The Real Antisemites Are Pointing Fingers, Weaponizing It To Silence Voices Of Equality And Justice

The GOP’s Long History Of Antisemitism Is No Secret— & Now They Use It As A Weapon To Crush Solidarity

Republicans— and Republican-lite Democraps like Laura Gillen, not to mention “former” Republican Eric Adams— are already screeching that Zohran Mamdani is anti-semitic, a bold-faced lie. That would be like Nazis in 1933 Germany accusing the Social Democrats (SPD) of being anti-semitic. It’s projection as political strategy— standard operating procedure in Trump’s GOP. Mamdani, an outspoken progressive and supporter of Palestinian rights, threatens a bipartisan status quo that has treated any criticism of Israeli policy as heresy. And so, rather than engage on substance, they smear. These bad-faith attacks don’t arise in a vacuum. They’re rooted in a cynical, decades-long right-wing pattern: falsely invoking antisemitism to silence progressive voices, while turning a blind eye— or worse— to the growing and very real antisemitism festering inside their own movement.

This isn't a new contradiction for the American right. From Charles Lindbergh to Pat Buchanan to Donald Trump’s dalliances with white nationalists, antisemitism has often operated just beneath the surface of conservative populism— sometimes breaking out into the open when it becomes politically convenient or unavoidable. Today the GOP has traded past dog whistles for megaphones. They've accused George Soros of orchestrating migrant caravans and global conspiracies, promoted QAnon fantasies filled with age-old antisemitic tropes, and winked at the Holocaust denialism of their allies. And yet, these same operatives and politicians— who align themselves with Christian nationalists, white supremacists, and outright fascists like Nick Fuentes— have the gall to paint Mamdani, a proud socialist and anti-racist, as the bigot. It’s not just dishonest; it’s Orwellian.

Ever watch one of Nick Fuentes' unbelievably, very openly anti-semitic rants? Here's one from Friday you should listen to. No room for excuses. Jews shouldn’t be allowed to run for office because, he said,  “Jews hate Christ.” He was just getting started: “I don’t want America to be run by Jews. I don’t want America to be run by Muslims or Hindus; I don’t want it to be run by Jews... I don’t want it to be run by people who are loyal to Israel and the Jewish community above all else… They’re in the pocket of Israel and the Jews.”

Fuentes has been a controversial presence in far-right political circles, advocating for extreme ideologies through his "America First" movement and annual America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC). His super-charged MAGA ranting— including Holocaust denial, praise for authoritarian figures and anti-immigration stances— has drawn attention from Republicans, though most are afraid to be too open about it— though not all. Arizona Republican and anti-semitics maniac Paul Gosar, as an extreme a MAGAt as you’ll find anywhere, was the keynote speaker at Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference in February 2021, held in Orlando, concurrently with that year’s CPAC. Gosar’s speech focused on anti-immigration themes and criticized “big business, big tech, and the swamp” for Trump’s 2020 election loss. He also advertised and featured Fuentes at one of his campaign fundraisers. When Gosar was criticized for hanging round with Fuentes, he said that he wouldn’t let “the left dictate our strategy, alliances and efforts” and highlighting support from “Gen Z, Y and X conservatives” who align with America First. When Fuentes was subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection and riot, Gosar took to Gab to defend him, calling the investigation “pure political persecution” of “young conservative Christians like Nick Fuentes.”

Of course, Gosar is hardly the only Republican aligned with Fuentes. In 2022, when Gosar sent a pre-recorded video message to AFPAC, it was Marjorie Traitor Greene who showed up in person to represent the GOP congressional conference. She was a featured speaker, even though the event was more anti-semitics than ever and even though Fuentes was on stage praising Hitler and Putin. Her excuse to the media was that she attended to address Fuentes’ “very large following,” particularly young conservatives, and denied knowing much about Fuentes or his views, stating, “I do not know Nick Fuentes. I have never heard him speak. I have never seen a video. I do not know what his views are,”  straining credulity. 

Other GOP leaders involved with Fuentes include then-Congressman Steve King (R-IA), Idaho Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, Arizona state Senator Wendy Rogers, who spoke at the 2022 AFPAC, praising Fuentes as “the most persecuted man in America” and expressing admiration, stating, “Nick, and the other patriots in attendance at AFPAC: please keep doing what you’re doing. I admire you, and I so appreciate how you never give up.” She also posted an image on Gab and Telegram with Fuentes and Gab founder Andrew Torba, depicting a dead rhinoceros branded with a CPAC logo and a Star of David, a critique of mainstream conservatism and Jewish influence. The Arizona state senate censured her, although most Republicans voted against the censure and Trump endorsed her that year.

But the Fuentes cult is just the mask slipping. The underlying current of antisemitism has long been part of the American right’s ideological bloodstream. From Father Coughlin in the 1930s to the John Birch Society’s conspiracy theories in the Cold War era, antisemitic tropes about “globalist” elites, media manipulation, and financial control have been recycled endlessly— often with a thin veneer of deniability, and always on the fringes of the Republican Party. Nixon’s tapes were full of antisemitic bile. Reagan laid a wreath at a cemetery where Nazi SS officers were buried. And the GOP’s Cold War obsession with rooting out “subversives” was soaked in McCarthyite red-baiting that frequently veered into outright antisemitism— especially when targeting Jewish civil rights lawyers, labor organizers and progressive intellectuals.

By the time Pat Buchanan declared that Capitol Hill was “Israeli-occupied territory,” the rhetoric had become more overt, even as the Republican Party tried to cloak itself in pro-Israel credentials to win support from neo-conservatives and Christian Zionists. And the contradiction never went away. The right could declare itself a friend of Israel while simultaneously fanning the flames of domestic antisemitism— blaming George Soros for every progressive victory, dog-whistling about “globalists,” and warning of a “replacement” theory in which shadowy elites (guess who) are trying to change the demographics of the country. These narratives don’t just echo 20th-century fascist propaganda— they are 20th-century fascist propaganda, dressed in new clothing with a Fox News chyron.

Today’s GOP can’t decide if it wants to hug Bibi Netanyahu, appoint Mike Huckabee ambassador to Israel or burn down the Capitol with a mob waving swastika-laden memes. So it’s all of the above. It props up a toxic alliance between authoritarian Christian nationalism and performative pro-Israel politics, weaponizing accusations of antisemitism to bludgeon leftists, while empowering a movement that regularly celebrates open bigots. The goal isn’t to protect Jews— it’s to police dissent... to make sure no one like Zohran Mamdani is ever allowed to question empire, militarism or apartheid without paying a political price.

That’s what this is really about: not Jewish people but crushing any political movement that threatens the power of the warmongers, profiteers, and status quo enforcers— whether they wear red ties or blue ones. The smearing of Mamdani as antisemitic isn’t just cynical, it’s strategic. It’s meant to sap the energy from his campaign, to isolate him, to force allies into silence and to make his ideas— housing justice, solidarity with Palestinians, economic democracy— radioactive. And it’s not just him. From Cori Bush to Ilhan Omar to Jamaal Bowman, this playbook gets pulled out every time a progressive threatens the bipartisan consensus on endless war and uncritical U.S. support for Israel. The goal is to equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and then use that equation as a weapon to defend an indefensible status quo. It’s cowardly. It’s dangerous. And it’s why the loudest voices claiming to defend Jews are often the ones platforming the very forces that endanger them the most. Christian pro-Zionism is pure anti-semitism.

Go ahead-- click on Oliver's photo

If the GOP— and their cowardly Democratic enablers— really cared about fighting antisemitism, they’d start by cleaning house. But they won’t, because the hate isn’t a bug in their system. It’s a feature. And no amount of weaponized outrage will change the fact that the real threat to Jewish safety in America doesn’t come from Zohran Mamdani or the left. It comes from the movement that dines with white nationalists, fundraises off of Nazi-curious memes, and hands microphones to men who praise Hitler on stage and to women who talk about Jewish space lasers burning down California. You want to talk about antisemitism? Let’s— but don’t pretend the people trying to dismantle oppression are the ones upholding it. Always remember: conservatives praise Hitler, sometimes in whispers, and smear socialists, always at the top of their lungs. Useful idiots and enablers, like Nassau County's Laura Gillen and career-long racist and bigot Kirsten Gillibrand, very badly need a primary opponents. Extremist Likud crackpot Jared Moskowitz will have his primary opponent in a few days. Progressive Democrat Oliver Larkin will be running for the Florida congressional seat that includes parts of Broward County and southern Palm Beach County. Larkin’s response to the Mamdani victory in NYC is exactly what every Democrat should be feeling and saying: 

“Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani ran a blueprint campaign for progressives across this country. Zohran addressed the cost of living crisis with clear policies to tangibly improve New Yorkers’ lives—  larger paychecks with a $30 minimum wage, more money in your pocket with free buses and city-owned grocery stores, and a rent freeze to help people get their heads above water. Zohran’s Democratic primary victory proves that if it can happen in New York City, it can happen in South Florida—  where we are suffering from one of the worst housing and cost of living crises in the country. I am calling on all Democrats to endorse Assemblyman Mamdani as the people’s choice for mayor of New York. We must speak out vigorously against Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption and collaboration with the Trump administration, Andrew Cuomo’s disqualifying history of sexual harassment while in office, and the bigoted Islamophobia the far-right directs at our party’s nominee. Zohran’s progressive agenda is what the future of the Democratic Party looks like. It’s time for all supporters of this big tent to get on board.”