The Jeffrey Epstein story captured the attention of Americans of all stripes for several reasons. At its core, we find the most powerful figures in American politics consorting with a known Israeli intelligence asset involved in the human trafficking of innocent and naïve girls. Out of that grow several branches reaching into virtually every aspect of our lives, from a two-tiered system of justice to the pilfering of American tax dollars to a broad deception perpetrated on the public.
Internet sleuths and independent journalists, coupled with the pantheon of conspiracy facts and theories, were given more than enough ammunition to delve into a dark world of hidden agendas and high-profile projects. There, they find clues pointing to a larger set of concerns which many say tie directly to Israel and Zionism at the expense of Western civilization.
Among the most prominent conservative voices stand Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Daryl Cooper, and Nick Fuentes.
For many years, Carlson was the most popular television voice for conservatives. It wasn’t until COVID and the years of Democrat attacks on Donald Trump that he began to publicly question the integrity of media institutions. His questions following January 6th and the obvious lawfare, followed by his personal distaste for the social justice movement’s attacks on children and the mass immigration he called out as “great replacement” of native Caucasians, turned his political criticisms into moral questions of good vs. evil.
The attempted assassinations on Donald Trump led to Carlson appealing to listeners that we need God’s help, which ran afoul of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch’s atheism, and Carlson was suddenly out of a job despite his radiant popularity. Once on his own, he began to pursue stories previously verboten at Fox, some of which were deemed “anti-Semitic” due to their criticism of Israel and Israeli-American influence. His recent exchange with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) found Carlson questioning America’s alliance with Israel as unbiblical, invoking yet more accusations of anti-Semitism.
Along a similar arc was Candace Owens, who found herself embroiled in a debate with Daily Wire co-host Ben Shapiro. As Owens called foul on the atrocities coming out of Gaza, specifically her bereavement over innocent women and children dying at the hands of the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces), Shapiro was caught referring to her comments as “disgraceful” calling it “faux sophistication”. This led to a back and forth between the two where Candace posted on social media platform X “blessed are the peacemakers” quoting from the New Testament, followed by “Christ is King”, which set off a stormy debate between the two, questioning her loyalty to Israel, with Shapiro and other critics calling her anti-Semitic. Like Carlson, she parted from her employer, the Daily Wire, and shot to new levels of popularity. Her fans supported her fearless expositions of such things as the JFK assassination, the history of mind-control as a tool of the CIA, and ties to Kamala Harris, the USS Liberty attack, and others however, each time she cited links to Israel, which landed her the title of “Anti-Semite of the Year” by the Anti-Defamation League. Rather than slink away in fear, Owens leaned into it with humor and dismissed it as slander with the support of her millions of viewers.
Daryl Cooper is a lesser-known podcaster whose show Martyr Made runs long-form historical accounts from a variety of world events. Cooper’s personal style in these pieces is wont to humanize those who are often demonized and vice versa. His recent focus on World War 2, Nazi Germany, and Fear and Loathing in the New Jerusalem contrasts historical good versus evil narratives, instead offering insight into ways the Allied powers committed atrocities and offering sympathy to the German people despite their support for Hitler.
Carlson had Cooper on, referring to him as “one of the greatest historians of our time,” despite his lack of formal training. A former Department of Defense contractor, Martyr Made has become Cooper’s passionate hobby. The well-read and iconoclastic Cooper is liked by many others famous in the podcast world, including Joe Rogan and Dave Smith, who value his in-depth analysis and anti-establishment bent, which forces serious thinkers to reconsider mainstream consensus.
Cooper’s take on Winston Churchill as one of the villains of WW2 raised the ire of many historians, including Churchill’s living biographers. His sympathy for the German people swept up in Nazism also landed him with the label “anti-Semitic”. His most recent interview with Carlson included a plea to the Trump administration to foster full transparency of the Epstein scandal lest the president lose support from the MAGA base.
Nick Fuentes is easily the most controversial of the four and has long openly held highly critical views of Jewish-Israeli involvement in American politics. Though only in his twenties, the hyper-conservative America First and staunchly Catholic Fuentes has enjoyed an audience with Donald Trump in 2016 alongside other bombastic personalities like fellow Catholic Milo Yiannopoulos, a flamboyantly gay conservative who holds similar political positions. Fuentes became famous for starting the Groypers movement, which is mostly young, disaffected, white-American males decrying the rise of leftist policies they view as anti-American, such as mass migration, unaffordable housing, DEI discrimination, and support for Israel, as they view Israel and Jewish influence over American culture as an existential threat. Fuentes is also listed by the ADL and Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-Semite. Despite being demonetized then de-platformed on YouTube and de-banked from platforms like Paypal, Fuentes voice continues to grow, garnering a recent debate on the Alex Jones show with Dartmouth grad and former Reagan advisor Dinesh D’Souza.
The term anti-Semite is appearing to lose its potency as a social critique that would often silence and ostracize those straddled with it. Like many other leftist labels, it is being seen as overused (like “racist” and “homophobe”) and even inaccurately wielded to shame and silence simple criticism of outsized foreign influence in American politics, as well as human rights atrocities ostensibly funded by Americans. As Israel’s handling of its war on Palestinians in Gaza is being exposed in real time their support is waning. The bombing and destruction of Christian churches, the oldest Eastern Orthodox and an historic Catholic church, has even pro-Zionists like Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire echoing the sentiments of the “anti-Semites”.
However, such a movement is bound to attract genuine anti-Semites along the lines of David Duke, Minister Louis Farrakhan, and others who hold genuine animus against the Jews as a people group rather than targeted critiques of some Jews who appear to be conspiring in whatever capacity. With the power of social media’s reach and crossover messaging a tinder box is quickly gathering flammables distorting fact and creating factions sullying one’s ability to discern actual problems, such as the Epstein matter and human rights abuses in Gaza, from stereotypes rarely seen since the 1930s.
At the center of this is the Trump administration’s poor handling of their promised transparency over Epstein, particularly for the Jewish money launderer and sex trafficker’s ability to evade justice multiple times despite federal prosecution. Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the recent threat of World War 3 associated with bombing Iran serve to justify all of Israel’s critics resurrecting a notion many believed to be dead and buried – the Jewish Question (JQ).
Historical figures from Hitler to Henry Ford have reemerged as relevant to the conversation. A common social media meme of “noticing” is parlance for surmising another Jewish-run industry or operation. Swept up in all this are the broader Jewish community, most of whom have no power or purpose in these conspiracies, yet are suddenly faced with a measurable rise in anti-Semitism not just in America but worldwide.
The ADL recently released polling data that shows anti-Semitic incidents in the US shot up 140% in 2023 (8,873) from 2022 (3,698). Perhaps even more disturbing are the global metrics. A survey of 58,000 people across 103 countries reveals a jump from 26% to 46% of people holding demonstrable anti-Semitic views in just ten years. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblat is calling this a “global emergency”.
All of this begs the following questions. Is the rise in both local and global anti-Semitism based on recycled tropes, or is there merit to concerns and criticisms of long-respected conservative voices? At what point is criticism legitimate, and when is it baseless and broad-brushed anti-Semitism? What are the criticisms, and how should we consider them? How will this division affect the upcoming elections?
This series will address those and more in the following articles.
