Tucker Carlson is one of the most Goebbelsian figures in American public life and one of the world's most influential antisemites. In recent years, he has described Zionism as "evil" and spread allegations that Israel deliberately harms Christians, seeks to destroy Europe by triggering a refugee crisis, had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks, and more.
Even after Carlson's antisemitism reached new extremes, US Vice President JD Vance continues to maintain a personal relationship with him and treats him as a legitimate figure whose views amount to mere "political disagreements."
Only days ago, Vance defended that relationship during a White House press briefing, saying Carlson was "a friend of mine" and that he was "not going to play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political disagreements with them." As examples of their disagreements, Vance said Carlson had made comments about the US president that were "just wrong" and noted that someone had sent him a clip saying Carlson "would support El-Sayed over Rogers," referring to Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and his Republican rival, Mike Rogers.
It is worth paying attention to which of Carlson's positions Vance did not identify as points of disagreement, even though Carlson's damage to US-Israel relations was explicitly raised in the question.
And yet, large parts of the Israeli and Jewish Right continue to defend Vance, arguing that his position on Israel is "complicated" but that he cannot be accused of antisemitism. After he spoke at the Republican Jewish Coalition's National Leadership Summit in Las Vegas a few days ago, some members of the audience said the vice president had left a positive impression, while others described his position as confusing and ambivalent.
Vance did, indeed, say some of the things Jews like to hear. He spoke of walking the streets of Jerusalem and of the deeper cultural connection he feels with Israel. So surely, the thinking goes, he cannot be an antisemite.
The antisemitism of JD Vance
But what, exactly, is antisemitism? Is it Hitler's racial doctrine and the desire to exterminate every Jew, or can it take forms that are somewhat more complex and moderate than that?
It seems that the Holocaust, which should have taught Jews to be vigilant, has instead dulled their senses. Antisemitism has become synonymous with "deep-rooted, racial and murderous hatred," obscuring the fact that hatred of Jews, like every form of hatred, comes in many different forms.
Antisemitism does not have to mean personal hatred, nor does it have to take the form of a systematic ideology directed against the Jews. Not every antisemite has to hate Jews with all his heart or refuse to say a single positive thing about them. A person can also simply cooperate with antisemites and antisemitic discourse, legitimizing them and giving them the power to grow.
That is the nature of JD Vance's antisemitism.
During the campaign against Iran, for example, he blamed Israel for failures in negotiations with Iran and for souring public opinion on the talks. He suggested, quite blatantly, that Israel manipulates US presidents. He has repeatedly defended other figures accused of antisemitism, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, and attacked those who objected to the legitimacy they were being granted. He echoed the conspiracy theory that Jeffrey Epstein was connected to Israeli intelligence. And on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, his statement avoided using the word "Jews" or mentioning that 6 million Jews were murdered, just as the BBC did.
Taken individually, none of these examples may seem especially significant. But viewed together, they reveal someone who is not merely "critical of Israel." They reveal a man who does not hesitate to empower forces seeking to turn the United States into a country hostile to the State of Israel and to Jews, and who is willing to share their rhetoric and conceptual world.
Neither American Jewry nor the State of Israel will benefit from denying that reality, especially if Vance becomes president of the United States.
