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‘I like Hitler,’ Kanye West repeatedly tells Alex Jones during 3-hour ‘InfoWars’ appearance
(JTA) – The far-right streaming host Alex Jones tried to throw his guest Kanye West a lifeline Thursday after weeks of the rapper’s public antisemitic behavior.
“You’re not Hitler. You’re not a Nazi,” Jones prodded West, who now goes by Ye, on his show “InfoWars,” a haven for right-wing conspiracy theories.
But Ye, or a man who sounded like Ye under a skintight all-black mask that completely covered his face, wanted to set the record straight.
“I see good things about Hitler, also,” he told Jones. “I like Hitler. … Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table. Especially Hitler.”
It was yet another shocking outburst from the former billionaire who dominated popular culture for decades before veering hard into antisemitism and extremist conspiracy theories. Ye’s declaration last month that he was going “death con 3 on Jewish people” and subsequent doubling down on further antisemitic behavior cost him billions of dollars in sponsorships, led to most of his friends and colleagues publicly distancing themselves from him and inspired antisemites across the country who have made “Kanye is right” a rallying cry.
And yet the rapper continues to have friends in high places, as evidenced by his reinstatement on Twitter at the hands of the world’s richest man Elon Musk and his dinner last week with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, to which he had brought as a guest the antisemite, Charlottesville march organizer and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
The rapper’s visit to Jones’ studio with Fuentes was the latest stop on his media tour of right-wing fringe figures since being deplatformed by his major sponsors and allies. He also stopped by YouTuber Tim Pool’s show this week, with Fuentes and fellow alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos by his side, but stormed out when Pool challenged him on his antisemitism.
Jones, who also has a longstanding connection to Trump, is no stranger to trafficking in odious conspiracy theories, having recently been ordered by a jury to pay $1 billion to victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting after claiming on his program that it was a hoax. He has also embraced antisemitism to a degree, telling Ye on Thursday, “I agree there’s a Jewish mafia.”
But his strategy for Ye’s appearance was to try to mitigate and redirect public criticism of his guest, giving him multiple opportunities to disavow his praise for Nazis. “I dont think the story should be about antisemitism or Nazis or anything,” Jones said at one point — but was interrupted by Ye, who said, “I like Nazis, though.”
Later, Jones described the horrors of the Nazi death camps, as described to him by someone he knew who, he said, participated in their liberation as a U.S. soldier. “I don’t like Hitler. He was terrible,” Jones said. Ye immediately countered: “I like Hitler!” Jones offered yet another lifeline: “I know you’re trying to be shocking.”
“I’m not trying to be shocking. I like Hitler,” Ye said, adding, “Hitler had a lot of redeeming qualities.”
Ye’s fascination with Hitler is longstanding, according to the accounts of people who worked with him and who have spoken up about his past comments since he launched his antisemitic spree. But on Jones’ show, he emphasized that he loves everyone, including Jews, Zionists, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
Trump, who is also running for president in 2024, has faced intense criticism — including from many of his Republican Jewish allies — over his dinner with Ye and Fuentes. One of those who criticized him was the incoming Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. On Jones’ show Ye offered a kind of Netanyahu impersonation, pulling out a small orange net and pretending to speak as the Israeli leader in a falsetto voice. “I just heard about this guy two weeks ago,” he said.
Kanye is currently doing prop comedy about Benjamin Netanyahu & praising hitler on InfoWars alongside a conspiracy theorist & white supremacist pic.twitter.com/dFRBMTHAsR
— Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) December 1, 2022
Toward the end of the livestream, which lasted well over three hours, Jones welcomed a call from Laura Loomer, the Jewish far-right activist and onetime congressional candidate who is waging a campaign to get her account reinstated on Twitter. She said she had been asked how she, a Jewish woman, could support Ye, and explained, “This is more than just somebody being Jewish, somebody being Christian. This is about the truth and fighting for free speech.” (“Love you,” Ye responded.)
The Republican Jewish Coalition, which had initially condemned the Trump-Ye-Fuentes dinner without mentioning Trump by name but later clarified it was referring to “all Republicans,” said in a statement that the rapper’s “InfoWars” appearance “was a horrific cesspool of dangerous, bigoted Jew hatred” and added, “Conservatives who have mistakenly indulged Kanye West must make it clear that he is a pariah. Enough is enough.”
Ye had one final trick up his sleeve: In response to Musk reinstating him on Twitter, he said he would be handing over his account to Jones and Fuentes, as Musk has previously said he would draw the line at bringing back Jones’ account. Tweets purportedly authored by Jones and Fuentes then began appearing in Ye’s account.
Ye also had a successful year on the Billboard charts in spite of everything, with the album sales tracker noting Thursday that he was the year’s “Top Gospel Artist” and “Top Christian Artist,” and that his 2021 album “Donda” was 2022’s top gospel album.
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The post ‘I like Hitler,’ Kanye West repeatedly tells Alex Jones during 3-hour ‘InfoWars’ appearance appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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How the Israeli police’s first trans volunteer fought bigotry on the force
From the beginning of the biographical documentary The First Lady, Efrat Tilma makes it clear she has mixed feelings about the film, which details how she became the first trans woman to volunteer in Israel’s police department. When asked why she wanted to make the movie, she tells one of the directors, “I didn’t want to. You asked me.” This prickly demeanor persists throughout the film, although she later acknowledges that she wants “to show people that a trans woman is just like any other woman, like any other person.”
Tilma starts her story in 1964, the year she first tried living as a woman. Using archival footage, animation, and present-day interviews, directors Udi Nir and Sagi Bornstein present a moving portrait of Tilma’s life, unveiling how the burdens of her past have followed her into the present.
When Tilma was 14, she often wandered the streets of Tel Aviv to escape her abusive father. There she met another trans woman, Gila Goldstein, who introduced her to a whole network of trans women who taught Tilma about hormones and gender reassignment surgery. That same year, a man held her hostage in his apartment for a day and a half and sexually assaulted her. Not long afterwards, she says, an Israeli police officer threatened to kill her for dressing as a woman.
These experiences made her determined to carve her own path in spite of obstacles or the opinions of others, including the film directors. In one scene, as the team records her coming out of her apartment building, she strikes several poses.
“Natural, Efrat. We said natural!” a director reminds her.
“Kiss my ass!” Tilma responds, before strutting away.
But behind all the bravado is a vulnerable human being, who spends her first moment in the film nervously rehearsing the speech she is going to give at a 2023 Pride celebration in Israel. Tilma acknowledges that she’s not sure she’s been able to process her trauma and still carries it with her.
After leaving Israel in 1967, Tilma spent nearly four decades living in Europe, where she created a new life for herself as a woman. She performed in nightclubs, worked as an airline stewardess, got sex reassignment surgery in Morocco, married a man, and, nearly two decades later, divorced him. In 2005, she finally moved back to Israel and, on a whim, began volunteering with the Israel Police.
She wasn’t open about her gender identity at first, given the negative way she saw her colleagues treat trans women on the street. But when the police captain eventually discovered she was trans, the result ended up being positive: She began leading workshops on approaching the trans community with empathy and respect.
The film jumps between Tilma’s past and the present, as she reacts to Netanyahu’s 2022 re-election and the creation of a far-right coalition in Israel. Convinced that the world is reverting to the hateful days of her youth, Tilma leaves the police force and plans how she’ll kill herself if the government attempts to round up trans people. As protests start to sweep the country, however, she decides to channel her fear into activism. Shots of her among the protesters are mixed with recollections of her 1971 sex reassignment surgery and abuse she faced from a doctor in 1973.
Respecting Tilma’s boundaries while encouraging her to share her life story, the filmmakers capture both Tilma’s toughness and sensitivity, giving the film the honesty and heart that make The First Lady feel so intimate. They get Tilma to open doors into her life — literally.
Several times, the directors try to convince Tilma to bring the film crew into her apartment, where she says that no one else has been for a decade. When she finally lets them inside, they encounter piles of clothing, discarded plastic bottles, and other hoarded objects. The filmmakers tell her that the film crew will help her reorganize the apartment bit by bit, in much the same way they piece together her story: bit by bit.
Even if she approaches the whole process with a bit of attitude, Tilma remains determined to never give up fighting for a better life — or a better apartment.
The First Lady will screen at the New York Jewish Film Festival on Jan. 20.
The post How the Israeli police’s first trans volunteer fought bigotry on the force appeared first on The Forward.
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Exclusive: Israeli Officials Harshly Critical of Steve Witkoff’s Influence on US Policy on Gaza, Iran, i24NEWS Told
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Amid growing disagreements with the Trump administration over the composition of the Board of Peace for Gaza and the question of a strike on Iran, officials in Israel point to a key figure behind decisions seen as running counter to Israeli interests: Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
The officials mention sustained dissatisfaction with Witkoff. Sources close to the PM Netanyahu told i24NEWS on Saturday evening: “For several months now, the feeling has been that envoy Steve Witkoff has strong ties, for his own reasons, across the Middle East, and that at times the Israeli interest does not truly prevail in his decision-making.”
This criticism relates both to the proposed inclusion of Turkey and Qatar in Gaza’s governing bodies and to the Iranian threat. A senior Israeli official put it bluntly: “If it turns out that he is among those blocking a strike on Iran, that is far more than a coincidence.”
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EU Warns of Downward Spiral After Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Greenland
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman
European Union leaders on Saturday warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” over US President Donald Trump‘s vow to implement increasing tariffs on European allies until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on X.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said tariffs would hurt prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, while distracting the EU from its “core task” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” Kallas said on X.
“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.”
Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting to discuss their response to the tariff threat.