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The antisemites are enjoying themselves
In a radio interview 16 years ago, Rick Sanchez of Rick’s List on CNN at the time complained that comedian Jon Stewart and other “elite Northeast establishment liberals” had it out for him.
“Yeah, very powerless people,” Sanchez huffed after the host mentioned Stewart was Jewish. “Everyone who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart and a lot of people who run the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah.”
Sanchez had worked himself into a furious state before sputtering accusations that were dissected in an extended news cycle — pundits debated whether “elite Northeast liberal” was an antisemitic dogwhistle. The fallout destroyed his career.
Things have changed in the years since Sanchez was fired. Rants about Jews have become more mainstream and, notably, those espousing these views are less likely to fulminate than they are to speak with a bemused irony or detachment.
I was struck by this distinction while watching a viral clip of Julian Casablancas, lead singer of The Strokes, on Subway Takes, a social media show filmed on public transit. It has millions of followers and enough cultural cachet that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sought appearances during their White House run, each seeking to share a clever-enough “hot take” to endear themselves to the show’s massive audience.
Casablancas made his way through a series of boring takes — sending people audio messages is bad, modern cars are boring — before he landed on the take that went viral: “American Zionists get the benefits of white-privileged people but talk like they are Black people during slavery.”
What struck me most about the interview was how gleefully Casablancas built up to what was clearly a rehearsed opinion.
“Why don’t we turn the dial up a little bit,” Kareem Raheem, host of Subway Takes, had said early in the conversation.
“A bit?” Casablancas asked with a smirk. “Or all the way?”
He saved his thoughts about “American Zionists” until the very end: “You want the most controversial one? I know you do,” he told Raheem. “Well, it’s been nice having a career with you.”
Casablancas spoke with none of Sanchez’s venom but rather presented himself as gleefully speaking truth to power. It struck me that, where American antisemitism used to be angry, as in the rant from Sanchez and similar tirades by celebrities like Mel Gibson and Kanye West, it has become almost fun for the agitators. Where Sanchez actually did lose his career over his comments, Casablancas can joke about the idea.
Part of what’s going on is that it has never been more acceptable to criticize Israel or Zionism.
This is a huge victory for Israel’s critics who genuinely care about changing American foreign policy. But it simultaneously poses a conundrum for those who had used their criticism of Israel to signal they held verboten beliefs about our political order — beliefs that could range from a generic distrust in “the man” to conspiracy theories about Jewish cabals.
When Casablancas and The Strokes projected a montage of images from the destruction of Gaza during their performance at Coachella earlier this month, they generated a few headlines but there wasn’t widespread outrage. The display likely aligned with the views of many in the young audience.
And so those who want attention, or want to portray themselves as a maverick or outsider, someone who is bold enough to voice uncomfortable truths, must make clear that their criticism of Israel is about something more than Palestinian human rights.
Casablancas used his platform on Subway Takes to call for a populist political movement to “fight the real billionaire gang agenda villains.” But he hastened to caution against class warfare, describing something more amorphous. The only bad billionaires, he clarified, were the ones who sought to “deceive people” and owned media outlets.
This kind of squishy populism, which calls for rooting out a malevolent subset of the ruling class, has animated antisemitism for centuries, and Casablancas mentioned it immediately before complaining about how privileged and whiny “American Zionists” are.
If Casablancas, who is not Jewish, had clearly stated what seemed to be his core contentions — that many Jews don’t recognize that they benefit from being white and that Israel’s supporters exaggerate the severity of antisemitism — viewers of the lighthearted subway-based talk show on which he was appearing might have wondered why he was sharing his thoughts on Jewish identity. Both of those ideas have already been debated ad nauseam by American Jews themselves, so my guess is the clip would have generated a tiny fraction of the controversy in which pro-Israel influencers assailed Casablancas and progressives including Hasan Piker rushed to defend him.
That controversy was a feature, not a bug. All of Casablancas’ vamping about how controversial and career-ending his comments were about to be, and his decision to refer to “American Zionists” when he obviously meant Jews, suggested that the singer wanted to offend while maintaining a degree of plausible deniability.
We’ve seen similar escalations elsewhere.
On the right, this new style of antisemitism often retains a harder edge. James Fishback, who is running in the Republican primary for Florida governor, has mocked Byron Donalds, his Black opponent, for supporting Israel: “We will pull him over, check for drugs, and then arrest him for betraying America to Israel.”
And, on the left and apolitical center there has been a proliferation of memes ostensibly intended to denigrate Israel but often used to troll Jews or anyone else trying to raise sincere concerns about antisemitism.
When Adam Aleksic, a popular TikTok creator and linguist, made a video explaining how “goy” had become an antisemitic dogwhistle — something that is objectively true and unrelated to Israel — his comments were flooded with jokes about how he was being paid by Israel or AIPAC: “Bro got the paycheck 😭💀,” “Gee I could really use around $7k right now,” “’big yahu when will I get the check?’ 🥀.”
These impish expressions of antisemitism are more insidious than the angry outbursts that characterized previous antisemitism scandals.
Riffs that use coded language are harder to push back against, and easier for audiences to latch onto. Watching Casablancas laugh with Raheem, the charismatic host of Subway Takes, it’s much easier to find yourself nodding along than when you hear Gibson drunkenly rant to a police officer about Jews, or watch Ye talking about how he’d been drugged by a Jewish doctor while standing in a parking lot.
As antisemitism makes its way into popular culture with a wink and a nod, I fear that more people are going to want to get in on the joke.
The post The antisemites are enjoying themselves appeared first on The Forward.
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Israel-Lebanon Ceasefire Extended by Three Weeks, Trump Says
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in southern Lebanon, March 24, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said in a post on Truth Social the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by three weeks.
Trump posted on social media that he and several top officials in his administration met with Israeli and Lebanese representatives in the Oval Office.
“The Meeting went very well! The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” Trump said, referring to the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group which Israel was fighting before a temporary truce was reached earlier this month.
“The Ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by THREE WEEKS,” the president added. “I look forward in the near future to hosting the Prime Minister of Israel, [Benjamin] Netanyahu, and the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun. It was a Great Honor to be a participant at this very Historic Meeting!”
The US-mediated ceasefire, which was set to expire on Sunday, has yielded a significant reduction in violence, but attacks have continued in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops have seized a self-declared buffer zone.
Hezbollah says it has “the right to resist” occupying forces.
Wednesday marked Lebanon‘s deadliest day since the ceasefire took effect on April 16.
Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2, when the terrorist group opened fire in support of Tehran in the regional war. The ceasefire in Lebanon emerged separately from Washington’s efforts to resolve its conflict with Tehran, though Iran had called for Lebanon to be included in any broader truce.
Hezbollah said it carried out four operations in south Lebanon on Wednesday, saying they were a response to Israeli strikes.
Nearly 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel went on the offensive in response to Hezbollah’s March 2 attack, according to Lebanese authorities. Israeli officials say the vast majority of those killed have been Hezbollah terrorists.
Israel is occupying a belt of the south that extends 5 to 10 km (3 to 6 miles) into Lebanon, saying it aims to shield northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah, which has fired hundreds of rockets during the war.
The Lebanese government has opened direct contacts with Israel despite strong objections from Hezbollah, which was established by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun had said Beirut’s envoy to Thursday’s talks in Washington, Lebanese ambassador to the US Nada Moawad, would seek a ceasefire extension and a halt to demolitions being carried out by Israel in villages in the south.
A Lebanese official said Beirut wants a ceasefire extension as a prerequisite for talks to expand beyond the ambassadorial level to the next phase, in which Lebanon would push for an Israeli withdrawal, the return of Lebanese detained in Israel, and a delineation of the land border.
Israel says its objectives in the talks with Lebanon include securing the dismantlement of Hezbollah and creating conditions for a peace deal. Israel has sought to make common cause with the Lebanese government over Hezbollah, which Beirut has been seeking to disarm peacefully for the past year.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend Thursday’s meeting along with Vice President JD Vance and the US ambassadors to Israel and Lebanon. Israel was represented by its ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter.
Rubio hosted the first meeting between Leiter and Moawad on April 14 – the highest-level contact between Lebanon and Israel in decades.
Washington has denied any link between its Lebanon mediation and diplomacy over the Iran war.
Hezbollah says the Lebanon ceasefire was the result of Iranian pressure rather than US mediation.
Aoun has cited goals including halting Israeli attacks on Lebanon and securing the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
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Germany’s Hesse Moves to Criminalize Denial of Israel’s Right to Exist Amid Rising Antisemitism
Anti-Israel protesters march in Germany, March 26, 2025. Photo: Sebastian Willnow/dpa via Reuters Connect
The German state of Hesse is preparing to introduce legislation that would criminalize denying Israel’s right to exist, as authorities move to confront a surge in anti-Israel demonstrations and a growing tide of antisemitic rhetoric and attacks that have intensified pressure on Jewish communities across the country.
On Thursday, Hesse Minister-President Boris Rhein and Justice Minister Christian Heinz of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) announced the new initiative in the western German state, saying they plan to bring the draft law before the Bundesrat, the legislative chamber known as the Federal Council where Germany’s 16 state governments are represented, next month.
The proposed legislation would close what officials describe as a legal loophole by explicitly criminalizing the denial of Israel’s right to exist, with penalties of up to five years in prison or a fine, aligning it with existing provisions that punish Holocaust denial.
“This legislation sends a very clear signal to Jewish people in Germany that we stand firmly by their side, that their protection is our responsibility, and that we are serious about it,” Rhein said at a press conference.
Under current German law, denying Israel’s right to exist is not explicitly a criminal offense, though it can in some cases be prosecuted as incitement to hatred, meaning the legal framework does not directly outlaw calls for Israel’s elimination.
Benjamin Graumann, chairman of the board of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, welcomed the initiative, saying it marks an important step toward stronger protection for Jewish life in Germany.
“Since Oct. 7, 2023, we have experienced outbreaks of antisemitism that have surpassed our worst nightmares. And we hope that this law will help to better protect Jewish life,” Graumann said, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel more than two years ago.
Like most countries across Europe and the broader Western world, Germany has seen a shocking rise in antisemitic incidents over the last two years, in the wake of the Oct. 7 atrocities.
According to recently released figures, the number of antisemitic offenses in the country reached a record high in 2025, totaling 2,267 incidents, including violence, incitement, property damage, and propaganda offenses.
By comparison, officially recorded antisemitic crimes were significantly lower at 1,825 in 2024, 900 in 2023, and fewer than 500 in 2022, prior to the Oct. 7 atrocities.
Officials warn that the real number of antisemitic crimes is likely much higher, as many incidents go unreported.
In another attempt to address rising antisemitism, authorities in the eastern German state of Brandenburg last year introduced a new requirement that applicants for citizenship must affirm Israel’s right to exist, a policy that took effect on June 1 for those seeking naturalization and a German passport.
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Israel Taps Christian Envoy After Jailing Soldiers for Smashing Jesus Statue
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, left, and Geroge Deek, Israel’s newly appointed special envoy to the Christian world. Photo: Screenshot
Israel’s foreign minister said Thursday he had appointed former ambassador George Deek as a special envoy to the Christian world, amid a series of recent incidents involving Christian sites and leaders that have left ties strained.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the new role would focus on deepening Israel’s ties with Christian communities worldwide. Deek, who served as Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan and was the country’s first Christian ambassador, brings nearly two decades of diplomatic experience to the post. The appointment comes following fragile ceasefires with both Iran and its Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah.
Minister of Foreign Affairs @gidonsaar Appointed @GeorgeDeek as Special Envoy to the Christian World
Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar has appointed George Deek as Special Envoy to the Christian World. The appointment is intended to deepen Israel’s ties with Christian… pic.twitter.com/GvCQPucywO
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) April 23, 2026
It follows tensions in Jerusalem last month, when authorities initially prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to conduct Palm Sunday prayers, citing wartime restrictions and security concerns. The episode, which came days after an Iranian missile attack struck near the church, triggered anger in Italy and among Catholic leaders, eventually prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to issue a reversal allowing the Latin Patriarch to hold services “as he wishes.”
Deek’s appointment also comes days after an Israeli soldier was filmed smashing a statue of Jesus in a village in southern Lebanon, footage that circulated widely and drew condemnation. The soldier and the individual who filmed the act were both sentenced to 30 days in prison and removed from combat duty, according to the military. The incident prompted a rare, swift response from across Israel’s political and military leadership, underscoring concerns about the potential diplomatic fallout.
Following the completion of an initial examination regarding a photograph published earlier today of an IDF soldier harming a Christian symbol, it was determined that the photograph depicts an IDF soldier operating in southern Lebanon.
The IDF views the incident with great… https://t.co/U6P3x8KWBb
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 19, 2026
The military said it deeply regretted the incident, stressing that its operations in Lebanon are directed at Hezbollah and other militant groups, not civilians. It moved quickly to install a replacement statue in the southern Lebanese village, called Debel, though that was later swapped out for a replica of the original, arranged by the Italian UNIFIL contingent after residents of Debel reportedly objected to receiving one from the IDF.
In this instance too, Netanyahu intervened, saying he was “stunned and saddened” to learn of the incident.
“I condemn the act in the strongest terms,” he wrote on X on Monday. “Military authorities are conducting a criminal probe of the matter and will take appropriately harsh disciplinary action against the offender.”
Christian activist Maj. (res.) Shadi Khalloul, a one-time Knesset candidate who founded the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association, called the act “reprehensible,” but emphasized that the response from Israeli authorities had been decisive.
“These soldiers represent themselves. They do not represent the spirit of the IDF or the spirit of the state,” he said.
Khalloul contrasted the response with what he described as a lack of accountability in parts of the Middle East where violence against churches and Christian communities is met with silence or denial.
“The steps taken were very good,” he said. “The state didn’t evade responsibility, as most countries do, but made a strong and unequivocal statement, one that not only educates but also shows the beautiful spirit of Israel.”
More than 150 Jewish leaders from across the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements condemned the IDF soldier’s act, calling it a “desecration of God’s name” and “an affront” to Christian communities and to Jewish-Christian relations at a particularly sensitive time.
Khalloul described Deek’s appointment as “worthy and respectable,” calling the envoy “capable and successful.”
The timing of the envoy appointment suggests a recognition within Israel’s leadership that incidents involving Christian institutions, even when isolated, can quickly take on international significance, he added, but cautioned that its impact would depend on how the role is defined and executed.
As a member of Israel’s Arab Christian minority from the mixed Jewish and Arab city of Jaffa, Deek has often spoken about his identity and the role of Christians in Israeli society, framing it as a bridge between different communities. His tenure in Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority country with ties to Israel, was seen as a test case for such outreach.
Khalloul said he hoped Deek could help strengthen ties between Israel and Christian communities abroad while accurately reflecting the perspective of Israel’s Christian citizens, including their support for “preserving Israel as a strong Jewish and democratic state.”
“In the end, this is about the strength and security of the state for all of us,” he said.