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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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Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.
The post Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.
Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.
Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.
“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.
The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.
PRESSURE
Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.
The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.
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Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.
There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.
Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.
“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.
The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.
It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.
“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.
“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.
Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.
The post Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.