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The great antisemitism rug pull
The declining fortunes of Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire media empire, which announced layoffs last week amid falling viewership across its network of shows on Youtube, is the latest evidence of a sudden erosion in the alliance between Jews and conservatives.
The partnership emerged around Donald Trump’s first election as Jews concerned about ascendant anti-Zionism were desperately casting about for allies. Conservatives realized they could lean into ironclad support for Israel while bashing their political opponents for being antisemitic. Among them: former Rep. Liz Cheney, who famously sought to brand Democrats as the party of antisemitism, infanticide and socialism during her stint in charge of campaign strategy for House Republicans.
It was an appealing line of attack because it seized on something liberals claimed to care about — minority rights — and offered evidence that the left was morally bankrupt. “Is it a mere accident that the loudest proponents of intersectionality also tend to be obsessed with ‘Jewish privilege’ and the alleged depredations of the Jewish state?” Sohrab Ahmari, a right-wing journalist, wrote in 2018.
Cheney, Ahmari and others making similar arguments were extending an olive branch to Jews from a conservative movement that had been plagued by antisemitism coming from its own “alt-right,” offering to welcome Jews into the patchwork of constituencies who they felt had been unfairly targeted by a progressive compulsion to split the world into “oppressors” and the “oppressed.”
This offer came with a bonus: Where progressives were pressuring Jews to move left on Israel, and sometimes applying offensive litmus tests around Zionism, these new partnerships with conservatives would require no such sacrifices or discomfort.
Many influential Jewish leaders were receptive.
David Bernstein, chief of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs during the first Trump administration, authored a book called “Woke Antisemitism,” while both the American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League began raising the alarm about ethnic studies curricula in public schools and diversity initiatives at colleges and universities.
“End DEI,” Bari Weiss wrote in a Tablet essay shortly after Oct. 7.
And by the time that Deborah Lipstadt, the Holocaust scholar and longtime liberal, left her post as President Joe Biden’s ambassador for countering antisemitism, she had become convinced that conservatives were important allies for Jews concerned about antisemitism.
The second Trump administration carried this partnership to its logical conclusion. Official actions now focus on Jews — at least those who support Israel in traditional ways — alongside Christians, white people and men as groups that need government protection, in the form of executive orders, investigations and federal lawsuits.
Now the obvious risk in embracing a political framework that places “antisemitism” into the same category as “reverse racism” is that liberals who think discrimination against white people is fake may start to believe the same about discrimination toward Jews.
And, over the past three years, Democrats have become far more likely to say that claims of antisemitism are used to delegitimize political opponents and critics of Israel rather than to describe actual discrimination.
Now one could argue that this was something of a fair trade. If Democrats were always going to turn against Israel and abandon concern for antisemitism as a result, it might make sense to throw your lot in with the one political party that still supports Israel and is willing to defend Jews, even if it means losing credibility with old allies.
Yet, to return to The Daily Wire’s struggles, the Republican Party seems to be in the midst of an antisemitism rug pull: Just as major Jewish leaders decided to start working in earnest with the conservative movement and burn bridges with liberals, the MAGA vanguard has decided that Jews may not belong in their coalition after all.
Shapiro, an Orthodox Jewish lawyer who rose to prominence first as a columnist and later as a campus speaker and podcaster before starting The Daily Wire in 2015, has found himself on the losing end of a battle with Tucker Carlson for the future of the conservative movement.
Shapiro has denounced the conspiracism and gutter antisemitism animating figures like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens, whose career he helped launch at The Daily Wire before she departed amid a bitter feud.
Carlson has countered by arguing against “cancel culture” and courting the far-right audience Fuentes has built, while articulating a political vision based on Christian nationalism that blames Israel for many of the Trump administration’s failures. “Tucker is obviously setting himself up to be the redeemer figure in the ‘the Jews puppeted/betrayed Trump’ MAGA narrative that is emerging on the right,” David Austin Walsh, a scholar of the far right, argued on social media over the weekend.
He seems to be winning.
The country’s two largest prediction markets place Carlson just behind JD Vance and Marco Rubio as the most likely to become the next Republican presidential nominee. Shapiro has lost 10,000 YouTube subscribers over the past month, according to the analytics platform VidIQ, while Carlson and Owens have gained a combined 110,000.
It’s not clear how large The Daily Wire layoffs were. Owens, a notoriously unreliable source with an axe to grind, claimed they fired 60% of the staff, which a company official called “insane” without offering an alternate figure. But the layoffs are not the first portent of hard times there; they follow the firing of CEO Jeremy Boering last spring, which was accompanied by a previous round of layoffs.
Younger Republicans who power much of the online conservative universe seem to be looking for something more crass than what Shapiro has to offer, at least when it comes to Jews: Nearly 40% of Republican voters believe the Holocaust was “greatly exaggerated,” a figure that grows among those under 50 — 25% of whom personally describe themselves as prejudiced against Jews, according to a Manhattan Institute study.
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The Trump administration is continuing to use legal measures to crack down on what it describes as antisemitism, yet it’s hard to see how its efforts persist much longer in a movement that is not only skeptical of special protections for minorities but that also harbors a growing distrust of Jews. The MAGA movement has seen faltering support for Israel amid the Iran war that Trump launched with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a recent poll finding that 57% of Republicans under 50 had an unfavorable view of Israel.
Meanwhile, a growing segment of the populist left seems to have decided that they don’t need to worry about Jews. Ben Lorber, who has long been an astute observer of antisemitism from within the left, recently described his frustration with the willingness of leftists to work with anti-Zionists on the far right even when those conservatives seem to be driven by antisemitism rather than concern for Palestinian rights.
“Many of the louder voices on the left argue, in so many words, that we shouldn’t worry so much about the antisemitic kernel of America First anti-Zionism because we shouldn’t capitulate to ‘Jewish feelings,’” Lorber wrote on Substack. “It’s all extremely cursed.”
It’s tempting to throw one’s hands up at the increasingly lonely position of Jews in American politics and chalk it up to our eternal fate. Some have even cautiously celebrated this newfound political homelessness. “Choosing a side has never worked for Jews because when you get out of the hall to power, you will be identified as the exemplar of that political attitude that can now be destroyed,” Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, said at a recent event.
But it may be too late for Jews to stay neutral.
Jewish leaders had a choice to make as they faced growing animosity toward Zionism among their longtime partners on the left. They could have engaged in the excruciating work of reconciling their otherwise liberal values with their support for an increasingly illiberal Israel, while simultaneously trying to get their progressive allies to develop a more nuanced understanding of antisemitism and do a better job of including Jews in their coalition. Or, they could follow Shapiro’s path: leave their views on Israel untouched and try to convince conservatives, who normally believe that protections for minorities inherently disadvantage the majority, that they should make a special and singular exception for Jews.
There may have been a third option, closer to what Kurtzer suggests, of simply trying to remain above the fray. But Jews — or at least the mainline organizations intended to represent us — did choose a side by trying to build a fragile alliance with conservatives in the mold of Shapiro. Now it seems more and more likely that the result is that no political movement will be interested in standing up to antisemitism just as domestic political instability and violence reach a fever pitch.
The post The great antisemitism rug pull appeared first on The Forward.
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Musée d’Orsay Opens Permanent Exhibition Space Dedicated to Nazi-Looted Artwork
Inside the Musée d’Orsay. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
The Musée d’Orsay in France opened a new permanent exhibition room on Tuesday dedicated to works of art that were owned by Jews and looted by the Nazis across Europe during World War II before being returned to France after the war.
The new gallery room is titled “To whom do these works belong?” and will feature rotating installations of works of art recovered after World War II also known as Musées Nationaux Récupération (National Museums Recovery) pieces. Provenance investigators and researchers are still working to identify the original owners of these MNR artworks.
“Over time, the room is intended to evolve to present to the public the discoveries resulting from this research, some of which could allow new restitutions,” said the museum. “It thus constitutes a space of memory, transparency and active research, at the heart of contemporary issues related to the history of the collections.”
Now on display in the exhibition is 13 works, including the 1879 painting “Dinner at the Ball” by Edgar Degas, according to The Times. The painting was previously owned by Fernand Ochsé, a Jewish merchant and art collector living in France who was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust along with his wife. The painting was among thousands of artworks stolen by the Nazis or forcibly sold to Nazi occupiers in France. Also on display in the exhibit is Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s portrait “Madame Alphonse Daudet” from 1876.
The new gallery room and research done by provenance investigators is being funded with support from the nonprofit organization American Friends of Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie (AFMO). According to the organization, 60,000 artworks looted by the Nazis during World War II around Europe were returned to France by 1950 and 224 of those recovered artworks are housed at the museum and in need of further provenance research to find their original owners. Fifteen MNRs kept at the Musée d’Orsay have already been returned to its rightful owners.
Over the next few years, AFMO will fund a team of art historians and researchers, led by provenance expert Dr. Ines Rotermund-Reynard, and they will focus on finding the owners of the 224 recovered artworks in the Musée d’Orsay’s collections, but also approximately 200 additional pieces acquired by the museum after 1933.
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California Man Pleads Guilty to Killing Jewish Pro-Israel Protester; Judge Weighs Light Sentence
Chalk drawer Elena Colombo of the Hamakom Synagogue draws a blue star around blood at the exact location on the sidewalk where Paul Kessler was attacked in Thousand Oaks, California, US, Nov. 7, 2023. Photo: Mike Blake via Reuters Connect
Prosecutors in Ventura County, California have obtained a felony conviction against a community college professor who caused the death of an elderly Jewish man he struck in the face with a megaphone during a heated argument which started at the interstice of dueling demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war.
Loay Alnaji, 54, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and battery causing serious injury, along with a special allegation and aggravating factor that he personally used a weapon to strike pro-Israel protester, 69, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
The killing occurred in November 2023, when pro- and anti-Israel protesters confronted each other in the city of Thousand Oaks, in the early days of the Gaza war. Prosecutors said Alnaji hit Kessler in the head with a megaphone. Kessler fell to the ground, hit his head on the pavement, and died the next day.
However, even though the charges carry a maximum of four years in prison, Alnaji faces a much lighter sentence when he appears in court on June 25 for his sentencing. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Derek Malan, who is presiding over the case, has promised to honor an agreement to limit his sentence to three years of “formal probation” and “up to” one year in jail for a guilty plea.
Following the proceedings, the Ventura County District Attorney’s office said that so light a punishment, reportedly negotiated directly between Alnaji and Malan ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, is contrary to the preferences of the prosecutorial team which fought to hold him fully accountable for the weight of the crime.
“Alnaji should be sentenced to prison for his violent behavior, and our office strongly objects to any lesser sentence,” district attorney Erik Nasarenko said. “While no amount of punishment will ever fully account for the Kessler family loss, a prison commitment underscores the severity of this crime and will deter others from committing similar acts of violence.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Kessler sustained two impacts — the blow to his head and a second from the concrete to which he fell after being knocked down. Given the charged political climate in which the killing occurred, law enforcement officials hesitated for days to pronounce that the matter would lead to criminal charges, citing conflicting witness accounts of the altercation. At one point, Alnaji’s only interaction with the Ventura County Police Department was a traffic stop initiated while officers conducted a search of his home.
Ultimately, 10 days passed before police officers arrested him on the charges to which he pled guilty on Tuesday — and he almost evaded those when Judge Ryan Wright, the first judge presiding over the case, ruled that there was insufficient evidence to hold a trial.
Since being assigned to the Kessler case in March following the death of its former presiding judge, Malan has avoided relating Alnaji’s actions to rising antisemitic hatred in the US, downgrading the deadly encounter to a disagreement between “two old guys.”
Doing so miscarries justice, the leader of a Jewish civil rights organization told The Algemeiner on Wednesday, stressing the importance of the justice system’s responding to antisemitic violence and hate crimes with a meaningful deterrent.
“The outrageously lenient plea deal offered to Loay Alnaji is a devastating failure of justice that minimizes the death of 69-year-old Jewish man Paul Kessler and sends a chilling message about how seriously antisemitic violence,” said Liora Rez, executive director and founder of StopAntisemitism. “By intervening against the district attorney’s recommendation and dismissing this killing as merely ‘two old guys’ having a dispute, Judge Derek Malan ignored both the deadly consequences of Alnaji’s actions and the disturbing reality that someone promoting pro-Hamas propaganda helped fuel the environment that led to Kessler’s death.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Israel Prepares for Possible Return to War in Gaza as Ceasefire Talks Stall, Hamas Rejects Disarmament
Israeli soldier on guard in Gaza, February 2026. Photo: Jonathan Sacerdoti / The Algemeiner
As the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas continues to reject disarmament and further stalls progress on the US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal, Israeli officials are weighing contingency plans for a renewed military campaign should negotiations collapse entirely.
According to multiple media reports, the Israel Defense Forces believes the current negotiations are unlikely to result in either Hamas’s disarmament or the full demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, warning that the terrorist group is exploiting the diplomatic pause to rebuild its capabilities, consolidate control, and further entrench its governance in Gaza.
“Hamas is deliberately dragging its feet. It is exploiting attention on Iran and Lebanon and, in the meantime, is entrenching itself in the Gaza Strip — reasserting control over the territory, establishing governance structures, and rebuilding its military capabilities,” a military source told the Israeli news outlet Walla.
“As things stand, there are two possibilities: a US declaration that the negotiations have reached a deadlock and a return to fighting, or Washington pushing a partial, ‘perforated’ agreement on Israel that would significantly undermine our security interests and erode the operational gains achieved so far,” he continued.
As regional tensions continue to mount, Maj. Gen. Yaniv, commander of the IDF Southern Command, on Wednesday presented Israel’s political leadership with a new operational plan pushing the military to brace for a potential return to combat and initiate a wide-ranging reassessment of its ground maneuver strategy and operational approach.
For months now, the US-led Board of Peace has been conducting parallel negotiations with Israel and Hamas, attempting to tie the large-scale reconstruction of the war-torn enclave to the complete dismantling of the terror group’s weapons arsenal.
However, after continued failed attempts to reach an agreement, the Board of Peace will not hold Israel to the terms of last year’s ceasefire any longer if Hamas again rejects the proposed disarmament framework, according to a document obtained by The Times of Israel.
The board’s High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov has previously warned that Hamas’s refusal to disarm could trigger a resumption of the war. But now, the official is reportedly signaling that Israel would not be expected to halt military operations or guarantee humanitarian access to Gaza if the ceasefire framework collapses.
Hamas has consistently refused to relinquish its weapons, insisting that Israel must first fully comply with phase one of the ceasefire — including expanded humanitarian aid deliveries, full reopening of the Rafah crossing, and withdrawal of Israeli forces to the agreed Yellow Line — before any disarmament process can proceed.
For its part, Israel has warned that the Islamist group must fully disarm for the second phase of the ceasefire to move forward, pointing to tens of thousands of rifles and an active network of underground tunnels still under the terrorist group’s control.
If Hamas does not give up its weapons, Israeli officials have vowed not to withdraw troops from Gaza any further or approve any rebuilding efforts, effectively stalling the ceasefire agreement.
Under the ceasefire, the Israeli military currently controls over 50 percent of Gaza, while Hamas remains entrenched in the nearly half of Gazan territory it still controls, where the vast majority of the population lives.
In its latest counterproposal, the terrorist group said that any transfer of its weapons would only be possible as part of a wider process leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
As the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement remains stalled, Israeli officials have warned that Hamas is quietly exploiting the pause in fighting to tighten its control over civilian life while simultaneously rebuilding its military capabilities behind the scenes.
Last month, local elections saw the Palestinian Authority (PA) record notable gains, with results appearing strong on the surface. However, experts warn the outcome actually reinforced Hamas’s political theater, projecting an image of shifting authority while the group effectively maintains its control on the ground.
According to a report by Israel’s Channel 14, although newly elected municipal figures are formally affiliated with Fatah, the party of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the presence of Hamas-linked representatives still signals the group’s continued political penetration at the local level.
Beyond official political appointments, Hamas-linked personnel are widely believed to remain embedded within municipal administrative structures, enabling the group to maintain effective control over day-to-day governance away from public view.
At the same time, through checkpoints, strict regulation of goods, and control over key public institutions, including hospitals, the Palestinian terrorist group has been quietly reestablishing its civilian governance structures across the war-torn enclave, with its authority still visibly enforced on the ground.
Hamas has also been reactivating internal security mechanisms to enforce day-to-day order, while conducting extensive intelligence operations aimed at identifying alleged collaborators with Israel and suppressing any opposition.
In an effort to reassert control and shore up its weakened position, the group has launched a violent internal campaign against armed militias and local gangs, targeting those it labels “lawbreakers and collaborators,” with the crackdown escalating into widespread clashes and violence as Hamas members move to seize weapons and eliminate remaining pockets of resistance.
Even after more than two years of war, the group is also rebuilding its military capabilities, including recruiting new operatives, conducting field and command-level training, restoring intelligence and surveillance networks, and reconstructing underground tunnel systems and weapons stockpiles.