The Far-Left and Far-Right Can Agree on One Thing: Jew Hatred

In the past few years, the radical left in America has targeted Jews on many fronts. Demonstrators waved Hamas and Hezbollah flags in the streets of New York, a man hurled molotov cocktails to set Jewish people on fire in Colorado, a shooter killed two Israeli embassy employees at a Jewish event in Washington, D.C., and far-left media figures have found their rallying cry in “anti-Zionism,” accusing Israel of false charges like colonialism and genocide.

Most recently, Zohran Mamdani, a far-left New York City assemblyman who has been condemned by the United States Holocaust Museum for his statements, won the New York mayoral democratic primary and seems primed to win in November. Mamdani has refused to condemn phrases like “globalized intifada,” meaning attacks against Jews worldwide, while hiding his antisemitic views under the guise of “anti-imperialism.”

But threats are also coming from the opposite side of the political spectrum. Some far-right figures on the Internet are shifting the Overton window of the right wing, galvanizing their audiences with extremist antisemitic rhetoric, and even finding common ground with the far-left in their quest to reshape American policy against American Jews, Diaspora Jews, and Israel. And they have some support in Congress.

Figures like Tucker Carlson have been stoking the ethno-nationalist flames on the right wing for years. But recently, they have set their focus squarely on the Jewish people and also Israel. They have riled up their supporters with antisemitic canards and misinformation. Carlson, whose show has been ranked Spotify’s most popular podcast, hosted leading Holocaust denier and historical revisionist Darryl Cooper in September 2024, platforming one of the world’s leading antisemites. On the podcast, Cooper repeatedly stated that the United States was on the “wrong side” of World War II, as Carlson egged him on and feigned intellectual curiosity.

Cooper’s views fit neatly with Carlson’s. Carlson himself has routinely espoused the “great replacement theory”–which asserts that the Jewish people are engaged in a shadowy global plot to erase white people from the Western world by encouraging immigration and destroying white, Anglo-Saxon culture.

Carlson has also supported America’s enemies, and countries hoping for a genocide of the Jews. Before President Trump launched Operation Midnight Hammer, Carlson feverishly warned his audience that actions against Iran were a massive mistake, and would lead to “thousands” of American deaths. Today, Iran’s nuclear facilities lie in utter ruin and not one single American service member was killed. Most recently, on July 7, Carlson even hosted Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of Iran’s Islamic Republic regime, who has repeatedly called for death to Jews and America, while brutally oppressing his own people. In this episode, Carlson barely challenges Pezeshkian on his abhorrent views and agrees with him several times.

Similar far-right figures, like self-avowed neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, have been gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream, garnering millions of views and followers. Fuentes, a strong critic of Israel, holds virulently antisemitic views. On his podcast episodes, Fuentes has called Jews “perfidious” and urged their execution and removal from the United States. He has repeatedly called for a “holy war” against the Jewish people, while also denying the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Carlson’s more than 5 million Spotify listeners, and Fuentes’s 700,000 X followers are cause for alarm — and there are many more like them. People like Candace Owens are just the tip of the iceberg. In addition, like-minded lawmakers in Congress, Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Marjorie-Taylor Greene (R-GA) promote Carlson-esque views on foreign policy, and have even reached across the aisle, collaborating with far-left Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Each of these Republican members who claim to simply oppose military action against Iran in the name of “America first” just so happen to have a history of antisemitic and anti-Israel statements.

At a time when the notion of bipartisan cooperation feels like a historic curiosity, it appears that one thing can unite the far left and right: hatred of Jews. This unholy alliance, forged of hate, proves the horseshoe theory correct: the far-left and far-right have a whole lot in common. Perhaps we should not be surprised. Populists and demagogues have always used political scapegoating to rally their supporters, and the Jews have proved to be a convenient target throughout history.

Carlson and Fuentes are building a modern-day Father Coughlin-like movement. And although they don’t seem to wield meaningful political power today, that could change rapidly, as many on the right wing are calling for a new, more authoritarian political party. These figures could give rise to a new, dangerous party: one that might have aligned themselves with the Nazis in World War II, and would have stood by or actively encouraged the industrialized slaughter of an entire people and continent.

Nathaniel Miller is a senior at Tulane University, studying international relations and a current intern in the United States House of Representatives. Find him on X @Nathaniel_dm

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