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Americans are waking up to right-wing antisemitism. We’re still ignoring the root problem
Nick Fuentes is ascendant. The millennial neo-Nazi with a growing base of followers, called Groypers, is finally entering the mainstream after years of working in the darkest corners of the internet. His recent appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast set off a civil war on the right — one that shows no signs of abating, as new reports suggest Republican Jewish donors are struggling to decide how to respond to the crisis.
I, like many others, believe that Fuentes and his movement have brought the Republican Party, and much of the American right, closer to a culture that embraces open antisemitism than at any point in modern history. But attributing that change to Fuentes doesn’t tell the full story of how we got here. Not just in the United States, but around the world.
Because the real engine behind the rise of antisemitism today is the far-right’s digital ecosystem, which is primed to elevate fringe extremists like Fuentes, integrate them into other movements, and deliver their message to millions. Individuals matter, but that ecosystem matters far more. And that is the part we still are not talking about enough.
Change does not happen through individuals. It happens through networks. The danger posed by someone like Fuentes is obvious, but it is still the danger of a single propagandist. The danger posed by the major distribution networks enabling him and his ilk is different. It is structural. Platforms can decide who gets amplified, who gets reinstated, and which narratives move from the fringe into the mainstream. And amid President Donald Trump’s second term, as social media networks have broadly done away with content moderation in response to criticism suggesting it silences conservative ideas, that power is more dangerous that ever.
Trump may be the MAGA movement’s leader. But it is networks of influencers, podcasters, and others that allowed him to politically survive past the disastrous end of his first term and win the popular vote in 2024. And those people were able to succeed because the owners of social media platforms allowed them to spread the bigotry, false facts, and conspiracy theories required to keep him afloat.
The most obvious case of this truth is that of Elon Musk, whom I argued in the Forward more than two years ago is the most dangerous antisemite in this country. That argument still holds true. Fuentes was not on Twitter before Musk bought it. He had been suspended by virtually every social media platform and streaming service, includingYouTube, Reddit, TikTok and Spotify, for his hateful, bigoted rhetoric, and his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol.
In 2024, Musk reinstated him, allowing him to tap into a network to which he previously did not have access. Musk also reinstated countless other antisemites and bigots, including Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, and David Icke, popularizer of the antisemitic conspiracy theory that claims the world is run by shapeshifting alien lizard people.
One of the early signs that Musk would make his platform friendly to those who spread antisemitism came when he offered Tucker Carlson a chance to host a show on X after the pundit was fired in disgrace from Fox News. There, Carlson had obsessively shared conspiracy theories about George Soros, mainstreamed the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, and platformed Kanye West’s antisemitism. Once Carlson accepted his offer, Musk, known for gaming the algorithm to his advantage, used both his own massive following and X itself to elevate Carlson.
Carlson has used that launchpad to build a powerful independent audience. The result: His interview with Nick Fuentes alone was seen by 18 million people on Twitter and 6.5 million on YouTube. Millions more accessed it via audio podcast channels, where Carlson consistently sits on the top of the charts. As of this writing, his is the 5th most popular podcast on Spotify. This does not include viewership of the countless clips shared by other accounts, which get spread to tens of millions.
To put this in perspective, at its most popular, Carlson’s show on Fox News was viewed by 5.3 million people.
X helped return Carlson to the mainstream. It platformed Fuentes. And then Carlson made Fuentes mainstream, bringing him new visibility and legitimizing his views among those who would otherwise be put off by them.
In other words, he gave Fuentes access to a whole new network — one that has allowed antisemitism and far-right bigotry to thrive in this new era.
X is at the center of the ecosystem. A recent report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs found that posts containing antisemitic language got 193 million views between February 2024 and January 2025. Particularly striking was that 9 out of 10 of the biggest antisemitic influencers on X had more followers on that platform than any other.
But the reality is bigger than X. It is bigger than Musk. It is a phenomenon that has spread across the internet — especially as platforms like Facebook and YouTube have ceded responsibility for fact-checking and content moderation.
Media Matters recently diagnosed this issue, showing that “Nine of the 10 online shows… with the largest total following across platforms were right-leaning, accounting for at least 197 million total followers and subscribers.”
Even if X disappeared, Musk’s efforts with it have helped create an ecosystem for antisemitism to thrive in. Even if Carlson, Musk, and Fuentes disappeared, the issue would remain.
That’s because we’ve come to a point at which the power of far-right networks outstrips that of the platforms on which they exist. Many of the antisemitic influencers taking off on X existed well before it became their platform of choice. They have learned from experience that they must exist in multiple places if they wish to maintain their influence; even if they are banned from certain platforms in the future, they’ve succeeded in building audiences that will likely travel with them.
Unfortunately, many of those fighting antisemitism have not learned the same lesson.
If digital networks like this are the engine of political change today, then the test for any movement fighting antisemitism is whether it can build such a network of its own. The far-right has done this with remarkable focus. Our institutions have not.
Instead, they’ve increasingly turned inward, creating an echo chamber focused on combatting criticism of Israel, while failing to sufficiently engage with these serious and growing domestic threats.
While the far-right links its influencers, platforms, funders, and micro-cultures into a self-reinforcing ecosystem, Jewish institutions have built closed loops that rarely reach beyond their traditional base.
This is not the way to make change: It is the way to lose influence.
The post Americans are waking up to right-wing antisemitism. We’re still ignoring the root problem appeared first on The Forward.
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4 killed in Haifa strike as Trump issues ‘you’ll be living in Hell’ ultimatum to Tehran
(JTA) — Four people — including a couple in their 80s — were killed when an Iranian missile crashed into their home in Haifa on Sunday, in the latest direct strike in the month-old U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
The missile was not intercepted because it had broken off from a larger munition, determined Israeli authorities, who said the people killed were not in their building’s bomb shelter at the time of the strike.
The strike brings the civilian death toll in Israel to 18 as uncertainty reigns about the future of the war, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening multiple times over the weekend to pummel Iran imminently if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil shipping imminently.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Sunday. “Open the F–kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Iran offered no indication that it would meet Trump’s deadline, which comes as the president has extended previous deadlines for action by Tehran. A top Iranian official said the regime would respond “crushingly and extensively” to further attacks on civilian targets, including power plants and bridges. And a spokesman for the foreign ministry responded to questions about a reported framework for a ceasefire by saying, “Negotiations are in no way compatible with ultimatums, crimes, or threats of war crimes.”
The sparring comes after a dramatic weekend in the war. U.S. forces rescued an airman whose plane had been shot down during a commando raid in rural Iran, while Israel said it had killed the intelligence chief of the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guards during a strike on an office building in Tehran.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post 4 killed in Haifa strike as Trump issues ‘you’ll be living in Hell’ ultimatum to Tehran appeared first on The Forward.
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High-Stakes US Special Forces Mission Rescues Airman From Iran After F-15 Crash
FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft takes off for a mission supporting Operation Epic Fury during the Iran war at an undisclosed location, March 9, 2026. U.S. Air Force/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
US forces staged the audacious rescue of an airman behind enemy lines after Iran downed his fighter jet, officials said on Sunday, resolving a crisis for President Donald Trump as he weighs escalating the war, now in its sixth week.
The airman rescued by special operations forces, who Trump said was a colonel, was the weapons-systems officer on the downed F-15, a US official told Reuters.
“Over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History,” Trump said in a statement, adding that the airman was injured but “he will be just fine.”
The officer was the second of two crew members on the warplane that Iran said on Friday had been brought down by its air defenses. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said several aircraft were destroyed during the US rescue mission, Tasnim news agency reported.
Reuters reported on Friday that the first crew member had been retrieved, triggering a high-profile search by both Iran and the United States for the remaining airman.
Iranian officials had urged citizens to help find him, hoping to gain leverage against Washington in the war Trump and Israel launched on February 28.
Trump has threatened to escalate the conflict in the coming days with attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Had Iran captured the airman, the ensuing hostage crisis could have shifted American public perception of a conflict that opinion polls show was already unpopular.
Trump said the airman was rescued “in the treacherous mountains of Iran” in what he said was the first time in military memory that two US pilots had been rescued, separately, deep in enemy territory.
The official told Reuters that as the weapons-systems officer was moved from near a mountain to a transport aircraft parked within Iran, US forces had to destroy at least one of the aircraft because it had malfunctioned.
U.S. AIRCRAFT HIT
The rescue effort, involving dozens of military aircraft, encountered fierce resistance from Iran.
Reuters reported on Friday that two Black Hawk helicopters involved in the search were hit by Iranian fire but escaped from Iranian airspace.
Separately, a pilot ejected from an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft after it was hit over Kuwait and crashed, the officials said, though the extent of crew injuries was unclear.
Still, Trump was triumphant.
“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” he said in his statement.
US air crews are trained in what to do if they go down behind enemy lines, measures known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, but few are fluent in Persian and face a challenge in staying undetected while seeking rescue.
The conflict has killed 13 US military service members, with more than 300 wounded, US Central Command says. No US troops have been taken prisoner by Iran.
While Trump has repeatedly sought to portray the Iranian military as being in tatters, they have repeatedly been able to hit US aircraft.
Reuters reported on US intelligence showing that Iran retains large amounts of missile and drone capability. Until just over a week ago, the US could only determine with certainty that it had destroyed about one-third of Iran’s missile arsenal.
The status of about another third was less clear, but bombings probably damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers, Reuters sources said.
The US and Israeli war on Iran has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and hitting the global economy with soaring energy prices that are fueling fears of inflation.
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On Easter, Pope Leo Urges World Leaders to End Wars, Renounce Conquest
Pope Leo XIV waves from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after delivering his “Urbi et Orbi” (To the city and the world) message, on Easter Sunday at the Vatican, April 5, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli
Pope Leo urged global leaders in his Easter message on Sunday to end the conflicts raging across the world and abandon any schemes for power, conquest or domination.
The pope, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war, lamented in a special message to the thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square that people “are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent.”
“Let those who have weapons lay them down!” the first US pope exhorted. “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!”
Leo did not mention any specific conflicts in the message, known as the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) blessing. It was unusually brief and direct.
The pope said that the story of Easter, when the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead three days after not resisting his execution by crucifixion, shows that Christ was “entirely nonviolent.”
“On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination, and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars,” Leo urged.
Leo, who is known for choosing his words carefully, has been forcefully decrying the world’s violent conflicts in recent weeks and ramping up his criticism of the Iran war.
In a sermon for the Easter vigil on Saturday night, he urged people not to feel numbed by the scope of the conflicts raging across the world but to work for peace.
The pope made a rare direct appeal to US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, urging him to find an “off-ramp” to end the Iran war.
In his address from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday to the Square below, decorated with thousands of brightly colored flowers for the holiday, Leo offered brief Easter greetings in ten languages, including Latin, Arabic and Chinese.
The pope also announced he would return to the Basilica on April 11 to host a prayer vigil for peace.