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Rep. Randy Fine denounces Tucker Carlson as ‘most dangerous antisemite in America’
LAS VEGAS — Most of the Republicans denouncing an explosion of antisemitism on the right at this weekend’s Republican Jewish Coalition convention refrained from naming names.
Not so for Randy Fine, one of four Jewish Republicans in Congress.
“Make no mistake. Today, Tucker Carlson is the most dangerous antisemite in America,” he said during an address Saturday morning. “He has chosen to take on the mantle of leader of a modern-day Hitler Youth.”
He continued by listing Carlson’s offenses: “To broadcast and feature those who celebrate the Nazis, those who call for the extermination of Israel, to defend Hamas, to even criticize President Trump for stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Friends, make no mistake: Tucker is not MAGA.”
In front of Fine, dozens of student volunteers held up signs with that message that the RJC had prepared. The group’s convention has taken place under a shadow cast by Carlson, the former Fox News host who last week hosted the white supremacist Nick Fuentes on his popular streaming show.
In their first-ever joint appearance, the duo discussed “these Zionist Jews” at length, with Carlson and Fuentes both expressing opposition to U.S. support for Israel and Fuentes describing his views on Jews and Judaism at length.
The interview spurred distress from some on the right who saw it as evidence of a broad mainstreaming of antisemitism within the Republican Party. It also elicited a striking response from the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that envisioned many of the policies being advanced by the party today.
On Thursday, the foundation’s president, Kevin Roberts, announced in a video statement that not only was he rejecting calls to cut ties with Carlson, but he saw Carlson’s critics as evidence of a “venomous coalition” threatening the party from within.
“If those who support Tucker Carlson want to see a venomous coalition, all they need to do is go look in the mirror,” Fine said, announcing that he was canceling a planned appearance at a Heritage Foundation event next week.
Fine declared that he would no longer allow Heritage staffers entry to his Capitol Hill office.
“I will be calling on all of my colleagues on the Republican side to do the same,” he said.
Fine, who represents a district in central Florida, has the backing of President Donald Trump and has sought to carry the mantle of Trump’s MAGA movement. Calling himself the “Hebrew Hammer,” he has drawn attention for his pugnacious style and unwavering support for the Israeli government.
Fine began his speech by boasting of being the first member of Congress to wear a kippah on the House floor — a move he said was motivated by defiance, not religious piety. He also railed against multiple liberal and pro-Palestinian politicians who are a frequent target of his ire: Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, as well as New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, whom he has called to have deported.
But Fine quickly shifted gears to direct his attention to his own party — and explain why he was one of the few speakers to criticize Carlson explicitly.
“It’s easy to talk about antisemitism on the left. I want to talk about the dark force rising on our side,” he said. “Multiple speakers have talked about the rise of antisemitism on the right. But it is not enough to speak in platitudes or generalities about the fight. We must call evil by its name.”
In addition to Carlson, he also condemned two far-right Republicans in Congress by name: Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene, each of whom has criticized U.S. support for Israel and drawn censure for advancing antisemitic conspiracy theories.
As the crowd booed at their names, Fine said, “Some days I marvel at their stupidity. Other days, at their evil. It makes my stomach crawl that I have to sit in the same room as them.”
Fine likened their presence in the party to what he said was a once-fringe presence of antisemitism on the left that had metastasized over time.
The Democrats “said, ‘It’s no big deal. They’re the fringe, no one listens to them, no one will believe them.’ And they didn’t do anything about it, and look where we are now,” he said.
Echoing a message broadcast at the start of the RJC confab by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, he then said: “So now we have to choose: Will we ignore these embarrassments to our party? Will we pretend that they don’t matter or don’t exist? Will we make the same mistakes the Democrats made so many years ago? I know what I’m going to choose. I’m going to choose to fight.”
Fine did not mention another prominent Republican who has recently ignited antisemitism concerns of his own: Vice President JD Vance, who earlier this month downplayed a Young Republicans’ group chat in which some participants praised Hitler and this week sidestepped an antisemitic question posed to him by a student at the University of Mississippi.
In an interview, Fine said thought Vance was right to forgive the Young Republicans’ chat, saying, “Kids do stupid things.” (Most of the people on the chat were young professionals, some in their 30s.)
But he said he could not comment on Vance’s Ole Miss encounter. “I haven’t seen it, so I couldn’t comment about it,” he said. “I think that was a pretty long event so I haven’t watched it.”
He said he was proud of his own advocacy around college campuses, citing both his activism against pro-Palestinian student protesters at universities and the engagement of the young Jewish Republicans who joined his speech.
“It was very cool for me to have all those kids down there,” Fine said. “It’s part of why I do what I do — to make sure kids feel safe on college campuses.”
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Hamas Expands European Reach, Posing ‘High Likelihood’ of Terror Attack in Next Six Months, Intel Report Warns
Palestinian Hamas terrorists stand guard at a site as Hamas says it continues to search for the bodies of deceased hostages, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, Dec. 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
Hamas operatives have pushed far beyond Gaza, embedding themselves across Europe — and now posing a growing threat inside the United Kingdom, where covert arms caches and active attack plots have put intelligence services on high alert, according to a new report.
Even though Hamas has traditionally focused its operations in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, the Palestinian terrorist group has been steadily cultivating foreign attack capabilities — a trend highlighted in a new report obtained by The Daily Mirror, which warns of a looming threat of Hamas-led attacks in Europe.
Intelligence assessments indicate that the terrorist group, backed for years by Iran, Qatar, and Turkey, has been gradually expanding its presence in Europe through a network of charities, NGOs, and criminal gangs, with Israeli diplomatic missions, Israel-linked businesses, and Jewish religious sites among its top targets.
The report also notes that the group has not only stockpiled weapons such as AK-47s and ammunition but is increasingly turning to drone warfare, bolstered by backing from Lebanon and Iran and supported by Eastern European crime networks that help it acquire advanced weaponry.
“The Oct. 7, 2023, assault fundamentally altered Israel’s threat perceptions, but also reshaped Hamas’s calculations,” the report says, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
“Following catastrophic damage to its infrastructure in Gaza and significant leadership attrition, the group’s remaining command nodes particularly those in Lebanon began activating contingency plans long under development,” it continues.
“The organization’s leadership now appears more willing to accept the strategic risks of external operations. If Hamas sustains further attrition, external operations may grow in relative importance within the group’s strategy,” the intelligence report adds.
According to the United Kingdom’s domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, MI5, and the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center, the current threat level of a terror attack in the UK is assessed to be “substantial.”
Over the next six months, the report warns, there is a “high likelihood of continued attempts at external operations, particularly in Europe, as Hamas seeks to demonstrate resilience.”
This assessment comes amid multiple intelligence findings showing that Hamas has expanded its terrorist operations beyond the Middle East, leveraging a long-established network of weapons caches, criminal alliances, and covert infrastructure quietly built across Europe over the years.
In October, West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center released a study detailing how Hamas leaders in Lebanon have directed operatives to establish “foreign operator” cells across Europe, collaborating with organized crime networks to acquire weapons and target Jewish communities abroad.
For example, a failed Hamas plot involved an alleged operative in Germany traveling to Lebanon to “receive orders from the Qassam Brigades [Hamas’s military wing] to set up an arms depot for Hamas in Bulgaria,” part of a broader, multi-year effort to cache weapons across Europe.
German authorities foiled the plan, detaining four Hamas members in late 2023 on suspicion of planning attacks.
Earlier this year, the four suspects went on trial in Berlin in what prosecutors described as Germany’s first-ever case against members of the Palestinian terrorist group.
During the investigation, German authorities also found evidence on a defendant’s USB device showing that the Hamas operatives were planning attacks on specific sites in Germany, including the Israeli embassy in Berlin.
Similar weapons depots were established in Denmark, Poland, and other European countries, with Hamas members repeatedly trying to retrieve them to support their operations and plan potential attacks.
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Jerusalem-Based Policy Center Seeks to Forge Inroads With US Lawmakers to Safeguard Israel’s Capital
Thousands of Jews gather for a mass prayer for the hostages in Gaza at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, Jan. 10, 2024. Photo: Yaacov Cohen
Amid increasing uncertainty over the future of the US-Israel relationship, a Jerusalem-based organization committed to safeguarding Israel’s capital city has decamped to Washington, DC in an attempt to make inroads with federal lawmakers in the US.
The Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP), a research and policy center, aims to help protect and bolster the security, sovereignty, economy, and international standing of “Israel’s indivisible capital” in the face of “existential challenges,” according to its website.
To expand its mission, JCAP has opened a new office in Washington, DC, where some its principals are currently touring to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
As part of its work, JCAP seeks to mitigate potential threats from terrorist groups and their sponsors and has adopted the goal of spreading awareness about Islamist propaganda campaigns targeting the West, arguing that malevolent entities are trying to undermine the legitimacy of Western democracies and corrode them from within.
Chaim Silverstein, founder and chairman of JCAP, told The Algemeiner in an interview in Washington, DC this week that protecting Jerusalem is critical to preserving the security and existence of Israel from terrorists. He described Jerusalem as “the heart of Israel,” arguing that adversarial entities understand that “if they harm the head” of the Jewish state, “the rest of the body will implode.”
Silverstein added that Jerusalem is particularly vulnerable because it is home to Israel’s largest Arab population, explaining that countries such as Turkey and Iran have been effectively radicalizing Arab citizens of Israel with the hope of turning them against their home and “Islamicizing” Jerusalem.
“Radical Islamic enemies are trying to destroy Jerusalem,” he said, stressing that they want to “liberate it for Islam.”
Thus, according to Silverstein, JCAP “formulates policy initiatives” to protect Jerusalem from looming threats. The organization maintains a “unique approach” to combatting Islamic extremism, he argued, touting its extensive efforts to monitor and track the Muslim Brotherhood’s global Islamist network. JCAP aims to share the organization’s findings and methodologies with US lawmakers, equipping them with the ability to thwart extremism in their own borders, Silverstein said.
JCAP aims to enhance “Jerusalem’s international standing through proactive diplomacy while countering the influence of hostile international agitators,” its website states, adding that the goal is “advancing strategic partnerships and advocacy to reinforce Jerusalem’s role as Israel’s united and sovereign capital.”
In addition to information about terrorist cells, JCAP also wants to spread awareness about the pervasive influence campaign waged by Qatar against Israel and Western countries. According to Silverstein, Qatar has attempted to soften its image through elevating its prominence in sports, entertainment, and academia while simultaneously spreading misinformation regarding Israel’s domestic policies and military campaign in Gaza. Moreover, he argued that this influence campaign aims to spark chaos within the borders of Western countries such as Canada, Australia, and the US.
US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned in 2024 that actors tied to adversarial governments such as Iran have encouraged and provided financial support to rampant protests opposing Israel’s defensive military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
Meanwhile, analysts have revealed in recent reports that Qatar, a longtime supporter of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood’s global network more broadly, has spent tens of billions of dollars to influence US policy making and public opinion in Doha’s favor. At the same time, the country has provided the Hamas-run government in Gaza with an estimated $1.8 billion and allows the terrorist group to host an office in Doha.
JCAP acknowledged that the popularity of Israel has declined precipitously in the US, complicating efforts to forge strong ties with certain American lawmakers. Nonetheless, the organization said it believes that US policymakers will understand that their national security interests are intertwined with Israel’s. The organization suggested that despite the souring reputation of the Jewish state among younger US voters, the American military and defense industry still recognize that Israel is a valuable asset. Moreover, the group claimed that their mission — focusing more on Jerusalem rather than Israel writ large — helps to emphasize the shared Christian-Jewish Biblical heritage of the land rather than politics.
Amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, many recent polls have shown a precipitous decline in support of Israel among Democrats and, increasingly, even Republicans, especially younger voters.
Though JCAP claims to stay neutral on domestic US issues, it explicitly identifies as “pro-Trump,” praising US President Donald Trump’s policies toward Israel. The group hopes to form inroads with the Trump administration and Republicans to help guide policies on Israel.
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Irish Three-Time Eurovision Winner Backs Ireland’s Withdrawal From Song Contest Over Israel’s Participation
Irish-Australian singer Johnny Logan sings during a rehearsal for the first semi-final in the supporting program of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2024. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa via Reuters Connect
Ireland’s three-time Eurovision winner Johnny Logan said he supports the country’s national broadcaster in its decision to pull out of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest after organizers said Israel will be allowed to participate.
Johnny Logan said he was “proud” of RTÉ’s decision and thinks the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the competition, should have Israel “removed” from next year’s Eurovision contest, set to take place in May in Vienna, Austria. “I really feel that in this case, RTÉ definitely made the right decision,” he said on RTÉ’s radio news program “This Week.”
“I don’t think that Israel should be allowed to hide under the umbrella of the Eurovision … make it look as though, everything’s OK, business as usual, because it’s not. I think most people in Ireland would agree with that,” Logan added. “I think that the EBU should have made a decision regarding Israel, a decision removing them from the show and taking that decision away from individual countries. But being as it is. I really think that what Ireland, what RTÉ, have done is exactly the right thing to do. I support them 100 percent.”
The EBU ruled last week that Israel can compete in next year’s contest, despite backlash over Israel’s participation because of its military campaign against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Following the EBU’s decision, the national broadcasters of Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Slovenia confirmed their withdrawal from the competition. Logan called on the national broadcasters of other countries to also boycott the 2026 Eurovision because of Israel’s involvement.
“And it’s not about the Israeli people, it’s about the people in charge of Israel, the governments that have been making these decisions,” he added. Logan said he believes Israel being allowed to participate “adds a kind of respectability to the way they’ve behaved.”
Logan noted that the Eurovision Song Contest has turned political in the past, and cited as an example Russia being removed from the competition following its invasion of Ukraine. “They did it with Russia in the Eurovision. They say that the Eurovision is nonpolitical but the reality of it is when it is necessary it becomes political,” Logan said. “The Eurovision has been really good to me, but I do feel very strongly about it.”