Both left and right abandon Israel, empowering extremists while Jews face escalating hatred and political betrayal.
By Melanie Phillips
Columnist, Jewish News Syndicate
An extraordinary and deeply troubling transformation is underway in American politics: hostility toward Jews and Israel is fast becoming the central fault line shaping the nation’s ideological future. What was once the domain of fringe extremists has migrated into the mainstream—on both sides of the political divide.
The American left has long drifted into open animosity toward Israel, increasingly aligning itself with Islamist narratives and radical identity politics. This moral collapse has coincided with a sharp rise in antisemitic violence, leaving American Jews exposed and abandoned. But now, a parallel danger is emerging from the right.
A growing segment of conservative culture—particularly among younger white men—is becoming fixated on Israel and Jews through conspiratorial and resentful lenses. Senior Republican voices have begun sounding alarms. Ted Cruz has warned that antisemitism on the right is accelerating at a pace he has never witnessed, predicting a future Republican hostility toward Israel.
At the center of this shift is a disturbing ecosystem of influencers, including Tucker Carlson, who has repeatedly amplified antisemites and Holocaust revisionists such as Nick Fuentes. Rather than isolating these voices, parts of the conservative establishment have minimized or excused them, allowing ancient hatreds to be rebranded as “foreign policy realism.”
The refusal to draw red lines has proven catastrophic. When respected institutions and leaders decline to confront bigotry, they legitimize it. Jewish conservatives have watched in disbelief as calls to defend Israel are dismissed as manipulation, while antisemitic tropes about secret Jewish power quietly re-enter public discourse.
Even more alarming are remarks from JD Vance, who has downplayed the threat of right-wing antisemitism while suggesting that concern over Jew-hatred distracts from a “necessary conversation” about Israel. This framing revives one of history’s oldest lies: that Jews cynically exploit fear to control national policy.
America’s unwavering alliance with Israel was never an accident. It emerged from shared biblical values, moral clarity, and strategic reality. Israel is the West’s most reliable ally in a hostile Middle East, standing against the same Islamist forces that threaten Western democracies. Undermining that alliance does not weaken Israel—it weakens America.
The irony is devastating. The radical left demonizes Jews as symbols of capitalism; the radical right demonizes them as architects of communism. Different accusations, identical hatred. Whether cloaked in keffiyehs or nationalist slogans, extremists converge on the same target.
The struggle now unfolding within American conservatism is nothing less than a battle for the soul of the United States. If the Republican Party abandons Israel and indulges antisemitism, it will not merely betray Jews—it will repudiate the very civilizational foundations that made America possible.
History is unforgiving on this point. Societies that turn on the Jews do not survive the moral collapse that follows.
