Ben Samuels in Haaretz: America First, antisemitism second: The dangers of Tucker Carlson formally entering politicsI

I always thought Haaretz writers were less crazy than the usual pro-Israel fanatics. Here, however, Samuels implies that Jewish money supporting Israel and having an impact on American elections is a myth–despite the $60 million that the pro-Israel candidate in the Michigan Senatorial election got, $30 million from AIPAC. (I omit what could be a very long list of such election-meddling by pro-Israel money.) And the same with dual loyalty–despite people like Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin and the entire pro-Israel lobby. And of course any link between Jeffrey Epstein and Israel is nothing more than a conspiracy theory. And notice the baleful photo of Tucker that accompanies the article:

Needless to say, the ADL is not pleased. From their website:

  • Tucker Carlson is a former Fox News primetime host turned independent media figure and one of the most prolific amplifiers of antisemitic and conspiracy theory-laden content online.
  • The Tucker Carlson Show, which can be viewed online, regularly platforms and lends legitimacy to extremist figures who have espoused antisemitism, anti-Israel conspiracy theories, Holocaust revisionism, white supremacism, and xenophobia, including Candace OwensNick FuentesDarryl CooperPeter Brimelow, and Ian Carroll.
  • Carlson takes a “just asking questions” approach that allows guests like Fuentes and Cooper to say the explicitly antisemitic part while he presents them as authoritative and denies personal endorsement.
  • Carlson himself has promoted multiple antisemitic conspiracy theories, including claims that modern Jews have no biblical lineage and that Israel persecutes Christians.
  • He is one of the most influential figures in mainstreaming the “Great Replacement” theory, framing immigration and demographic change as a conspiracy to take power from white Americans.

There are a great many similar articles in the Jewish media, e.g., here.

 

Tucker Carlson and several of his most prominent ideological allies have signaled in recent days that they are considering launching a third-party political organization, with Israel’s influence over American politics at the center of the prospective movement.

Carlson earlier this week hosted former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie — two prominent Republican isolationists who have been pushed to the party’s margins — and Joe Kent, the former Trump administration national security official who resigned shortly after the outbreak of the Iran war earlier this year

All four have fallen out with Trump at various points, and Israel has figured prominently in each rupture.

Their grievances range from opposition to Israel’s perceived role in drawing the U.S. into war with Iran, to broader claims that Trump and the American political system are unduly influenced by Israel and its supporters. Carlson and his allies, meanwhile, have long promoted conspiracy theories involving Israel — most notably concerning the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

What binds the emerging movement is not merely an effort to reclaim the “America First” mantle, but an insistence that Israel and its American supporters represent a central source of the movement’s betrayal.

“We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise. But he’s betrayed us all,” Greene posted while sharing a picture of the group at Carlson’s Maine compound. “The movement has begun.”

Appearing on the progressive talk show The Young Turks earlier this week, Kent acknowledged the difficulty of mounting a third-party campaign. “Running as a third-party candidate is challenging. Not impossible, but it is very challenging,” he said. “But that’s kind of the consensus that we came to, that the current system just simply doesn’t work, and we have to find something new to save our country.”

Kent also said that everyone at the gathering urged Carlson to run for president in 2028, so far to no avail. “Hopefully he wakes up one day and Tucker says he’s going to run,” Kent said.

Carlson used his Wednesday show to present an unofficial 10-point vision for the country, organized around ideals including fairness, sovereignty, honesty and decency. His treatment of Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship suggested that he views the alliance as fundamentally at odds with those aspirations.

The electoral viability of Carlson’s potential party may be less important than its influence on the broader political conversation. It could become the first significant modern American political movement to place allegations of Israeli control — and, by implication, doubts about the loyalty of Israel’s Jewish supporters — at the center of its founding narrative.

Carlson and his allies have repeatedly moved beyond legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and American military support into rhetoric that echoes longstanding conspiracies about Jewish money, influence and divided loyalty. A party organized around those ideas could provide a path into mainstream politics for figures and views that have previously remained beyond acceptable boundaries. It could also encourage the treatment of American Jewish donors, organizations and public officials as presumptive fifth columns.

Whether Carlson ultimately runs for president is almost beside the point. His formal entry into organized electoral politics could normalize a conspiratorial framework in which Israel, Jewish political participation and hidden foreign influence are increasingly treated as interchangeable.

2 replies
  1. joe Webb
    joe Webb says:

    It appears that Douglas Macgregor is going to run in ’28 and has something of an organizing committee. I see DM as a kind of Dwight Eisenhower (recall the Suez moment in the fifties). Eisenhower was also probably the last anti-semitic president we have had, except for John Kennedy, who made the ultimate sacrifice for his anti-semitism.

    My knowing next to very little about electoral politics these days, Carlson nevertheless seems unlikely. Stilll, there are 3 years left in which Trumpstein, can,1, die, 2,wither, 3,destroy the GOP with more jew war, 4,Epstein himself, and 5, the economy self-destructing so completely that almost anything electorally can happen.

    While Tucker is good, he has no military background which is important right now in our military delusions. He probably is seen popularly as an intellectual while DM, so plain spoken (but brilliant) comes across as something of a Real Man for conservatively inclined folks. He is 79 so ’28 is his only chance. Tucker can wait.

    Before any positive development electorally speaking can happen, there must be economic and military crisis, if not disaster. Looks like we are tending toward this kind of shipwreck anyway.

    Jew Power will be heavily attacked by both men, but Tucker has his Bible tucked under his arm, while DM is more of a realist racially/relligion speaking, given his expressed concerns about the “50 million” immigrants legal or otherwise. Tucker is probably reticent about our 100 million dummies/free riders of darker hues. After all Episcopalians believe we are all Gawd’s chillun.

    Think Macgregor in ’28

    Reply

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