Inside the rhetoric: Joe Kent and the ‘Blame Israel for Everything’ crowd

Here we go again. If you’ve been following events related to the war in Iran, you’re probably aware of the comments by Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center with the Trump Administration.

In his resignation letter, he blamed Israel for getting America involved in a war with Iran. “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Kent stated in the letter. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.” 

Apparently, according to Kent, Israel and its lobbying friends have wielded their evil influence yet again, and this time, they have managed to exert their control over the most powerful man on Planet Earth: U.S. President Donald Trump. Yes, Kent really believes that, and so do millions of other anti-Israel and/or antisemitic forces in America and abroad. 

Oh, there’s more: Kent also strongly suggested that Israel, in some form or fashion, was behind the assassination of Charlie Kirk. 

“When one of President Trump’s closest advisers, who is vocally advocating for us to not go to war with Iran and for us to rethink, at least, our relationship with the Israelis, and then he’s suddenly publicly assassinated and we’re not allowed to ask any questions about that, it’s a data point,” Kent told his comrade in arms, political commentator Tucker Carlson this past week. 

Kent didn’t lay out any specifics, of course. He presented no evidence at all to suggest Israel had a hand in Kirk’s death and not surprisingly, Carlson didn’t push him to reveal it. Instead, Kent continued to harp about foreign influence. 

“We’ve been told that this individual, Robinson, is the one gunman, and maybe he is, but the investigation that I was a part of – the National Counterterrorism Center was a part of – we were stopped from continuing to investigate,” Kent told Carlson. 

“There was still a lot for us to look into that I can’t really get into, but there was still linkage for us to investigate that we needed to run down.” 

Joe Kent joins a long line that forms the “Blame Israel for Everything" crowd. It’s not new. But this is what we're dealing with. No real facts. We're supposed to chalk it all up to just people asking questions. Instead of presenting actual evidence, we get conjecture based on stringing together random pieces of information that, taken wholly out of context, draw a conclusion. 

Sadly, and incorrectly, those on the Woke Right and Radical Left always tie it back to Israel. Always. It's unserious, lazy, and downright odious in nature. Not to mention antisemitic.  

This is not about curiosity. It’s a disturbing pattern because when people hear something like that and connect it to the assassination of Charlie Kirk – without facts, without proof, without even a credible thread – they’re not investigating. They’re filling in blanks with assumptions. 

Let’s be honest about what is happening here. There’s a growing tendency in certain circles to treat Israel not just as a country, but as an all-powerful force operating behind the scenes of nearly every major global event. It doesn’t matter about the topic – war, politics, finance, media – somehow, it all traces back to the same place. 

You’ve seen the list. It’s long, and it’s familiar. 

Israel, or “the Israel lobby,” secretly controls American foreign policy. The Iraq War? “That was for Israel.” U.S. involvement overseas? “We’re being dragged in because of Israel.” It becomes a catch-all explanation that requires no nuance and no evidence. 

Then it expands even further. Major global events – 9/11, geopolitical instability, sudden crises – get swept into the same narrative. Any chaotic or tragic moment becomes an opportunity for someone to say, “Israel must be behind it.” That’s not analysis. That’s prejudice. 

And it doesn’t stop there. The accusations evolve into something broader and more insidious. 

American Jews, who are fervently pro-Israel, are accused of having dual loyalty. Media figures are framed as “pushing Israel’s agenda.” Entire industries – finance, Hollywood, tech – are described as being under some kind of coordinated control. Even unrelated scandals, like the case involving Jeffrey Epstein, get pulled into the orbit with claims that it “must have been a Mossad operation.” 

At some point, you have to step back and ask a basic question: What evidence actually supports any of this? Blaming Israel for everything under the sun has become so routine that it would almost be somewhat comical if it weren’t so downright antisemitic. 

There is a real and important difference between legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies and conspiratorial thinking that assigns hidden, global control to Israel or Jewish people as a group. One is grounded in facts, policy debates, and real-world consequences. The other is built on implication, insinuation, and assumption. 

That line gets crossed when evidence is replaced by a chain of “what ifs.” And it definitely gets crossed when Israel is treated as uniquely capable of orchestrating everything, everywhere, all at once. Why Israel? Why is it always Israel? Antisemitic conspiracy theorists don’t even hide their hate anymore. 

What Kent said in that interview may have been framed as just an intelligence official asking questions, trying to get to the bottom of it. 

But here’s the reality: if you’re going to suggest that a foreign government (in this case, Israel) was involved in something as serious as a political assassination, you don’t get to just float it out there and move on. That’s not how serious people operate. Serious claims require serious evidence. 

Are we operating in facts or tropes and narratives? This isn’t a serious analysis by Kent. It’s an accusation without any facts, and if he has any facts, put them out there. Otherwise, be responsible. 

Instead, Kent and his ilk go through pains to try to make everything look connected back to Israel, even when it's not. Every event becomes part of a larger, hidden story. Every coincidence becomes a clue with a final conclusion that the truth is being concealed. 

That’s how conspiracy thinking works. It’s almost impossible to disprove because it doesn’t rely on proof in the first place. It lowers the standard for what counts as truth. 

And there’s a huge crowd and appetite for it – especially when it comes to Israel. 

We should absolutely debate U.S.-Israel policy. We should question decisions made by any government, including Israel’s. That’s part of a healthy, functioning democracy. 

But what we shouldn’t do is replace that debate with a default assumption that Israel is behind everything that goes wrong in the world. And yet, here we are.