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The great antisemitism rug pull
The declining fortunes of Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire media empire, which announced layoffs last week amid falling viewership across its network of shows on Youtube, is the latest evidence of a sudden erosion in the alliance between Jews and conservatives.
The partnership emerged around Donald Trump’s first election as Jews concerned about ascendant anti-Zionism were desperately casting about for allies. Conservatives realized they could lean into ironclad support for Israel while bashing their political opponents for being antisemitic. Among them: former Rep. Liz Cheney, who famously sought to brand Democrats as the party of antisemitism, infanticide and socialism during her stint in charge of campaign strategy for House Republicans.
It was an appealing line of attack because it seized on something liberals claimed to care about — minority rights — and offered evidence that the left was morally bankrupt. “Is it a mere accident that the loudest proponents of intersectionality also tend to be obsessed with ‘Jewish privilege’ and the alleged depredations of the Jewish state?” Sohrab Ahmari, a right-wing journalist, wrote in 2018.
Cheney, Ahmari and others making similar arguments were extending an olive branch to Jews from a conservative movement that had been plagued by antisemitism coming from its own “alt-right,” offering to welcome Jews into the patchwork of constituencies who they felt had been unfairly targeted by a progressive compulsion to split the world into “oppressors” and the “oppressed.”
This offer came with a bonus: Where progressives were pressuring Jews to move left on Israel, and sometimes applying offensive litmus tests around Zionism, these new partnerships with conservatives would require no such sacrifices or discomfort.
Many influential Jewish leaders were receptive.
David Bernstein, chief of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs during the first Trump administration, authored a book called “Woke Antisemitism,” while both the American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League began raising the alarm about ethnic studies curricula in public schools and diversity initiatives at colleges and universities.
“End DEI,” Bari Weiss wrote in a Tablet essay shortly after Oct. 7.
And by the time that Deborah Lipstadt, the Holocaust scholar and longtime liberal, left her post as President Joe Biden’s ambassador for countering antisemitism, she had become convinced that conservatives were important allies for Jews concerned about antisemitism.
The second Trump administration carried this partnership to its logical conclusion. Official actions now focus on Jews — at least those who support Israel in traditional ways — alongside Christians, white people and men as groups that need government protection, in the form of executive orders, investigations and federal lawsuits.
Now the obvious risk in embracing a political framework that places “antisemitism” into the same category as “reverse racism” is that liberals who think discrimination against white people is fake may start to believe the same about discrimination toward Jews.
And, over the past three years, Democrats have become far more likely to say that claims of antisemitism are used to delegitimize political opponents and critics of Israel rather than to describe actual discrimination.
Now one could argue that this was something of a fair trade. If Democrats were always going to turn against Israel and abandon concern for antisemitism as a result, it might make sense to throw your lot in with the one political party that still supports Israel and is willing to defend Jews, even if it means losing credibility with old allies.
Yet, to return to The Daily Wire’s struggles, the Republican Party seems to be in the midst of an antisemitism rug pull: Just as major Jewish leaders decided to start working in earnest with the conservative movement and burn bridges with liberals, the MAGA vanguard has decided that Jews may not belong in their coalition after all.
Shapiro, an Orthodox Jewish lawyer who rose to prominence first as a columnist and later as a campus speaker and podcaster before starting The Daily Wire in 2015, has found himself on the losing end of a battle with Tucker Carlson for the future of the conservative movement.
Shapiro has denounced the conspiracism and gutter antisemitism animating figures like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens, whose career he helped launch at The Daily Wire before she departed amid a bitter feud.
Carlson has countered by arguing against “cancel culture” and courting the far-right audience Fuentes has built, while articulating a political vision based on Christian nationalism that blames Israel for many of the Trump administration’s failures. “Tucker is obviously setting himself up to be the redeemer figure in the ‘the Jews puppeted/betrayed Trump’ MAGA narrative that is emerging on the right,” David Austin Walsh, a scholar of the far right, argued on social media over the weekend.
He seems to be winning.
The country’s two largest prediction markets place Carlson just behind JD Vance and Marco Rubio as the most likely to become the next Republican presidential nominee. Shapiro has lost 10,000 YouTube subscribers over the past month, according to the analytics platform VidIQ, while Carlson and Owens have gained a combined 110,000.
It’s not clear how large The Daily Wire layoffs were. Owens, a notoriously unreliable source with an axe to grind, claimed they fired 60% of the staff, which a company official called “insane” without offering an alternate figure. But the layoffs are not the first portent of hard times there; they follow the firing of CEO Jeremy Boering last spring, which was accompanied by a previous round of layoffs.
Younger Republicans who power much of the online conservative universe seem to be looking for something more crass than what Shapiro has to offer, at least when it comes to Jews: Nearly 40% of Republican voters believe the Holocaust was “greatly exaggerated,” a figure that grows among those under 50 — 25% of whom personally describe themselves as prejudiced against Jews, according to a Manhattan Institute study.
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The Trump administration is continuing to use legal measures to crack down on what it describes as antisemitism, yet it’s hard to see how its efforts persist much longer in a movement that is not only skeptical of special protections for minorities but that also harbors a growing distrust of Jews. The MAGA movement has seen faltering support for Israel amid the Iran war that Trump launched with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a recent poll finding that 57% of Republicans under 50 had an unfavorable view of Israel.
Meanwhile, a growing segment of the populist left seems to have decided that they don’t need to worry about Jews. Ben Lorber, who has long been an astute observer of antisemitism from within the left, recently described his frustration with the willingness of leftists to work with anti-Zionists on the far right even when those conservatives seem to be driven by antisemitism rather than concern for Palestinian rights.
“Many of the louder voices on the left argue, in so many words, that we shouldn’t worry so much about the antisemitic kernel of America First anti-Zionism because we shouldn’t capitulate to ‘Jewish feelings,’” Lorber wrote on Substack. “It’s all extremely cursed.”
It’s tempting to throw one’s hands up at the increasingly lonely position of Jews in American politics and chalk it up to our eternal fate. Some have even cautiously celebrated this newfound political homelessness. “Choosing a side has never worked for Jews because when you get out of the hall to power, you will be identified as the exemplar of that political attitude that can now be destroyed,” Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, said at a recent event.
But it may be too late for Jews to stay neutral.
Jewish leaders had a choice to make as they faced growing animosity toward Zionism among their longtime partners on the left. They could have engaged in the excruciating work of reconciling their otherwise liberal values with their support for an increasingly illiberal Israel, while simultaneously trying to get their progressive allies to develop a more nuanced understanding of antisemitism and do a better job of including Jews in their coalition. Or, they could follow Shapiro’s path: leave their views on Israel untouched and try to convince conservatives, who normally believe that protections for minorities inherently disadvantage the majority, that they should make a special and singular exception for Jews.
There may have been a third option, closer to what Kurtzer suggests, of simply trying to remain above the fray. But Jews — or at least the mainline organizations intended to represent us — did choose a side by trying to build a fragile alliance with conservatives in the mold of Shapiro. Now it seems more and more likely that the result is that no political movement will be interested in standing up to antisemitism just as domestic political instability and violence reach a fever pitch.
The post The great antisemitism rug pull appeared first on The Forward.
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New York lawmakers approve 50-foot buffer around houses of worship in challenge to Mamdani
New York legislators Tuesday approved a sweeping buffer zone measure as part of the state budget, in a measure that would establish criminal penalties for violations.
The legislation, proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and negotiated with the Democratic-led majorities in the state legislature, establishes a 50-foot security buffer around houses or worship and educational centers in response to or anticipation of a planned protest outside its premises. The bill would make it a class B misdemeanor — a low-level criminal offense — when a protester “knowingly or intentionally engages in a course of conduct that places that individual in reasonable fear for their safety.”
The measure defines a place of religious worship broadly, covering not only sanctuaries but also community centers and schools being used for services, education and religious observance. And it gives police the authority to establish a security perimeter beyond 50 feet, within which demonstrations are not allowed, when anticipating large protests or clashes.
“New Yorkers will be safer because of it,” Hochul said in a statement after its passage by the State Assembly. The incumbent Democrat is running for reelection this year and is making a play for Jewish votes.
The bill goes further than Hochul’s original proposal earlier this year, which called for a 25-foot buffer zone around religious institutions statewide. “We’ve seen demonstrations targeting faith communities outside synagogues, mosques and churches,” Hochul told reporters last month. “This is not free expression, this is harassment, and it has no place in the state of New York.”
The statewide approach contrasts with the New York City law that Mayor Zohran Mamdani allowed to become law without his signature in April. That measure, advanced by the City Council, requires the NYPD to develop safety plans for protests near houses of worship and manage access during demonstrations.
Civil liberties advocates and progressive groups had raised concerns about broad restrictions on protest activity. Mamdani, a strident Israel critic who faces scrutiny from mainstream Jewish organizations over his response to antisemitism and pro-Palestinian protests, vetoed a similar bill that applied to schools and educational institutions.
The City Council introduced a revised measure that does not apply to libraries, teaching hospitals, and colleges and universities.
Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, who represents the Orthodox-populated Borough Park neighborhood in Brooklyn, said the state intervention became “critically urgent” following Mamdani’s veto of the school safety reporting bill. “If New York City fails to take the necessary steps to protect vulnerable New Yorkers, the State of New York must act,” said Eichenstein.
A City Hall spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the state law.
The push for buffer zones followed repeated disruptive protests since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza, focused on synagogues hosting real estate sales of property in Israel and in the West Bank. In recent months, protests outside the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan and Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills in Queens featured antisemitic slogans and chants that Zionist organizations view as antisemitic.
The mayor has not intervened to discourage demonstrations. Following a recent clash between protesters and supporters of Israel outside a synagogue in Brooklyn, the mayor emphasized his support of “the constitutional right to protest and counter-protest” peacefully, without intimidation or hatred.
Jewish organizations and Orthodox leaders had pushed for stronger protections, arguing that some protests outside synagogues crossed the line from political expression into intimidation and harassment.
The UJA Federation of New York thanked Hochul and the bill sponsors for demonstrating “strong leadership in their unwavering effort to help ensure safe access to critical community institutions and safeguard the right to worship free of harassment and intimidation.”
Opponents of restrictions are expected to seek legal challenges to statewide restrictions, based on concerns about infringement on free speech rights in public spaces. Hochul said last month she’d defend it in court.
Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, a progressive group aligned with Mamdani, called the state legislation “disgraceful” and “an astonishingly irresponsible course of action.” Sophie Ellman-Golan, a JFREJ spokesperson, said “it’s outrageous and dangerous” that Hochul and members of the legislature chose to criminalize protest “at a time when the federal government is actively persecuting activists and organizers” in the name of Jewish safety.
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Woody Allen’s biggest fans were easy marks for a fake monologue about antisemitism
Those still wondering “what would Woody Allen say about today’s antisemitism” were treated to what looked like an answer last week in the form of a viral monologue bemoaning the price of coffee in a roast of Ivy-educated anti-Zionism.
The only issue: It seems to be entirely fake.
The post, according to X, where the post first gained traction, was initially posted in Spanish by a pro-Israel writer named Simy Benarroch and was originally the work of a previous Russian writer named Rami Yudovin.
As hoaxes go, this one seemed credible at first glance. It’s hard not to read it in Allen’s nasal voice. It has his cadence, his references to philosophers and the inclusion of an intrusive female relative that are his hallmarks, leading many who didn’t believe this to be genuine to conclude a prompt was fed through an AI mimic. (It’s not the first time something like this has happened.)
But there are tells for those looking. See the fourth paragraph, in which Allen encounters protesters outside a synagogue: “I was walking through Brooklyn thinking about death.”
From a ripe young age, Allen has perseverated on the end, but walking through Brooklyn? Now? That far from the Upper East Side? I’m skeptical.
This could all, of course, be a rhetorical flourish. The types of woke stereotypes the author plays with, i.e.: “someone with a scarf [presumably a keffiyah], who looks like he writes poems about his own beard, explains to you — with help from Heidegger and Nietzsche — why the existence of Jews is a form of aggression and a threat to humanity,” have a home in his native borough.
The thrust of this argument, that pro-Palestinian protesters use the language of the academy to justify the oldest hatred is hardly novel. They are in fact facile to the point of tracking with Allen’s own “witch hunt” comments about #MeToo (for which he said he should be the poster boy; he achieved this in a sense, but not in the way he meant.)
But if this is any type of Allen, it’s one of his characters, not the man himself.
“My grandmother, by the way, lived through actual Nazis,” the author writes, of hearing a protester indulging in Holocaust inversion. “She hid in a basement in Poland with a man who coughed so hard the Germans could have found them just from the bronchial racket.”
Allen’s grandparents were in the U.S. during World War II, but nice line.
John Podhoretz slammed this forgery, remarking how the real auteur has been “shamefully silent since October 7.”
This is an odd kind of indictment, aside from not being strictly true.
Who, exactly, would Allen reach in his activism for Jews? Should he shift to advocacy, he would likely find the exact same audience that shared the fake and found themselves nodding reverently along.
Perhaps this bodes well for Allen’s continued influence on the segment of the population still dying to hear his insights. Woody Allen may be 90, cancelled and taking a break from making movies, but Woody A.I.len can live forever.
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U.S. launches attacks on Iran as negotiations over a peace deal drag out
(JTA) — The United States announced it had launched defensive strikes on Monday in Southern Iran, targeting Iranian missile sites and boats it believed were placing mines.
The move threatens to derail an already fragile ceasefire between the United States, Iran and Israel aimed at giving the U.S. and Iran space to hammer out a deal to end the hostilities. It also comes as U.S. President Donald Trump told several Muslim allies participating in consultations over a deal that they should normalize relations with Israel in exchange for the U.S. inking the agreement.
U.S. Central Command Spokesperson Navy Capt. Tim Hawkin said in a statement issued Monday that strike targets “included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines.”
He added that U.S. forces “conducted self-defense strikes … to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” and that CENTCOM “continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.”
The attacks were conducted in the port city of Bandar Abbas around the strait of Hormuz, according to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as cited by CNN.
The strikes came just 24 hours after President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he had instructed his representatives to “not rush into a deal,” stressing that “time is on our side.” Trump emphasized in the message that Iran “cannot develop or procure a Nuclear Weapon,” a key aim of the American military effort but one the president had not referred to in comments over the weekend that a deal was close.
Trump noted in another post Sunday that the deal was not yet “fully negotiated,” but that if he makes a deal with Iran it “will be a good and proper one,” and that he does not “make bad deals.”
Trump’s comments came as several GOP voices have expressed concerns about a deal he said Saturday was “largely negotiated.” Trump’s posts Sunday came after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) posted on X that the reported terms of the agreement would be a “disastrous mistake.”
Trump also stated on Truth Social Monday that Muslim countries should “mandatorily” sign on to the Abraham Accords as part of any agreement to end the war between Iran and Israel.
He named Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, though he said it might be possible for a couple to be exempted.
Following the U.S. strikes on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in India Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz has to be open, “one way or the other,” and that negotiations with Iran could “take a few days.”
Meanwhile, several media outlets reported that Iran announced Tuesday that it had executed Gholamreza Khani Shekerab for alleged espionage and intelligence cooperation with Israel.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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