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How Jewish leaders tried — and failed — to keep a Farrakhan follower off a Florida city council
(JTA) – When Brother John Muhammad emerged this fall as the leading candidate for a vacant city council seat in St. Petersburg, Florida, local Jews were distressed.
Muhammad is well known in the city as the president of a local neighborhood association and as a frequent advocate for minority groups. But Jewish leaders learned that he was also a follower of Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who has a long history of antisemitism, and that he had made comments dismissing concerns about Farrakhan’s record.
Jewish leaders tried to stave off Muhammad’s appointment, pushing for more extensive vetting of the seven candidates and, in the case of the local Holocaust museum, actively lobbying against him. But the council confirmed him in a 4-3 vote, leaving local Jews frustrated — before they considered ways to make the situation a learning experience for their city.
“When I see a situation like this, it screams ‘opportunity’ to me,” Michael Igel, chair of the Florida Holocaust Museum, located in St. Petersburg, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The saga playing out in St. Petersburg, Florida’s fifth-largest city, unfolded during the same period that a handful of Black celebrities, including Kanye West and Kyrie Irving, first became enmeshed in controversy over their own antisemitic comments and social media posts. The coincidence meant a dicey environment for broaching a conversation about the antisemitism of the Nation of Islam, whose rhetoric disparaging Jews overlaps with that of Hebrew Israelites, the ideology that Irving promoted by sharing a link to an antisemitic film.
It also turned St. Petersburg into a window for understanding how ties forged between Jewish groups and others can be tested.
Local Jewish leaders initially sought to stop Muhammad from gaining the city council seat, which was vacated after its previous holder resigned following redistricting and accusations she no longer lived in her district. They learned about Muhammad’s city council application only a week before the council’s vote, leaving them with little time to mobilize. The information came from a political rival of Muhammad, former mayoral candidate Vince Nowicki, who shared information about Muhammad’s Nation of Islam affiliation with local Jewish groups.
Nowicki also shared a comment Muhammad had made about Jews in a 2016 video in which Muhammad interviewed local Black LGBTQ activists. In the video titled “A Conversation About Growing Up Black And LGBT,” which JTA viewed, Muhammad said, “Minister Farrakhan got accused of being antisemitic for a long time because he pointed out and made some corrections about the activity of Jews. And anybody who says anything critical of the Jewish community is labeled as being antisemitic. Good, bad, right or wrong, it doesn’t matter what you say. If you criticize them that’s what you are.”
He continued, saying, “And I’m finding that it happens when you are critical of the gay community, when you say anything critical or anything that doesn’t align with that ideology, now all of a sudden you’re homophobic.” Muhammad’s comments about gay people received some light but friendly pushback from his interview guests.
Muhammad did not reply to multiple requests for comment by JTA, including to questions emailed to him at his request. He said during a public meeting ahead of the council vote that he thought scrutiny of him by Jewish groups had been unfair.
To Jewish leaders, the comments in the video coupled with Muhammad’s Nation of Islam affiliation were clear signs that he should not be appointed to the city council.
“I would sure hope that being antisemitic would be a red line, that you could not be a candidate,” said Rabbi Philip Weintraub of Congregation B’nai Israel, a Conservative synagogue in the city.
Jewish leaders began to take action, issuing statements and launching a letter-writing campaign to the council. They felt so much urgency that some even conducted business on Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday when Jewish organizations typically pause their activities in accordance with Jewish law.
As a nonprofit, the local federation was constrained in how it could weigh in. Since it could not endorse or oppose specific candidates, it instead pushed for every candidate to be “properly vetted” and informed council members about Muhammad’s affiliations and past comments, according to Maxine Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Florida’s Gulf Coast. She said the efforts did not have their intended effect.
“I don’t think anybody said, ‘Well, who is this Farrakhan, what does he stand for?’” Kaufman said. “I don’t think enough was done, personally.”
The entrance to the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Nov. 27, 2016. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The Florida Holocaust Museum took another approach, circulating information about Muhammad to the wider community, along with a statement opposing the candidacy of anyone who would support Farrakhan’s antisemitism. Their goal, Igel said, was to educate the community about the severity of these views.
“There’s nothing else to talk about when somebody is supporting Louis Farrakhan,” Igel told JTA. “Particularly when you are seeking a position representative of a city, particularly one like St. Petersburg that is so known for its inclusivity and its openness.”
Igel praised some members of the city council who asked Muhammad pointed questions about his views at the vote, giving him the opportunity to refute Farrakhan’s comments about Jews. One council member who voted against Muhammad, Lisset Hanewicz, said her stepfather is Jewish and read Farrakhan’s past antisemitic statements into the record, saying, “I think people need to understand why a certain part of this community is upset.”
Igel acknowledged that getting involved in a city council appointment was an unusual move for a Holocaust museum. He said museum leaders had held a meeting beforehand to determine how to proceed but made a decision fairly quickly to weigh in.
“In this case, we don’t consider this to be a matter of politics,” Igel said. “This is a matter of morality. And this is what we teach.” If the candidate had been a white supremacist, Igel said, “that person would have been disqualified out of the gate.”
The Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center, two hate watchdogs, define the Nation of Islam as a group that propagates antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, not a religion. Founded in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad, the Black nationalist group is not the same as traditional Islam and is rejected by most Muslim clerics; it entered mainstream prominence in the 1960s after civil rights leader Malcolm X and boxer Muhammad Ali publicly joined the movement. (Both later left the group, with Malcolm X publicly denouncing its leadership; he was assassinated shortly after, and two Nation of Islam members who were wrongfully convicted of his murder recently received a large settlement from New York City.)
The Nation of Islam entered its current era after Farrakhan took over the group in 1977. Now 89, he has used his platform to issue a steady stream of antisemitism, including calling Jews “wicked” and the “synagogue of Satan,” saying they have “wrapped your tentacles around the U.S. government,” and calling Hitler “a very great man.” Only a few years ago, the Women’s March progressive activist collective was nearly derailed over some of its founders’ associations with Farrakhan.
It is rare, but not unheard of, for public officials to have current or former associations with the Nation of Islam. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a practicing Muslim, was dogged by accusations that he had formerly been a member of the group when he first ran for Congress in 2006; he apologized for his past associations with the group. Trayon White, a Washington, D.C. council member and onetime mayoral candidate who has spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, has donated to the group in the past. Former President George W. Bush once praised the group, and a photograph showing Barack Obama in the same room as Farrakhan was fodder for Obama’s critics during his presidential run.
Muhammad, who is referred to on the city council website as John Muhammad and whose legal name is John C. Malone, declined to condemn Farrakhan at the city council meeting.
“I am not willing to denounce the leader of my faith no more than a Catholic would be willing to denounce their pope,” he said.
Muhammad’s reaction to questions about Farrakhan particularly concerned the federation and other local Jewish groups. Kaufman told JTA she didn’t know whether Muhammad himself is antisemitic, but she said his refusal to disavow Farrakhan was alarming.
“I do have issue with his reverence of someone who is blatantly antisemitic, and he won’t disavow him, he won’t reject him,” she said, echoing the the federation’s official statement on the vote.
At the meeting, Muhammad did say that he had reached out to the Florida Holocaust Museum but had not heard back — and that he thought the museum’s criticism of him was unfair.
“What I found when we reached out to have dialogue with the Holocaust Museum director, they did not want to talk to me,” he said. “They wanted to evaluate and disqualify me based on the association that I have as an individual. I don’t think that that’s just.”
Muhammad also defended his record with Jews by claiming that they were among the “diversity of those who support me.” He added, “And if you look at those who oppose me, they’re coming from one particular group.”
Since the vote, a local Black newspaper condemned the scrutiny on Muhammad, calling it a “perusal into his faith practice.”
Igel said the museum had no record that Muhammad had reached out but encouraged him to come and learn more about the Holocaust and the nature of antisemitism. Stuart Berger, head of the local Jewish Community Relations Council, acknowledged at the city council meeting that Muhammad “has made himself available to us” at the federation, but that none of the federation staff “had been in direct contact with him.”
The federation’s involvement in Muhammad’s case became its own issue at the council vote, when the candidate referenced an email Berger had written to the county commissioner. In the email, Berger wrote that Muhammad’s vetting process had been “good enough for me!”
While Muhammad took the email as proof that the federation believed him to be fit for office, Berger and Kaufman maintain that it meant nothing of the sort. Berger had not been speaking on behalf of the federation, they say, and had not intended for his email to be shared publicly.
Now that Muhammad is on the council, attention has turned to building relationships with him. Kaufman has been meeting with individual city council members, and hopes to eventually meet with Muhammad himself. She also aims to have the federation make a presentation to the council about the dangers of antisemitism and push them to make a statement about it.
She doesn’t think it’s complicated. “I think hate’s hate,” she said. “Many different colors.”
Weintraub’s congregation is celebrating its 100th anniversary in March, and one of its congregants, Eric Lynn, is also involved in politics: he was the Democratic nominee for Florida’s 13th Congressional district in the midterms but lost his race to Republican Anna Paulina Luna, who said she was raised as a Messianic Jew and campaigned with far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Weintraub himself is a member of an interfaith ministerial dialogue group with Black churches and says he’s “a professional optimist” when it comes to managing conflict between different communities. He sent JTA an episode of the public radio podcast “Hidden Brain” about how to keep conflict from spiraling, saying it “describes what I’ve tried to do.”
Since Muhammad was appointed, Weintraub has met with him; the pair had what Weintraub described as “a pleasant conversation.” The two talked about parenting and “shared traumas,” he said. They did not discuss Muhammad’s comments supporting Farrakhan, but the rabbi couldn’t help but think about him.
“I thought I was a termite, according to Farrakhan,” Weintraub said. In contrast, Muhammad “said I was a person, so that was nice.”
—
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Amid Push for Gaza Role, Palestinian Authority Continues Paying Terrorists, Teaching Antisemitic Hatred
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas looks on as he visits the Istishari Cancer Center in Ramallah, in the West Bank, May 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman
As Western powers push for the Palestinian Authority to take a leading role in post-war Gaza, the government body has not delivered on promises of reform, continuing payments to terrorists and using school textbooks that glorify violence, demonize Israelis, and promote antisemitic themes.
On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denounced the Palestinian Authority (PA) for nearly doubling its payments under its so-called “pay-for-slay” program — from $144 million in 2024 to $214 million so far in 2025 — despite the PA’s repeated promises of reform.
“The Palestinian Authority hasn’t stopped its payments of salaries to terrorists and their families. In fact, it is nearly doubling them,” the top Israeli diplomat said in a post on X.
“I call on Europe and the world to hold the PA accountable for funding terrorism. Stop Pay-for-Slay NOW!” he continued.
The Palestinian Authority hasn’t stopped its payments of salaries to terrorists and their families. In fact, it is nearly doubling them.
In 2024, it paid 144M dollars (€124M). In 2025, it has already committed 214M dollars (€185M) toward Pay-for-Slay, and the year isn’t even… pic.twitter.com/Iwyuy3le6y
— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) November 19, 2025
Even though PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced plans to reform the system earlier this year, new media reports reveal that Palestinian leadership has continued to issue payments.
The European Union (EU) is now demanding clarification on whether the “pay-for-slay” program is still operating through bypass channels, according to Euronews.
Western countries have been pushing for the PA to undergo internal reforms, aiming for the group to take control of Gaza after the war under the US-backed peace plan, despite strong Israeli objections.
The PA, which has long been riddled with accusations of corruption, has also maintained for years the “pay-for-slay” program, which rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis.
Under the policy, the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund makes official payments to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the families of “martyrs” killed in attacks on Israelis, and injured Palestinian terrorists.
Reports estimate that approximately 8 percent of the PA’s budget is allocated to paying stipends to convicted terrorists and their families.
This week, Israeli officials visited Brussels to present evidence to the bloc that the old “pay-for-slay” program is still operating and may be using funds that EU member states had originally donated for other purposes.
“We understand that a recent payment has been made to the families of prisoners, based on a previous scheme. We profoundly regret this decision, as this seems to go against prior announcements,” the EU Commission told Euronews.
However, the European bloc rejected any suggestion that its funds were involved in the recent payments.
“EU support to the PA is linked to its efforts to pursue the reform agenda,” the EU Commission said.
For years, the EU has been the largest provider of external assistance to the group, allocating approximately $1.47 billion bilaterally between 2021 and 2024.
As the international community seeks to chart a path for Gaza’s reconstruction after the Israel-Hamas war, the PA is maneuvering to take a leading role in the war-torn enclave, despite Israeli objections and with the backing of Western powers — a move that experts say is unlikely to succeed given the PA’s lack of credibility and support for terrorism against Israel.
Along with pledging to reform the “pay-for-slay” program, Abbas has also repeatedly reaffirmed his commitment to long-promised administrative reforms, even saying he intends to hold presidential and general elections after the war under international supervision.
The PA leader was elected to a four-year term in 2005, and he has not held elections since then.
Beyond payments to terrorists, the PA has also repeatedly promised Western powers to reform its school textbooks, which for years have notoriously promoted antisemitism and hatred for Israel.
Despite the PA’s promises, its textbooks continue to glorify violence, demonize Israelis, propagate antisemitic themes, and promote an exclusivist nationalist narrative.
On Wednesday, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), a nonprofit organization that analyzes schoolbooks and curricula around the world, released a new study analyzing 290 textbooks and 71 teachers’ guides used across multiple grades, finding that not a single reform has been made to address previous problematic content that promotes violence and incites hatred.
IMPACT-se’s report on the 2025–26 Palestinian Authority curriculum reveals a disturbing reality: Palestinian children are still being indoctrinated with the glorification of violence, antisemitism, promotion of martyrdom and the rejection of peace—embedded even in math and…
— IMPACT-SE (@IMPACT_SE) November 19, 2025
For years, PA-issued textbooks have been criticized for promoting extremism and undermining efforts to encourage peaceful coexistence with Israelis.
According to the newly released report, the textbooks’ content remains unchanged despite the PA’s explicit promises to reform the curriculum and public assurances from European officials that such reforms were underway.
IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff said the findings “expose a stark and disturbing reality.”
“Virulent antisemitism, the glorification of jihad, and incitement to violence remain deeply embedded across all grades of Palestinian Authority textbooks,” Sheff said in a statement.
For example, Jews and Israelis continue to be portrayed as inherently evil, manipulative, corrupt, or as enemies of Islam, perpetuating deeply rooted antisemitic stereotypes, while the demonization of Israel remains a persistent and striking theme throughout the textbooks.
An 11th-grade history textbook features a cartoon with antisemitic imagery portraying Jews as controlling the world, including a black-and-white image labeled “cultural colonialism” showing two arms gripping a globe — one holding an American flag, the other an Israeli flag.
In a 10th-grade history textbook, it is claimed that after World War II, “the Zionists hoped the US would support the establishment of their national homeland in Palestine — by exploiting their political, media and financial influence in the United States.”
Another example comes from a 9th-grade civics textbook, which claims that Israel “deliberately releases herds of pigs” to damage Palestinian crops and undermine the Palestinian economy.
The newly released study also warns that the textbooks promote and justify violence against Jews and Israelis, fostering a culture of aggression and hostility.
In an 11th-grade history textbook, the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre — where 11 Israeli athletes and delegation members were killed — is depicted as a legitimate form of Palestinian resistance.
“The Palestinian resistance resorted to many methods in its struggle against the Zionist occupation. The fedayeen primarily used guerrilla warfare inside Palestinian territories, and also struck Zionist interests abroad — such as the Munich operation in 1972,” the book says.
According to the IMPACT-SE report, references to Jewish history and Israeli-Arab diplomatic efforts have been completely removed from the 2025–2026 textbooks, with any content promoting non-violence or compromise absent and the Holocaust entirely ignored.
The PA had committed to curriculum reforms earlier this year in order to secure over $462 million in economic support from the European Union, contingent on meeting specific education-related benchmarks.
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Texas Designates CAIR, Muslim Brotherhood as Terror Groups, Vows Shutdowns
CAIR officials give press conference on the Israel-Hamas war. Photo: Kyle Mazza / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday announced the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as terrorist organizations, prompting enforced state government action against them.
“The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’” Abbott said in a statement. “These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.”
The five-page proclamation on CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) features a brief history of the two groups and illuminates their relationship, opening with a quotation from MB founder Hassan al-Banna, who stated, “Jihad is an obligation from Allah on every Muslim and cannot be ignored nor evaded.”
The document further quotes al-Banna defining Jihad as “the fighting of the unbelievers, and involves all possible efforts that are necessary to dismantle the power of the enemies of Islam including beating them, plundering their wealth, destroying their places of worship and smashing their idols.”
Abbott goes on to establish the continuity of the Brotherhood’s objectives and ideology today.
“Even in the present day, Mohammed Badie, the Eighth Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood who is currently serving a life sentence for plotting an armed insurrection in Egypt, has stated that the organization’s primary goal is to establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world’ and a total reform of all domains of life by resurrecting an Islamic state — or a Caliphate — empowered to forcibly impose Sharia law worldwide,” the document states.
The proclamation then cites two sources establishing the relationship between CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, including the FBI calling CAIR a “front group” for “Hamas and its support network.” Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, was founded as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Abbott’s proclamation also quotes the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, writing that America’s leading academic research center on extremism reports that CAIR is an example of conscious efforts by “the US-based Hamas network to regenerate itself” and continue acting “under new guises” in the United States based on Hamas’s “need to camouflage the identity of the new organization.”
The document then runs down a series of Texas legal codes which Abbott cites to justify his conclusion to “designate both the Muslim Brotherhood and its successor organization CAIR as Foreign Terrorist Organizations under Texas Penal Code § 71.01(e), and thereby subject those organizations, and any persons promoting or aiding their criminal activities, to the heightened penalties authorized by Chapter 125 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code.”
On Wednesday, Abbott followed through with the order by sending a letter to North Texas District Attorneys and Sheriffs, the Attorney General of Texas, and the Texas Department of Public Safety with concerns that Sharia tribunals “may be masquerading as legal ‘courts’ staffed with ‘judges’ issuing orders that purportedly carry the authority to bind individuals to Islamic codes, thereby preempting state and federal laws.”
“The US Constitution’s religious protections provide no authority for religious courts to skirt state and federal laws simply by donning robes and pronouncing positions inconsistent with western civilization,” Abbott wrote. “I urge you, therefore, to investigate efforts by entities purporting to illegally enforce Sharia law in Texas. Legal disputes in Texas must be decided based on American law rooted in the fundamental principles of American due process, not according to Sharia law dispensed in modern day star chambers.”
MB, a global Islamist network, has garnered headlines over the past week for reportedly engaging in theft and corruption.
On Sunday, researchers in Egypt announced that the MB had allegedly stolen half a billion dollars from donations made to Gaza. The Jerusalem Post reported that Khaled Mansour, a younger Hamas member, wrote, “How is it conceivable that many Brotherhood elites and Islamists remain silent about the biggest theft scandal in the history of the Islamic movement of the funds of the people of Gaza.”
The Swedish Newspaper Expressen has also announced that over a hundred million dollars were allegedly stolen from taxpayers by MB-linked imams.
Robert S. McCaw, CAIR’s government affairs director, wrote in response to Abbott: “You do not have the authority to unilaterally declare any Americans or American institutions terrorist groups, nor is there any basis to level this smear against our organization.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in August that the federal government was actively working to designate the MB as a terrorist group.
“All of that is in the works, and obviously there are different branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, so you’d have to designate each one of them,” Rubio said when asked about designating the global Islamist network.
“These things are going to be challenged in court,” Rubio said. “Any group can say, ‘Well, I’m not really a terrorist. That organization is not a terrorist organization.’”
“You have to show your work like a math problem when you go before court,” he continued. “All you need is one federal judge — and there are plenty — that are willing to do these nationwide injunctions and basically try to run the country from the bench. So, we’ve got to be so careful.”
In the US House, Florida Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D) and Mario Díaz-Balart (R) reintroduced earlier this year the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, which would direct the State Department to classify both the organization and its affiliates as terrorist entities.
US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has spearheaded an effort in the Senate to designate the Brotherhood.
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US Rep. Randy Fine Says It Would ‘Be Nice’ to See JD Vance Condemn Tucker Carlson
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) leaves the US Capitol after the last votes of the week on Sept. 4, 2025. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), one of the most strident supporters of Israel in the US Congress, indicated during an event on Tuesday that he would like to see Vice President JD Vance criticize popular conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson’s antisemitic conduct.
“I think it’d be nice,” Fine said when asked by The Algemeiner whether he thinks Vance, who is friends with Carlson, should publicly distance himself from the controversial pundit.
“I think that, you know, given that Tucker’s become a deranged lunatic, I think we should all be speaking out against Tucker,” Fine said.
Carlson has sparked a fierce backlash after inviting white nationalist Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, onto his podcast, where Fuentes made antisemitic statements about “organized Jewry” and praised Sovet dictator Joseph Stalin. Critics argued that Carlson failed to condemn or even challenge Fuentes, arguing the online provocateur and former Fox News host offered a congenial platform to normalize Fuentes’s view. The controversy has ignited a rift within conservative circles, including public rebukes from Republican senators and Heritage Foundation staffers, highlighting growing tensions over antisemitism and Israel in the Republican Party.
Prior to the Fuentes interview, Carlson stoked outrage after inviting guests who engaged in Holocaust minimization and made remarks in favor of Adolf Hitler. Carlson also suggested that Hamas should be considered a legitimate government and not a terrorist organization.
Carlson has repeatedly alluded to the unfounded notion that Israel deliberately oppresses Christians while minimizing the heavily documented persecution of Christians by Islamic movements, such as the ongoing mass killing of Nigerian Christians.
Furthermore, Carlson’s friendship with Vance has come under increased scrutiny, with many observers fearing that the popular pundit might influence the vice president to adopt harsher views against Israel. Vance raised eyebrows recently after he failed to push back against a college student who asked him why the United States should continue to support Israel while claiming that Jews “openly support the persecution” of Christians.
Vance employs Carlson’s son, Buckley Carlson, as his deputy press secretary. Vance recently lashed out at journalist Sloan Rachmuch after she demanded that Buckley publicly answer questions about his positions on antisemitism and Israel, suggesting that the pundit’s son could be exerting influence over the vice president.
Political analysts have speculated that Vance, who is widely perceived as a likely successor to US President Donald Trump to lead the Republican Party and win its 2028 presidential primary, could break from GOP orthodoxy by establishing a significantly more critical stance against Israel. A series of recent polls suggest that younger Republicans are increasingly skeptical of the US-Israel alliance. Due to his prominence among Republicans and positioning for the party’s future, conservative leaders have called on Vance to repudiate antisemitism forcefully and reemphasize the importance of the bond between the US and the Jewish State.
On Tuesday, Fine, who is Jewish, also expressed hope that antipathy against Israel and Jews won’t become a major feature in the 2028 presidential primary, arguing that the Trump administration has proactively taken a number of aggressive steps to mitigate the influence of antisemitism among conservatives. He also took a swipe at fellow Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) and Thomas Massie (KY), branding the anti-Israel lawmakers as “antisemites.”
“Hopefully not, because hopefully we’re going to squash this,” Fine said, “I point out this: I serve with two antisemites on the US House of Representatives, and Donald Trump is seeking to have both of them defeated next year in their primaries. I think it’s clear where the president stands.”
Massie enraged Jewish conservatives after claiming that every member of Congress has an “AIPAC babysitter” which monitors their voting record on Israel. AIPAC, a prominent lobbying group, seeks to foster bipartisan support for the US-Israel alliance.
Massie has also refused to vote in favor of a resolution “calling on elected officials and civil society leaders to counter antisemitism and educate the public on the contributions of the Jewish American community.” He sparked outrage in December 2023 after posting a “meme” which contrasted “American Patriotism” with “Zionism.”
Taylor Greene has also sparked ire from pro-Israel conservatives when she attempted, unsuccessfully, to add an amendment stripping military aid to Israel to a large defense spending bill. In recent months, the lawmaker has intensified her rhetoric against Israel, establishing herself as the sole Republican to condemn Israel for “genocide” in Gaza.
Trump has announced his intention to support primary challengers against both members, who have opposed him on a range of issues including Israel.
Fine spoke to The Algemeiner at an event in Washington, DC titled “Exposing and Countering Extremism and Antisemitism on the Political Right” where he was featured as a keynote speaker. The event was organized in response to the rise of Fuentes and a wave of antisemitic rhetoric baacked by major right-wing online influencers.
Fuentes has praised Hitler, engaged in Holocaust denial, called for “perfidious Jews” to be murdered, all while becoming increasingly popular with an audience of disaffected young men. Along with Carlson and Fuentes, Candace Owens, another prominent right-wing influencer, has spent the last two years following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, spreading conspiracy theories about Israel and calling Jews “demonic” and “pedophilic.”
During his keynote speech, Fine said that the fight against antisemitism is an “existential fight for the nature of our country.”
He stressed that no country that has gone down the “path of antisemitism” has survived and urged Jewish conservatives not to ignore antisemites as fringe voices. Fine lamented the growing issue of right-wing antisemitism, claiming that “we have an issue in our own party, where the evil has come into our own midst.”
Fine argued that Carlson is now the “most dangerous antisemite in America” because he still harbors credibility among conservatives from his popular Fox News show and that most people don’t know that he has become a “nutgbag.”