Israel-Loving, Jew-Hating: How the Zionist Far Right is Redefining Antisemitism

The November 14th “March for Israel” in Washington D.C. saw American and Israeli flags waving in tandem to signify the fight against antisemitism. Keynote speakers included notorious antisemite Pastor John Hagee and “Great Replacement” theory endorser Speaker Mike Johnson. Photo by Ted Eytan.

In 1999, Pastor John Hagee declared that “God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land.” In 2007, he wrote a book claiming the Holocaust was committed by “accursed, genocidally murderous half-breed Jews,” and that Hitler was a divine “hunter” persecuting Jews for their disobedience, sacrilege, and worship of false idols. In 2023, he was a keynote speaker at the “largest rally of Jewish people in modern history,” the mid-November D.C. March for Israel, to help “condemn the rising trend of antisemitic violence.” Inviting a notorious antisemite to wax political about the state of Judaism at a Jewish-led rally might sound counterintuitive—and in a timeline far better than this one, perhaps it would be. But given that the very definition of antisemitism is one of the major points of contention in the post-October-7th American political sphere, is it any wonder the lines have gotten a bit blurred?

Despite Hagee’s and the pro-Israel right’s reliance on the conceptual conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism to justify their attacks on Palestinian activists, the Republican Zionist existence is predicated upon a fundamental separation between Israel and the Jewish people. That is, the only way to explain their simultaneous love for Israel and hatred of Jews is that, deep down, they don’t view them as the same entity. It isn’t Jews they love, it’s Israel—and it isn’t antisemitism they’re against, it’s anti-Israel sentiment. This is precisely why Republicans are so intent on conflating the two: support of Israel would absolve antisemitic conservatives of their antisemitism in the eyes of Jewish voters and donors—and in many cases, it seems it already has.

A New York Times article from early November 2023 reported that large swaths of liberal Jews have found themselves turning to Fox News as a cultural safe space from hostility despite the network’s well-documented antisemitic history—a history the channel hopes their viewers will forget while watching their newest vertical “Antisemitism Exposed.” Respected Jewish philanthropists who have long donated sizably to the Democratic Party are shifting rightward. Perhaps most bafflingly, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League praised Elon Musk’s “leadership in fighting hate” less than 24 hours after the X CEO publicly advocated for the antisemitic “Great Replacement” theory.

It’s only human to seek support and companionship after experiencing a perceived betrayal—and that is exactly how many Jewish Democrats responded to the attacks of October 7th. It should come as no surprise that the GOP was already waiting with open arms, considering their decades-long attempts to woo Jewish voters, as a new push to win over Jews has practically taken place every decade since 1972: 1983, 1992, 2012, and now, 2023. But the enemy of one’s enemy is not necessarily one’s friend, and support for Israel does not an anti-anti-semite make.

The wife of 2022 GOP Gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano unwittingly made this distinction very clear last year. In response to accusations levied against her husband due to his blatantly antisemitic remarks, Rebbie Mastriano shot back, “I’m gonna say as a family we so much love Israel, in fact I’m gonna say we probably love Israel more than a lot of Jews do…we’ve given for, I would say at least ten years, outreach to Israel and Jerusalem.” And that was it: not even a cursory disavowal of antisemitism or a single word spoken about Judaism; only an affirmation of the love that the couple has for Israel.

But why, exactly, do these Republicans—many of whom identify with Trump’s “America First” ideology—feel so strongly about Israel in the first place? There is, of course, the obvious desire to pull Jewish votes rightward, but to frame that as the only—or even primary—reason would be misleading. Rather, many politicians firmly placed themselves in Israel’s camp not to appease Jewish voters, but Christian ones: most notably, the evangelical Zionists of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), led by Pastor John Hagee himself. If this is meant to be a secret, it’s incredibly poorly kept; in a 2020 campaign speech, Donald Trump boasted of his decision to move “the capital of Israel to Jerusalem,” then added, to much applause, “That’s for the evangelicals.”

Evangelicals such as Hagee and his organization are fervent in their support of Israel and have been some of the very loudest voices the past few months, but make no mistake: they are not allies of the Jewish people. Put simply, evangelical Zionists need Jews to remain alive and in Israel solely to provide cannon fodder for the Rapture. The strain of Christian theology to which these evangelical Zionists subscribe is eschatological, prioritizing a fulfillment of the Biblical “end times” above all else. This group has long held that the return of Christ will only occur after a final great war in Jewish-occupied Israel, in which the Jews “either convert to Christianity or perish in flames,” and Jesus Christ is reinstated as king and leader of all. As such, their issue is not with the elimination of Jews nor of Israel, but rather, with the elimination of Jews and Israel right now, in this way, at the hands of these people.

This fundamentally antisemitic branch of Zionism plays an unexpectedly large role in the American Zionist movement, with its reach expanding far beyond Hagee’s invitation to speak at the March for Israel. Contrary to popular belief that the Venn Diagram of Zionists and Jews is nearly a circle, white evangelicals are far more likely to profess zealous Zionist views than Jews. While 70% of white evangelicals believe that Israel is Jewish land by religious doctrine, merely 32% of American Jews share this conviction. There are over 10 million members of CUFI right now, making it “the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States.” To put things into perspective: there are 7.6 million Jews in America. So even if every Jew in the nation was a Zionist—and they’re not—Jews would still only be a minority of the American Zionist movement. And yet, the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism proves that Zionism remains strictly associated with Judaism by the vast majority of people.

Republicans may also extend friendship towards Israel due to more personal, financial motives—Zionism inspired less by any sort of fellowship with Jewish individuals than by the deep pockets of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and other monied conservative lobbies. A right-wing Zionist lobbying organization with a history of suspiciously antisemitic behavior, AIPAC’s record boasts defenses of Steve Bannon and millions spent funding the opponents of Jewish candidates. And despite not professing its allegiance to Israel in its name, ALEC is yet another corporate-funded right-wing lobbyist group whose strong ties to evangelical Zionists must not be overlooked. There are also those politicians with no particular affinity for Israel itself who simply admire its current far-right government and see Israel as a hypothetical model for their fantasies of an American ethnostate with a strong nationalist bent to boot. And, of course, there are the bigots who simply hate Palestinians even more than they hate Jews, only invoking Israel to justify their own racism.

But even more than the desire to siphon Democratic votes, the pro-Israel right’s disavowal of antisemitism is motivated by their unifying ideology of the modern era: anti-wokeness. They are explicitly exploiting the increase in antisemitism in order to make an argument about the detrimental nature of “wokeism,” DEI, and diversity at large. Christopher Rufo, the “mastermind” behind the culture-wars-inspired turn on DEI and wokeness, laid out the playbook on his Twitter for all to see on October 13: “Conservatives need to create a strong association between Hamas, BLM, DSA, and academic ‘decolonization’ in the public mind. Connect the dots, then attack, delegitimize, and discredit.” A month later, he officially declared the operation a success: “Narrative established. Now to the next step… We will be accelerating our campaign to abolish the DEI bureaucracies in state universities, using the recent pro-Hamas insanities to drive the momentum.” The pro-Israel right frequently refers to the “silver lining” of the 29,000+ deaths in the Middle East: to quote a viral Elon Musk tweet from October 30, “The great wakening from woke has happened. This is good for civilization.” It isn’t just subtext; it’s text. Many on the right do not care about antisemitism or, in many cases, even Israel. They are actively capitalizing on and exploiting the painful divisions of the past few months for their own benefit—and their efforts have been paying off in dividends. As a bonus, conservatives even get to bash “the Squad” and doxx left-wing activists (or, in many cases, Muslim students who simply joined an identity group on campus) and receive bipartisan support for it. 

The obfuscation and conflation of the definition of antisemitism with anti-Zionism is dangerous to the Jewish community, and it’s only going to get worse. Antisemites will be absolved of their antisemitism by vowing destruction on Gaza—and on the flip side, those who denounce said destruction of Gaza will not only be called antisemitic, but may begin to identify as it and view the term as a badge of honor, as proof of their resistance. Everyday political discourse inches closer to a future where 17 year olds will list “antisemite” in their Twitter bios in between “BLM” and “ACAB.” In November, in response to the House resolution defining anti-Zionism as antisemitism, card-carrying neo-Nazi Lucas Gage tweeted, “Then I’m the most ‘anti-Semitic’ motherf*cker alive.” And just earlier this week, popular pro-Palestine X user Jory Micah (who is actually a Christian right-wing anti-vaxxer) asked: “Does anyone actually care if they are called ‘antisemitic’ anymore?” The top comment? A man with “disaffected Bernie Sanders voter” in his bio saying “I prefer it.”

Screenshot of the now-deleted tweet, taken by the author on November 30, 2023.

Screenshot taken by the author on February 20, 2024.

These frequent Third Reich-inspired calls to action on social media—and the degree to which people appear susceptible to them—are precisely why the Jewish community desperately needs the definition of antisemitism to retain its original meaning. Given the immense danger that the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism poses to pro-Palestinian activists, the progressive movement at times seems to forget that while anti-Zionism should not be seen as inherently antisemitic, that does not mean all instances of apparent anti-Zionism are necessarily free of antisemitism. Very legitimate antisemites such as Keith Woods—whose supporters seem to increase in frequency and fervor every day—are going entirely unaddressed, as are the sentiments they spread. No one even realizes it’s there: Anti-Zionists view antisemitism as an imaginary wolf that Zionists keep crying, and Zionists are too busy fighting the “wolf” they think they see to notice the entire pack creeping up from behind. When compared to the existential threat antisemitism poses, demonizing organizations justifiably calling for Palestinian freedom (let alone Jewish organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace) is nothing but a red herring. Groups fighting for Palestinian liberation must do their part in resisting the infiltration of alt-right operatives, but Jewish Zionists must do theirs as well: so long as “liberal” Jewish Zionists seek comfort in the arms of the Republicans and Evangelicals who resent them, genuine antisemites will be allowed to redefine antisemitism to suit their political agenda. In effect, this will open the door to an all-consuming hatred of Jews that will cement itself in modern parlance—and at this rate, there will no longer be a word to describe it.

Casey Epstein-Gross (BC ’25) is a columnist at CPR majoring in English and political science. She is particularly interested in political theory, public opinion, extremism and partisanship, and social issues. Her hobbies consist of doom-scrolling on Twitter and writing impassioned, frantic rants on the current political zeitgeist in her Notes app.