‘Courage demonstrates faith’ – conservative thinkers discuss rise of Jew hatred on American right at Israeli antisemitism conference

A group of conservative panelists addressed the issue of antisemitism on the American right at the Second Annual International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

The panel discussion was led by Dr. Gadi Taub of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and included Pastor Dumisani Washington, founder and CEO of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel; Dr. James Lindsay, founder of New Discourses; Seth Dillon, CEO of the Babylon Bee; and Karys Rhea, a political commentator and fellow at the Middle East Forum.

The panel discussion was called – “The Right's Crossroads : Antisemitism and the Far Right.” 

Dr. Taub asked Pastor Washington about the growing rift over antisemitism “within the Christian community in the United States,” asking, “how and why did this emerge?” 

Washington admitted that he cannot speak to why people like Tucker Carlson have become antisemitic, but he said that voices like Carlson are resonating “with those who are insecure, those who are looking for a reason that something is the problem, and he’s tapping into that.” 

He noted that his organization, the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI), considers Carlson to be “probably the most dangerous anti-Semite in the United States, taking that title away from Louis Farrakhan. He is the white conservative Louis Farrakhan.” 

“If you look at their bullet points where Israel and Jews are concerned, they're identical,” Washington noted. “He's just appealing to the other side of the aisle.” 

Taub next asked James Lindsey, “Why has this emerged under the large interfaith umbrella of MAGA ('Make America Great Again')? Suddenly these forces were undermining American conservatives. Why?” 

Lindsey used the term “woke right,” to describe those trying to divide the MAGA movement started by U.S. President Donald Trump. He referred to the issue of “identity politics,” which he called a “politic of friend and enemy.” 

He explained that it works by designating a group of people as friend, and another as enemy, based on a perspective of grievance and envy. 

“I don't have to tell an audience in Israel at an antisemitism conference that sometimes there are enemies,” Lindsay noted. “You're all very aware that there are enemies.” 

However, he noted that identity politics decides enemies.

Lindsay noted that “this politics of friend and enemy” was the basis of Leftist movements, from the Black Lives Matter organization labeling people “racist,” to the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong labeling his opponents as “enemies of the people.”

Lindsay said that the Nazis and the fascists used the same ideology, “You're either with us or against us.” Now, Lindsay said that radical Islam in the West is using the same tactic. 

He then turned to the issue of the woke right, saying, “The reason that this has happened is because we've been operating under this logic...and it's contagious. We've started to adopt it ourselves,” he warned. 

Lindsey said the targeting of the MAGA movement has come about by identity politics groups on the political right and left because, MAGA “represents people seeking truth, represents people seeking freedom, liberty, even God.” 

He also said those pushing identity politics recognize that “the loyalty of the Jewish people is to their God, to their memory, their community. So they will not be loyal to a regime. So when the regime declares the enemy, the Jew will say, 'No,' along with the evangelical beside him for the same reasons.” 

This refusal to bow to identity politics, Lindsay said, means that Jews, and by extension Evangelical Christians, “become enemy by default and must be destroyed. Destroying them from a position of weakness is impossible, so they must first be dehumanized, demonized, and that's antisemitism.” 

Taub asked Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, “Seth, you've been making jokes and mockery of wokeism on the left. Is this wokeism on the right? Is this a parallel phenomenon or a different breed?” 

Dillon called the woke right “a mirror image of what’s happening on the left,” saying, “it’s the same oppressed-oppressor dynamic, it’s seeking to scapegoat someone for your grievances.” 

He noted that often, on the political right, antisemitism hides under “euphemisms of elites or globalists, or whatever, but it’s often explicitly the Jews.” 

Dillon referred to a dangerous idea in conservative circles, where “you're not supposed to challenge anyone to the right of you. You're not supposed to challenge anyone on your side.” 

He called it the philosophy of “No enemies to the right,” labeling it “a suicidal idea.” 

Dillon referred to a recent medical checkup which involved diagnostic scans, saying, “I was very glad they didn't just check the left side of my body for cancer. They checked my whole body. And we have to be willing to do that.” 

He cited C.S. Lewis who said that “Good philosophy must exist if for no other reason than because bad philosophy needs to be answered.” 

“I think satire is necessary for the same reason,” Dillon said, explaining the Babylon Bee’s reason for being such a platform. “Satire ridicules bad ideas. And so that's what we do to try to challenge the world.” 

Taub raised the question of whether the targeting of Zionism by figures on the right is based on personal belief, or whether it is “a useful tool.” 

Taub asked Karys Rhea, “You're studying the rise of identity politics on the right. Is it a belief or just a tool?” 

“The question of what is motivating this, I think, is very complex because all of the possible motivations are at work here,” Rhea answered. “You do have the grifters that are just going along for the clicks and the trends. You do have the true ideological believers. You do have the people that are paid by foreign actors, and it's really difficult to tell who's who.” 

“And this is a useful example because, look, attacking the Jews and Israel ends up attacking the defenders of Western civilization," Taub replied. 

Pastor Washington also noted that much of the spread of antisemitism on the right is based on an ignorance of the founding documents of both Christianity and Western civilization. 

“Antisemitism is rising in the church because people don’t know the Bible, ignorance of the Bible,” Washington said. In the same way, he claimed that “anti-Westernism is rising because people don't know the foundations of the nation.” 

Washington noted that just as the rise of blatant antisemitism on the left in the U.S. was a result of political leadership being unwilling to call out the voices espousing such views, people such as Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. He said there is a similar phenomenon on the right, with political leaders being unwilling to call out voices such as Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

“Prominent figures on the right say nothing because they're afraid of Tucker…they’re afraid of TPUSA [Turning Point USA] that still platforms Tucker,” he noted. 

Dillon called out the lack of courage on the right, saying, “I’m gonna say something about this issue of courage because this is really where we have a shortage. I think there's a lot more moral clarity on this issue than there is courage.” 

He continued by saying that people are terrified of challenging Tucker Carlson, because that “means that he's gonna start trashing you and attacking you personally.” 

“He's got a lot of power and influence all the way up into the administration at the highest levels,” Dillon stated, “and when you get on the wrong side of someone like that, even if you're standing for something right, there's a consequence to that. It's terrifying to be willing to take that risk I'm really appreciative of anybody who's willing to challenge these things in the face of that risk.” 

Dr. Lindsay also referenced courage, noting the connection between courage and faith. 

“I'll just say that Israel itself and the Jewish people have something to offer here that's very unique, that's very easy to step into because you live it every day, especially here in the state of Israel after October 7th. It's that courage is proof of faith, and this renewal of faith and this renewal of courage comes very naturally here.”  

He encouraged the nation of Israel to continue to value and demonstrate courage. 

“Courage shows that you care about something bigger than yourself, longer than yourself, timeless, more important than yourself,” Dr. Lindsey said. “And that courage, like I said, is a proof of faith. And this is an opportunity that the Jewish people can lead in exactly the same way that they've lived for 3,000 years, by being who they are and showing the world what it means to live your faith and exhibit that it shows courage to do so.”