is largely evangelical and devoted to the welfare of Israel, that doesn’t make sense. The Republican GOP congressional caucuses are both strongly supportive of Israel.
But it would be a mistake to underestimate the potential of those who cheer on Carlson.
Indeed, as Vance’s response to a question from a student at a Turning Point USA event indicated, signs of real trouble are on the horizon. The student asked why the United States supports Israel and gives it “hundreds of billions of dollars.” He also questioned both the value of the alliance and repeated slanders about “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, and claimed that not only did Israelis practice a different religion but “openly support the prosecution of ours.”
Vance could have shot down the lies about “ethnic cleansing” and Israeli persecution of Christians. But he didn’t. Instead, he expressed sympathy with the student and asserted that the Trump administration wasn’t getting bossed around by Jerusalem.
Vance made a compelling case last year that the Jewish state was a model ally for an “America First” administration, since it is willing to do its own fighting and has shared interests with the United States. But right now, he seems more interested in maintaining his close friendship with Carlson and appealing to the audience who watches him and other far-right podcasts than in telling the truth about the antisemitic libels directed at Israel.
The populist national conservative wing of the GOP seems to be increasingly worried about its young voters being under the influence of antisemites.
As conservative thinker Rod Dreher noted in his Substack, he’s now convinced that “between 30 and 40 percent” of the Zoomers who work in official Republican Washington are fans of Nick Fuentes.” If the actual number is anywhere close to that number, it isn’t merely shocking. It’s something that ought to be setting off alarms among those who have confidently assumed that the right was immune to antisemitism.
As someone who has opposed an unlimited U.S. commitment to the war in Ukraine and the need to prioritize the coming threat from China, Vance has the standing to take the opportunity to reiterate the arguments for the alliance with Israel at a time when many on the right look to him for leadership to defend the conservative movement from antisemites.
He could point out that, contrary to Carlson’s assertions, the United States benefits enormously from security cooperation, joint weapons and technology development and intelligence-sharing with Israel.
He could make it clear that almost all of the billions in military aid that Israel receives is spent in the United States and is, in reality, just as much an aid program for American arms manufacturers, and that assisting them is just as crucial for the U.S. as it is for the Jewish state.
He could also argue that far from persecuting Christians, the Jewish state is the only country in the Middle East where Christians can live and worship freely. That’s something unimaginable in virtually every Muslim and Arab country, including Qatar, which Carlson falsely lauds as a true American ally.
The vice president seems to be making a political calculation that he can’t afford to alienate Carlson’s and Fuentes’s fans if he is to secure the support of the right in future races.
That’s unfortunate and not just because at a time of an unprecedented surge in antisemitism, the country needs moral leadership. It’s potentially dangerous because the longer Carlson and those on the right who share his obsessive hatred of Israel are allowed to expand their foothold in mainstream conservative discourse, the stronger they will grow.
That will not only fuel the Jew-hatred on the right. It will lend legitimacy to the anti-Israel Democrats and fumble a GOP opportunity to seize the political center.
Repudiating the far-right won’t deprive Vance of the votes he needs to obtain the 2028 GOP presidential nomination. But it could cost him the general election if he makes the same mistake as Harris did in 2024: allowing himself to be captured by extremist allies.