The Kind of Antisemitism that Worries Me the Most

Mike Huckabee and Tucker Carlson

Honestly? It’s becoming a bit confusing. What should the Jewish people do about antisemitism? A variety of opinions have been expressed. Some of which contradict each other.

Clearly, antisemitism has spiked considerably since October 7. Most of it seems to be handled fairly well by Jewish advocacy groups like the Anti-Defamation League and by law enforcement. Of course, we could use a lot more of the latter. But it is not for lack of concern or willingness to defend us. It is probably a question of whether there are enough law enforcement officers to handle it. Not because of anti-Jewish bias.

What concerns me most, though, is the antisemitism being spread by influential political commentators and other public figures who use their Christianity to make their case. The fact that they invoke their religion is what makes this so troubling.

Tablet editor Liel Leibovitz expresses this concern well. The following is excerpted from 'Letter to a Catholic Friend.:

“I’m a Catholic,” Carrie Prejean Boller, the now-former member of the White House Religious Liberty Commission, thundered as she took the mic at a hearing last week, “and Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know.”

Boller then proceeded to grill each member of the committee on whether they considered criticism of Israel to be antisemitic, showing little interest in their considered and nuanced responses and repeatedly accusing Israel of genocide. She also used her time in the limelight to defend her friend and fellow Catholic convert Candace Owens, arguing that the popular podcaster was “not an antisemite. She just doesn’t support Zionism.”

That would be the same Owens who called Judaism a “pedophile-centric religion”; argued that Jews believed in incest and child rape “as sacramental rites”; urged her listeners to read a text by the German antisemite August Rohling accusing Jews of drinking Christian blood; called Judaism “the synagogue of Satan”; and claimed that Jews were behind every great evil, from the slave trade to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Then there is Tucker Carlson, who flew to Ben Gurion Airport to interview U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Here is what happened there.

Carlson had barely wrapped the interview before the two were already disagreeing on a basic fact.

Carlson, the influential conservative commentator, flew to Tel Aviv to conduct the interview at Ben Gurion Airport, departing hours later without leaving the airport. Before leaving, he told the British tabloid Daily Mail that Israeli authorities confiscated his passport, dragged his executive producer into an interrogation room, “and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about.”

Not so, says the ambassador. What Carlson’s team experienced was simply a routine security measure.

“Everyone who comes in or out of Israel (every country for that matter) has passports checked and is routinely asked security questions,” Huckabee wrote on X, refuting his former Fox News colleague before their conversation could go live.

So here you have three influential conservatives whose goal appears to be to disabuse fellow conservatives of their support for Israel - based, at least in part, on their Catholic beliefs.

Adding fuel to the fire the following as Leibovitz notes:

…above all this, the actions and words of America’s most prominent Catholic today have become so important—and so troubling. One morally clear statement could disempower this entire emerging false idol. Instead, he seems to be doing the opposite.

I am not so quick to condemn Vice President JD Vance as an antisemite, closet or otherwise. He has, in fact, condemned antisemitism on more than one occasion. But at the same time, he risks undermining the very movement he so strongly believes in - the conservative movement that gave him the opportunity to be where he is now.

As a recently converted Catholic, his religion formally rejects the kind of antisemitism being spread by his friend. Doesn’t he realize how much damage this does to the party? Does he really believe there is room for this kind of antisemitism in it? Does he think the vast majority of evangelical Christians - who view Israel as a strong ally and the Jewish people as worthy of blessing - will tolerate the kind of rhetoric being promoted?

And where are his own ethics here...

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