Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson know exactly what they’re doing.
Over the past month, various anti-Semitic elements – inspired by: Hamas launches brutal attacks on Israeli civilians – Let us know they exist.
They celebrate the atrocities of Hamas and commit atrocities of their own, fantasize about Israel’s destruction, tear down posters of abducted children, and harass their Jewish neighbors.
Much of the overtly anti-Semitic rhetoric and action in the West comes from the left, and this is rightly pointed out by conservatives who blame the rampant hatred and evil on false progressive theories.
But there is a group of right-wing accomplices in this great revival of ancient evil.
Then Let’s get back to Owens and Carlson.
Over the past few weeks, Owens has repeated a series of blood libels.
In one breath, she hinted The Israeli government is committing genocide against the Palestinians In the Gaza Strip.
Next, she proposes that Jerusalem’s historic Muslim quarter (population: 22,000) is a ghetto where the city’s Muslims (population: 350,000) are forced to live.
Owens responded on X after being accused of ignorant slander by Daily Telegraph colleague Ben Shapiro.
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When men revile you and persecute you, Owens quotes Matthew 2 Chapter five reads:
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate one and love the other, or you will be loyal to one and despise the other,” she added.
“You cannot serve God and money at the same time. Christ is King.”
Just like that, the mask stuck to her face with a thread fell off.
She argued with no evidence and virtually no reasonable denial that Shapiro abandoned justice for wealth; could there be a more textbook example of anti-Semitic accusations?
When Shapiro responded by reminding Owens that she was welcome to stop receiving a paycheck from the company if it threatened her soul, Owens hid behind her Bible verse.
“It’s completely out of character for you to suggest that I can’t quote Bible verses,” she shouted, adding another performative “Christ is King” to her digital fail.
Then on Wednesday night, Carlson releases fawning interview with Owens Both claimed not to know why Shapiro criticized her in the first place.
Carlson started the feud by showing a video of Shapiro “attacking” Owens, without any context.
When he asked Owens what inspired it, she insisted it “didn’t have a lot of context.”
Later, Carlson said that while he was “shocked” by the Hamas attack, he believed the “emotional response” to it by “some commentators” was “disproportionate.”
He then became furious when some university donors threatened to boycott anti-Semitism on campus and protested that they were not doing the same for white people.
“If the largest donors to an institution like Harvard decide, well, we’re going to shut it down right now, where were you when they were calling for white genocide over the last decade? You allowed that. And then I found myself, in fact, really I hate those people,” he said.
His performance on Wednesday came after weeks of downplaying events in Israel and opposing aid to Israel.
Last month, for example, he hired retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor — who accuses the pro-Israel lobby of enriching U.S. officials — to assert that Israel is seeking to commit war crimes against civilians in Gaza. punish.
Both Owens and Carlson have a deep understanding of their audiences; that’s how they’ve amassed such impressive audiences.
They know that in order to get anti-Semites on their side and attract more people to join them, they don’t need to quote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and alienate their well-intentioned followers.
When they are held accountable for unabashed appeals to the worst of human nature, they only have to wink at the bigots while hiding behind fake curiosity (Carlson) or, more shamefully, Christianity (Owens).
Their ilk rely on well-intentioned people to differentiate between anti-Semites and those who pander to them.
For those of us who are sane, it is past time to no longer afford them this luxury.
Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediate.