In the year and a half since Israel experienced the darkest day in its history, Ben Shapiro, a Jewish-American publicist, author, and thought leader, has become a fixture in Israeli public discourse. He hasn't left the information battlefront for a moment: debating journalists who know nothing about Israel but are quick to attack it, answering critics in the media, and fighting back on every possible front.
Shapiro's uncompromising advocacy for Israel has earned him many enemies worldwide. This week, when it was announced he had been chosen to light a torch at the Independence Day ceremony, it surprisingly became apparent that he has critics in Israel as well. A vocal minority from the left attacked Shapiro and those who selected him, attempting to portray him as "controversial" – a familiar tactic used whenever Israel decides to honor someone who fights relentlessly for the country without self-pity or selfish calculation, but doesn't belong to the "correct" left-wing circles.
Shapiro remains unfazed by attempts to smear him as "backwards" regarding homosexuality, abortion, and transgender issues. "I've seen many attempts to distort my actual positions from many on the Israeli left, particularly in the media," he says in an exclusive interview with "Israel Hayom." "It's not particularly surprising – their way of distortion is well-known. I have never said homosexuality is a mental illness, nor do I believe that. Here are my actual positions: I believe in the traditional definition of marriage, and that the state should offer benefits to such marriages because it's in the state's inherent interest to support father-mother-children nuclear families. I do not believe in the regulation of same-sex relationships. I am entirely pro-life because I believe unborn human beings deserve to live. I believe men cannot become women, that there are only two sexes (male and female), and that men with gender dysphoria remain men."
But more than anything, he doesn't understand what connection his positions on these and other issues, whether someone likes them or not, have to the underhanded attempt to disqualify his selection to light the Independence Day torch – and along with him, the vast majority of Israelis don't understand either: "After all, even those who disagree with me on these issues should celebrate and honor the establishment of the State of Israel, which represents the fulfillment of God's promise to the Jewish people and stands as a bulwark against enemies of the West. While I'm always happy to discuss my views and do so daily – for instance on my podcast, which is listened to by millions of people – what's far more important, particularly at this time in history, is recognizing that despite all our disagreements, we must not undermine the unity of celebrating Israel's Independence Day."
In this unifying message, he is right. Few know better than he how to distinguish between the essential and the trivial, between allies and enemies. It's no wonder that due to his willingness to defend Israel in every forum and at all times, he's often called "Israel's defender."
"That label is a great honor for me," Ben Shapiro (41) acknowledges. "I'm certain every decent person should defend Israel in its war against genocidal and monstrous enemies like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and their sponsor – Iran. Today, defending Israel simply means telling the truth about it – there are too many people willing to lie or hedge to avoid controversy. For me, that has meant using my platform to spread the truth about what's happening in Israel and the region, appearing in some of the world's largest media outlets to do the same, debating on behalf of Israel at Oxford and Cambridge, and so on. It has also meant launching a musical called 'We Will Rise' in Israel, with music and lyrics by my father, to demonstrate our love for Israelis during this critical time. And it has meant giving more charity, speaking more, writing more, arguing more."
Q: That sounds sterile, but in reality, you're constantly exposed to very difficult confrontations that require extraordinary resilience. Have you experienced breaking points where you thought about giving up and simply disappearing for a while?
"In the battle we're fighting after the October 7 massacre, the option to 'give up and simply disappear' doesn't exist, especially when all that's required of me is to speak. The toughest part of my job in the post-October 7 environment is keeping my composure when faced with those who openly advocate for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews. I'm not one of the IDF soldiers risking their lives going door-to-door in Gaza or flying sorties over Beirut. Let's not exaggerate and portray what I'm doing as heroic. I'm just fulfilling a basic duty that applies to anyone who cares."
Q: Still, how has your life changed since the October 7 massacre?
"Obviously, as an American Jew, I haven't had to undergo remotely the sort of sacrifice every Israeli family has experienced. With that said, since October 7, I've spent a lot of effort combating the lies propagated by Israel's enemies about everything from Israel's history to the IDF's incredibly effective and historically virtuous conduct during this war. Many Americans agree with me and are rooting for Israel to destroy its enemies (by polls, a solid majority) – but the amount of pure vitriol has risen exponentially. That's fine; my job is to handle that stuff. But that vitriol has meant a lot of additional security for my family."
Due to being the decisive voice defending Israel, Shapiro indeed requires constant round-the-clock security, as does his wife. Occasional reminders demonstrate how necessary this is. Since Donald Trump's return to the White House, at least the rampages on university campuses have subsided, and Jewish students feel somewhat safer, but the danger hasn't passed. In fact, in areas governed by Democratic governors, one doesn't need to be an outspoken supporter of Israel to be harmed – it's easy to fall victim to "ordinary" crime.
About six months ago, a couple of friends who had dined with Shapiro at a Los Angeles restaurant were attacked by three violent robbers while walking to their car. "They've lived in the city for several decades, and in recent years they've been attacked multiple times, yet no one has been arrested and no one has been prosecuted," Shapiro explains, emphasizing that this is what happens when authorities, instead of focusing on what truly matters like combating street crime, justify criminal behavior and pretend that the most important issue in America is whether Bill has the right to be called Susan.
Having personally experienced the violent antisemitic atmosphere on American campuses and attempts at forceful silencing by left-wing activists who have appropriated the university space in the U.S., Shapiro supports the Trump administration's measures toward universities.
"Academic freedom at many elite American universities has actually been eliminated by the left," he explains. "Universities like Harvard and Columbia have become indoctrination centers for the far left. The faculty at these universities is almost universally far-left. Students who dissent run the risk of lower grades; professors who dissent simply won't be hired. But what the Trump administration is doing isn't about academic freedom at all. It's about the enforcement of the Civil Rights Act, which bars federal funding to any program or activity that subjects citizens to discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. That law applies to Jewish students just as it would to black students. If white supremacists set up checkpoints on university campuses to prevent the passage of black students, or harassed black students for their race, and if those universities did nothing, they would automatically lose their federal funding. The math shouldn't change just because those being harassed are Jewish."
As a strong advocate of conservatism, Shapiro believes that the greatest threat to conservatism comes not from the left, which is unable to challenge it in the ideological arena, but rather from those masquerading as conservatives. "There is a difference between conservatism and mere anti-leftism," he clarifies. "Conservatives believe in meritocracy and traditional Biblical values. They believe in free markets and equal protection under the law. Anti-leftists may oppose the worst excesses of the left, but that doesn't mean they are conservative. Many are reactionary conspiracists who act as a sort of bizarre mirror image of the wokesters on the left: they believe that the system is always rigged against them, that meritocracy itself is fundamentally a lie, that Biblical values are irrelevant, that free markets are unfair, and that equal protection of the laws is for suckers. In place of conservatism, they offer a narrative of the universe in which they are always wronged, in which they carry no responsibility for their own lives, and in which a cadre of phantom nefarious outsiders conspires to rob them of their rightful success. If the right mistakes these conspiracists for actual conservatives, the right will lose – and we will deserve to lose."
Shapiro is known as one of the harshest critics of the left in his country, consistently exposing the enormous damage caused by woke ideology in every aspect of American life. Beyond domestic issues, Shapiro doesn't hesitate to identify the strong connection between leftist views and hatred of Israel. In this context, he is far from optimistic.
"Left-wing antisemitism springs from a broader ideology that valorizes failure and attacks success," he diagnoses emphatically. "In the left-wing view, those who fail are oppressed and those who succeed are oppressors. Thus, Jews, despite their disproportionate targeting in hate crimes, are actually portrayed by this ideology as victimizers because of their disproportionate educational and financial success. Israel is the great and only success story in the Middle East – and so the left believes that Israel must have oppressed people in order to achieve that success. By the same token, the Palestinians, who have not made a single decision bettering the lives of their people for some 80 years, are treated as victims precisely because of their poverty and support for anti-Jewish violence. There is no way to change the anti-Israel tendencies of the global left so long as they adhere to this matrix, because the only way to receive sympathy would be to fail. And Israel cannot afford to fail."
Understanding the concern
Q: Will Donald Trump's renewed victory in the US presidential election represent a historic turning point for Israel?
"It absolutely could. President Trump is the most pro-Israel president in American history, without any doubt whatsoever. That's because President Trump lives in the world of reality. He understands at a fundamental level that Israel's enemies hate the West, and that no bromidic sloganeering about the insipid 'two-state solution' will ever make it happen. President Trump violated the State Department-inspired conventional wisdom that the Palestinian issue had to lie at the center of Middle East peace, and ushered in the Abraham Accords. He's poised to accomplish even more on that front in his second term."
Q: Will the US under Trump recognize Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria?
"The United States certainly should. There cannot and will not be a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, both because Judea and Samaria are the most historic part of Jewish Israel, and also because, realistically, no Palestinian state would be anything but a terror entity aimed at the heart of Israel. It's unfortunate that it took October 7 for many Israelis and Americans to understand that the implacable Palestinian hatred of Israel isn't about settlements in Gush Etzion, but about Israel's very existence."
Q: Do you understand Israel's concerns about a deal with Iran, and do you trust Trump and his team not to make concessions to the ayatollahs in an attempt to reach an agreement?
"I certainly understand Israel's concerns about a deal with Iran – and I fully agree with those concerns. Iran is a radical and tyrannical Islamic theocracy determined to wipe Israel from the map. They are willing to disassemble to achieve their goals. Instead of seeking to build better lives for Iranians, the government oppresses its citizens and channels its hatred toward the murder of Jews, Sunni Muslims, and other enemies across the region. Their nuclear ambitions are the final step in their attempt to rebalance the entire region in their favor. Only a complete and final end to the Iranian nuclear program ought to be contemplated by America and its allies. As far as the negotiations, I trust President Trump not to embrace an Obama-like deal – a deal he called 'the worst deal in history.' But I'm skeptical of the current special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who continues to express warm feelings toward the governments of Qatar and Russia, and who has erred repeatedly in his Iran negotiations."
Q: Which audiences are most open to listening and willing to change their views? And which audiences are the most difficult, perhaps even not worth trying to convince?
"I think there are audiences who don't know much about the topic and want to hear the arguments. It's always worth engaging with them. They're open to learning, listening, and reconsidering their positions. And then there are those who are firmly convinced that Israel is evil and that Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, etc. are in the right, or who draw false moral equivalence between the sides, as if there's no fundamental difference between them. Such people are almost impossible to convince."
Q: How do you feel when you have to confront Jews who attack Israel and spread false accusations against it?
"If you cannot find solidarity with Israel after the rape and slaughter of 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 250 into Gaza by a terror group with genocidal intent, or after the IDF engages in the most precisely targeted urban warfare operations in history – and if your only contact with Jewishness tends to be speaking 'as a Jew' in order to attack Israel – you deserve no respect or deference. Israel, like any other country, deserves criticism when it fails. But if you use your supposed Jewishness to attack Israel's existence, its army, and its people, you deserve nothing but contempt."
Q: What are the trends in US public opinion toward Israel since the October 7 massacre?
"Israel, by the polling data, has become less popular on both sides of the aisle since October 7. To be fair, Israel was always in trouble with the American left precisely because of the ideology we've discussed. And unfortunately, that phenomenon will only grow as the American left radicalizes. The American right, however, is increasingly split between Americans who support Israel for reasons of Biblical solidarity – many religious Christians, for example; Americans who support Israel because they believe, correctly, that Israel is our country's strongest ally in the region and an invaluable source of military strength, intelligence, and technological development; isolationists, who oppose Israel because they oppose American involvement anywhere in the world; and a small but growing group of antisemites who accuse Jews and Israel of 'controlling American foreign policy' and who routinely spread lies about Israel's war effort. Sometimes, but not always, there is crossover between the latter two groups. October 7, both because it seemed to expose Israeli weakness and because Israel then required American aid, emboldened those groups."
Q: What are the prospects of improving Israel's image in other parts of the world – Europe, Latin America, or Africa?
"I think Israel should focus less on somehow 'improving its image' and more on success. The high-water mark for Israel's hasbara efforts wasn't billboards in Buenos Aires with pictures of Tel Aviv beaches. It was simultaneously exploding thousands of pagers in the hands of Hezbollah terrorists. When Israel demonstrates that it is strong, brave, innovative, and bold, it wins allies. When Israel shows weakness, it loses the allies it has and brings scorn on itself from those who already hate it. Israel doesn't need to be loved; nations that focus on being loved typically end up being hated. Focus on winning. With winning comes respect."
Between Zelenskyy and Putin
Several days before arriving in Israel for the Memorial and Independence Day ceremonies, Shapiro visited Ukraine and conducted an extensive interview with President Volodymyr Zelensky. His insights on the prospects for ending the Russia-Ukraine war are particularly intriguing, as he also recognizes the paradox: although there are similarities between the threats and attacks on Israel and Ukraine, the response of American administrations toward them is completely different – the Biden administration supported Ukraine but tied Israel's hands; the Trump administration supports Israel but is less enthusiastic about standing by Ukraine.
According to Shapiro, the reason for the difference sometimes lies in American domestic politics and reactionism. "Biden's pathetic behavior with regard to Israel is a result of his party's steady move away from Israel," Shapiro explains, but his decision to stand with Ukraine after the Russian invasion (unlike Obama, who abandoned Ukraine when the Russians took Crimea and the Donbas region in 2014)? That's a different story. It could very well have been the result of a stupid and baseless false narrative that the Democrats themselves promoted, suggesting that Trump was a Russian agent. In the Democrats' view, Trump was the ultimate enemy, and if the Russians helped him, the Russians must also be an enemy, hence the urge to help Ukraine.
"Trump, on the other hand, supports Israel genuinely and sincerely," Shapiro continues. "And regarding Ukraine, I suspect he's reacting to the previous administration: if the Democrats supported Ukraine unconditionally, I'll change that..."
"The best policy would be strong American support for both Israel and Ukraine," Shapiro asserts. "In reality, the same axis lies behind the enemies of both states. Russia, China, Iran - they're all working together to seed chaos across the world. All oppose the interests of the United States. All brag that they do so. The practicalities of such American support may differ from conflict to conflict, but the overall orientation of the United States in both Ukraine and Israel ought to remain staunchly in support of our allies."
Q: What's the likely scenario for continued negotiations between Ukraine and Russia?
"I don't think the failure of negotiations in Ukraine will be up to President Trump or even Zelensky. The question is what Putin wants. And the answer seems to be the takeover of Ukraine -- and if he can't get that right away, then a clear path to accomplishing that within the next few years. There's a reason Zelensky has accepted a 30-day ceasefire while Putin hasn't: Putin is hoping the US walks away, leaving Ukraine open for the taking. No matter how many carrots President Trump offers Putin, he's not going to say yes unless the Ukrainians are deprived of the future ability to defend themselves -- which is precisely what the Ukrainians can't do. The most likely solution here would be a Korean War-style armistice, in which the lines freeze where they are and a demilitarized zone is established. But Russia likely won't acquiesce to that either, unless the US and Europeans were willing to stop offering carrots and start offering some sticks -- much heavier shipments of better weaponry, for example, to compel Putin to take an off-ramp."
