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Kanye West Accuses Jews of Conspiring Against Him, Admits He ‘Was Drinking’ When He Wrote 2022 Antisemitic Tweet
Candace Owens and Kanye West in a video interview that Owens shared on YouTube on Aug. 7, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
In an interview with far-right political commentator Candace Owens that was published on Wednesday, rapper Kanye West admitted that he was under the influence when he wrote his notoriously antisemitic tweet in 2022 about wanting to physically harm Jews.
In the same interview, the “Heartbreak” rapper, 47, further made numerous claims against his “Jewish doctor,” “Jewish trainer,” and the “Jewish media” conspiring to hospitalize him in 2022 when he was admitted to the UCLA Medical Center for exhaustion.
Owens premiered on her YouTube channel this week an interview she did with West, who now legally goes by the name Ye, for her podcast “Candace” that took place on Oct. 17, 2022. During their conversation, Ye said a “Jewish doctor” diagnosed him with bipolar disorder “and the information was put out there by a Jewish Hollywood trainer to the Jewish media.” He also said his “Jewish trainer” saw him reading the Bible, “put [me] in hospital, and then put it in the press.” He later accused “Jewish media” of “controlling the Black voice” and said “Jewish media – I have their attention. They love me. They always love me.”
Earlier in October 2022, West tweeted about wanting to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” referring to the US military’s DEFCON system for rating how alert the armed forces should be at a given moment in the face of a threat. “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” West wrote in the since-deleted post. “The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic [sic] because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
As a result of the tweet, which the platform deleted, West’s account was temporarily locked, and he lost a number of brand partnerships including Adidas, which ended its lucrative partnership with West’s Yeezy line of footwear. Not long after West praised Hitler in an interview with the far-right talk show host Alex Jones and promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories and stereotypes during an interview with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
“I definitely was drinking when I put up the DEFCON tweet,” the rapper said in the newly-shared 2022 interview with Owens. “You wanna know what alcohol I had inside me? Hennessy. It turns us gray. The demons [come out].” When Owens asked him why he didn’t admit that he was intoxicated when he received backlash for the tweet, West said he didn’t want to “discredit” what he wrote because he still considered the comments to be fact and his “truth.”
He added, “How can I hate Jews if I consider myself to be Jew?”
Numerous times during his interview with Owens, West reiterated his previous claims that “Black people are actually Jew[s].” He repeatedly referred to Black people, including himself, as “darker Jews” and told Owens, “if people can be transgender, why can’t they be transrace?”
At one point during the interview, West attempted to further explain his intent behind the “death con 3” tweet. He told Owens: “Everyone’s like, ‘Why are you calling [Jews] out specifically?’ When I said ‘death con 3,’ I didn’t get an opportunity to say what that meant. But it meant — I’m going to call out all these things that have been done to me specifically by Jewish people, that so happen to be businessman or businesswomen. But, still, it was done by Jewish people to me — to the darker Jew.”
“The reason I said it like that was just to say, ‘I know you guys are going to call this anti-semite [sic].’ Now, I’m not afraid of that title. I’m going to lean into that title. So call me whatever you want,” he added. He also said, “Jewish businessman are the ones who have done the things to me to hurt me and my friends.”
West repeatedly brought up Jewish people throughout the interview. At one point, while trying to discuss the high abortion rates in the Black community, he told Owens: “I think the Jewish people will always tell you about the drama and the Holocaust. Our Holocaust museum is Planned Parenthood. We’re still in the Holocaust. Six million Jewish people died in the Holocaust. Over 20 million darker Jews, Black people, have been aborted.”
He then claimed that “probably 80 percent but over 50 percent of the media is run by Jewish executives and they allow all of this abortion-driven content … and it affects the darker Jew, the Black people, more than any other race.”
He also asserted that “what Jewish people love best out of me is [to] make music and make people really happy.”
On Thursday, Owens posted about her 2022 interview with West on social media. “The threatening and controlling of the black voice when we ordain to speak out against people that are abusing us across various industries needs to stop,” Owens wrote in a post on X/Twitter. “I will not be bullied into Zionist talking points.”
West is currently facing a number of lawsuits for alleged antisemitic and discriminatory behavior, which include comparing himself to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and creating a hostile work environment.
Meanwhile, Owens in recent weeks has spent a curious amount of time focusing on Jews and Israel. Last week, she claimed on her show that the Star of David originated from an evil pagan deity and has only become associated with Judaism within the past few hundred years. In June, she argued that the US “is being held hostage by Israel” and suggested that Zionists were behind the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy. Weeks later, Owens promoted a series of talking points downplaying the atrocities of the Holocaust and said experiments by Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele performed on Jews during World War II sounded “like bizarre propaganda.”
Two weeks before Owens recorded the 2022 interview with West, the two of them stirred controversy when they were photographed at West’s fashion show in Paris wearing shirts that had the message “White Lives Matter.”
The 2022 interview was filmed the same day West was a guest on Chris Cuomo’s NewsNation show, during which the rapper claimed a “Jewish underground media mafia” was controlling musicians. “There’s so many Black musicians signed to Jewish record labels and those Jewish record labels take ownership … of the culture itself,” he told Cuomo on air. “It’s like a modern-day slavery, and I’m calling it out.”
The post Kanye West Accuses Jews of Conspiring Against Him, Admits He ‘Was Drinking’ When He Wrote 2022 Antisemitic Tweet first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Rejects US Nuclear Proposal, Says ‘Counteroffer’ Coming as Talks Stall Over Uranium Enrichment, Sanctions
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran has denounced the latest nuclear proposal from the United States as “unprofessional and untechnical,” reaffirming the country’s right to enrich uranium and announcing plans to present a counteroffer in the coming days.
“After receiving the American proposal regarding the Iranian nuclear program, we are now preparing a counteroffer,” Ali Shamkhnai, political adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Shamkhani criticized the White House draft proposal as “not well thought out,” emphasizing its alleged failure to address sanction relief — a key demand for Tehran under any deal with Washington.
“There is no mention whatsoever of lifting sanctions in the latest American proposal, even though the issue of sanctions is a fundamental matter for Iran,” Shamkhnai said.
The Iranian official also warned that Tehran will not allow the US to dismantle its “peaceful nuclear program” or force uranium enrichment down to zero.
“Iran will never relinquish its natural rights,” Shamkhani said.
Washington’s draft proposal for a new nuclear deal was delivered by Omani officials — who have been mediating negotiations between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff — during last month’s talks in Rome.
On Wednesday, Khamenei dismissed such an offer, saying it “contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance” and runs counter to Iran’s key objectives.
“The proposal that the Americans have presented is 100 percent against our interests,” the Iranian leader said during a televised speech.
“The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?” Khamenei continued.
After five rounds of talks, diplomatic efforts have yet to yield results as both adversaries clash over Iran’s demand to maintain its domestic uranium enrichment program — a condition the White House has firmly rejected.
In April, Tehran and Washington held their first official nuclear negotiation since the US withdrew from a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal that had imposed temporary limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief.
Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has sought to curtail Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon that could spark a regional arms race and pose a threat to Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran seeks to have Western sanctions on its oil-dependent economy lifted, while maintaining its nuclear enrichment program — which the country insists is solely for civilian purposes.
As part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran — which aims to cut the country’s crude exports to zero and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon — Washington has been targeting Tehran’s oil industry with mounting sanctions.
Amid the ongoing diplomatic deadlock, Israel has declared it will never allow the Islamist regime to acquire nuclear weapons, as the country views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to uphold any agreement that prevents Tehran from enriching uranium.
“But in any case, Israel maintains the right to defend itself from a regime that is threatening to annihilate it,” Netanyahu said in a press conference last month, following reports that Jerusalem could strike Iranian nuclear sites if ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran fail.
The post Iran Rejects US Nuclear Proposal, Says ‘Counteroffer’ Coming as Talks Stall Over Uranium Enrichment, Sanctions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Day After Colorado Attack, Founder of Anti-Israel Group Chides Activists Who Are Insufficiently ‘Pro-Resistance’
Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of WithinOurLifetime (WOL), leading a pro-Hamas demonstration in New York City on Aug. 14, 2024. Photo: Michael Nigro via Reuters Connect
Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of the radical anti-Israel organization Within Our Lifetime, chastised those within the pro-Palestinian movement who only support “resistance” in the abstract but not in practice following Sunday’s antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado.
“A lot of people who call themselves anti-Zionist or pro-resistance don’t actually understand what resistance is,” Kiswani posted on X/Twitter on Monday. “They support it in theory, but when it shows up in practice, they hesitate, distance themselves, or shift the conversation entirely.”
She continued, “And it makes it even harder for those of us who are principled to take public stances. We’re already marginalized, already painted as extreme or dangerous and that isolation only deepens when others in the movement won’t stand firm when it counts.”
Kiswani’s comments came the day after a man threw Molotov cocktails at a Boulder gathering where participants were rallying in support of the Israeli hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza — which resulted in 15 injuries, including some critically, in what US authorities called a targeted terrorist attack. Her tweets also came less than two weeks after a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they were leaving an at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee. In both attacks, the perpetrator yelled “Free Palestine” as they targeted innocent civilians, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
After Kiswani’s social media posts sparked some backlash among pro-Israel users on X, she provided limited pushback on the idea that it was an expression of support for the prior day’s attack in Colorado.
“Zionists are freaking out in the QTs about this, insisting it’s about Colorado,” she wrote. “Newsflash: the world doesn’t revolve around you. Resistance hasn’t stopped in Gaza, look at what just happened in Jabalia [where three IDF soldiers were killed] for instance. The perpetual victimhood is getting old.”
However, Kiswani did not say her comment had no connection to the attack in Colorado, and she did not say that she opposed the firebombing.
Kiswani and her group, Within Our Lifetime (WOL), have been at the forefront of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas activism since Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages during their invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a massacre that started the war in Gaza.
On Oct. 8, 2023, one day after the biggest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, WOL organized a protest to celebrate the prior day’s attack, which it described as an effort to “defend the heroic Palestinian resistance.” Kiswani notably refused to condemn Hamas and the Oct. 7 massacre following the atrocities.
Then, in Apil 2024, Kiswani refused to condemn the chant “Death to America” and organized a mass demonstration to block the “arteries of capitalism” by staging a blockade of commercial shipping ports across the world in protest of Western support for the Jewish state. That same month, she was banned from Columbia University’s campus in New York City after leading chants calling for an “intifada,” or violent uprising.
The following month, Kiswani led a demonstration in Brooklyn, New York in which she lambasted the local police department, claimed then-US President Joe Biden will soon die, and called for the destruction of Israel.
That proceeded the activist saying she does not want Zionists “anywhere” in the world while speaking in defense of a person who called for “Zionists” to leave a crowded subway car in New York City.
WOL, which planned a protest last year to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, was also behind demonstrations at the Nova Music Festival exhibit, which commemorated the more than 300 civilians slaughtered by Hamas while at a music festival.
The latter protest prompted widespread condemnation, including from Biden and even progressive members of the US Congress who are outspoken against Israel.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), for example, posted on social media that the “callousness, dehumanization, and targeting of Jews on display at last night’s protest outside the Nova Festival exhibit was atrocious antisemitism – plain and simple.”
The post Day After Colorado Attack, Founder of Anti-Israel Group Chides Activists Who Are Insufficiently ‘Pro-Resistance’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo
Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza. Photo: IDF via Reuters
Israel reached a new all-time high in defense exports in 2024, nearing $15 billion — the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking sales — despite mounting international criticism over the war in Gaza and growing pressure from European countries to suspend arms deals.
In a press release on Wednesday, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced that defense exports reached over $14.7 billion last year — a 13 percent increase from 2023 — with more than half of the deals valued at over $100 million.
According to the ministry, Israel’s military exports have more than doubled over the past five years, highlighting the industry’s rapid expansion and growing global demand.
“This tremendous achievement is a direct result of the successes of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and defense industries against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Ayatollah regime in Iran, and in additional arenas where we operate against Israel’s enemies,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
“The world sees Israeli strength and seeks to be a partner in it. We will continue strengthening the IDF and the Israeli economy through security innovation to ensure clear superiority against any threat – anywhere and anytime,” Katz continued.
In 2024, over half of the Jewish state’s defense contracts were with European countries — up from 35 percent the previous year — as many in the region have increased their defense spending following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Despite increasing pressure and widespread anti-Israel sentiment among European governments amid the current conflict in Gaza, this latest data seems to contradict recent calls by European leaders to impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state over its defensive campaign in Gaza against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
On Wednesday, Germany reversed its earlier threat to halt arms deliveries to Israel, reaffirming its commitment to continue cooperation and maintain defense contracts with Jerusalem.
“Germany will continue to support the State of Israel, including with arms deliveries,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told lawmakers in parliament.
Last week, Berlin warned it would take unspecified measures against Israel if it continued its military campaign in Gaza, citing concerns that exported weapons were being used in violation of humanitarian law.
“Our full support for the right to exist and the security of the State of Israel must not be instrumentalized for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul said in a statement.
Germany would be “examining whether what is happening in the Gaza Strip is compatible with international humanitarian law,” he continued. “Further arms deliveries will be authorized based on the outcome of that review.”
Spain and Ireland are among the countries in Europe that have threatened or taken steps to limit arms deals with Israel, while others such as France have threatened unspecified harsh measures against the Jewish state.
According to the Israeli defense ministry’s report, since the outbreak of war on Oct. 7, 2023, after the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, the operational successes and proven battlefield performance of Israeli systems have fueled strong international demand for Israel’s defense technology.
Last year, the export of missiles, rockets, and air defense systems reached a new high, making up 48 percent of the total deal volume — up from 36 percent in 2023.
Similarly, satellite and space systems exports surged, accounting for 8 percent of total deals in 2024 — quadrupling their share from 2 percent in 2023.
While Europe dominated Israel’s defense export market in 2024, significant portions also went to other regions. Asia and the Pacific made up 23 percent of total sales — slightly lower than in previous years, when the region approached 30 percent.
Exports to Abraham Accords countries fell to 12 percent, down from 23 percent in 2022, while North America remained stable at around 9 percent.
The post Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo first appeared on Algemeiner.com.