Since October 7, 2023, it has been sobering to witness how easily idealism can become fertile ground for antisemitism to take root. The last two years have laid bare that when visions of civilizational progress, victory, or self-actualization collide with reality, resentment rushes in to fill the void – and Jews are often its favorite target.
Some idealists dive headfirst into the moral abyss. When Peter Beinart filtered Purim through the prism of modern-day Gaza in a March 2025 Guardian op-ed, he delivered, in one fell swoop, the core demand of antisemites: that all Jews must, as Haviv Rettig Gur put it on X, "answer for some unique and history-altering villainy."
In mid-2020, convinced that his Zionism was irreconcilable with his idealism, Beinart chose the latter, declaring in Jewish Currents and The New York Times that he would no longer defend the idea of a Jewish state. Now that his idealism has failed to materialize, Beinart casts the Jewish people as the culprit: the complicit obstacle to be judged.
Others descend into dangerous territory more gradually. Tucker Carlson's fear and frustration – rooted in the Iraq War – have left him paranoid, though not, in my view, antisemitic. Still, even granting that distinction, it is hard to ignore how far he has spiraled downward in recent months.
Individuals, groups, and governments intent on turning Trump voters against Israel have flooded social media with memes and posts aimed at that goal – and Carlson, not as adept at spotting foreign influence as he claims, has swallowed it whole. His deep mistrust of U.S. military action abroad now curdles, week by week, further into conspiracy thinking, reinforced by a slate of unmoored and obsessively anti-Israel guests.
We should be wary of flippant accusations of antisemitism, which are both wrong and self-defeating. When accusations overreach, people tune out, making it harder to confront the surge in real antisemitism. At the same time, though, we must remain alert to idealism's potential to serve as a conduit for anti-Jewish bigotry.
For centuries, Jews have been blamed for obstructing humanity's path to redemption by rejecting some big "truth" (depending on the vision). Meanwhile, outlasting relentless persecution has, ironically, fueled the illusion that Jews are behind the scenes pulling the strings – even as they remain defenseless against the mobs that follow. That's how the scapegoat ("It's all their fault!") becomes the alleged puppet master: "They control everything!"
We cannot afford to underestimate the shifts of modern idealists. The two most important things in this world – the truth and our lives – are at stake.
Josh Warhit is a contributing opinion columnist in Israel, where he writes in both Hebrew and English on the intersection of society and politics. He made aliyah from the United States in 2012 and served in the Nahal Brigade (infantry) in the Israel Defense Forces.
