Pity the Jewish Intellectuals of MAGA

"At a Turning Point USA conference in December, the podcaster Ben Shapiro delivered a speech that was hailed as the sort of moral stand one rarely encounters in the age of polarization. Confronting the right's surging anti-Semitism, he denounced two of its most popular peddlers-Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens-by name."

"It was a brave foray into intramural politics, but also a damning self-indictment. Not so many years ago, Shapiro was guilty of the very thing he now decries. The Daily Wire, of which he is a co-founder and part owner, hired Owens in 2020. Even before she arrived, there were signs of where she was headed: "If Hitler had just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay, fine," she had told a crowd in London in 2018. Shapiro's company ignored that and subsequent warnings. When Kanye West went on an anti-Semitic tear in 2022, Owens rushed to his defense: "It's like you cannot even say the word 'Jewish' without people getting upset." That incident was the moment for border control. Shapiro refused. "We allow disagreement at The Daily Wire," he said, "even when I think that some of my colleagues are wrong." No wonder anti-Semitism crept toward the movement's mainstream."

"For a time, it was possible for the Jewish intellectuals of MAGA-a small but influential set of podcasters, columnists, and theorists-to minimize anti-Semitism in the movement. But it's now so ubiquitous and so noxious that even they can't ignore it. Joel Pollak, the former editor in chief of Breitbart News, wrote on X in December that, until a few months before, he would have happily sent his children to a Turning Point USA event. Not anymore. "Now: why would I send them to one more place where Jewish kids have to defend who they are and what they believe?""

Ben Shapiro publicly denounced Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens for contributing to a surge of anti‑Semitism on the right. Shapiro called for "ideological border control," urging removal of haters from the movement. The Daily Wire hired Owens in 2020 despite prior inflammatory remarks and later defenses of anti‑Semitic figures. Owens's 2018 comment about Hitler and her 2022 defense of Kanye West exemplify warnings that were ignored. That tolerance helped normalize anti‑Semitism in mainstream conservative spaces. Many Jewish conservatives who once downplayed the problem now express alarm and withdraw support where Jewish identity feels threatened.

Read at The Atlantic