Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Breitbart News on Wednesday in an exclusive interview that the antisemitism that has grown on the political right is not only anti-Israel, but anti-American and anti-Trump.
Netanyahu addressed the problem he referred to as the “woke right,” which arose as some conservative pundits — including a few who had once been supportive of Israel — opposed Israel in the “12-Day War” against Iran, as well as any American involvement on Israel’s side.
The issue arose in a discussion of antisemitism, which has become familiar on the left in recent years, and is resurgent on the right:
Breitbart News: Antisemitism has been rising around the world, and many of us had become used to seeing it on the extreme left, but now it does seem to be rising on the right as well — and not just from traditional sources on the right, the neo-Nazi fringe and so forth, but there are in the United States, certain popular conservative commentators who appear to have drifted in that direction. Where is that coming from? Is that based on foreign influence? Is it religiously based, somehow? Where is it coming from, in your view, and how do you stop it?
Netanyahu: There’s been a lot of foreign influence over the last two decades. There have been NGOs [non-governmental organizations] from various corners, … primarily from Europe, but also from from Qatar. That is, you know, spent billions on American universities, vilifying, vilifying Israel, vilifying Jews, and also, frankly, vilifying the United States. Because if you open Al Jazeera in Arabic, not in English, and you just track it over the years, it’s been horrible. It’s been antisemitic, anti Israeli, anti American, and all that was left to accumulate primarily in academia, you know, and from there, it sort of distributes itself elsewhere.
But I can tell you this: look, the Jewish people have had this problem of vilification for for thousands of years, and we were accused of everything. In the Middle Ages, we were accused of killing Christian children and using their blood, okay? I mean, and these lies, these, these horrible blood libels always preceded massacres. They spread from one country to the other, and there was very little we could do about it. We were vilified, and then we were massacred, until this culminated in the worst massacre of them all — the Holocaust. The Nazis said we were spreading vermin — you know, just like in the Middle Ages. What has changed since the rise of Israel is not this vilification and not these cycles of latent antisemitism that burst forth from time to time, as it’s happening now. What has changed is that it’s not followed by massacre[s], because when they try, as they did on October 7, Hamas tried, we’re able to fend them off, defend ourselves and defeat our enemies. That’s the change that Israel has brought. But I think we have the continuous battle for truth, and I appreciate the opportunity that you have given me to tell the truth.
And let me say one more thing — you talked about the “woke right”? Some of these people call themselves MAGA [Make America Great Again]. They’re not MAGA. If you support Iran, Iran tried to kill President Trump twice, not once, but twice. Iran has put a price on his head. … That’s Iran. Iran has murdered, has killed and wounded more Americans, thousands of them, in Iraq and in Afghanistan with their explosive devices. They killed 251 American Marines in Beirut. They bombed American embassies. They burn American flags. They chant, “Death to America.” The first thing they did when this regime took power was to take over 50 hostages in the American embassy.
Iran wants to annihilate the United States. Israel is the best ally of the United States.
Israel is fighting Iran, and you can’t be MAGA if you’re pro Iran, you can’t be MAGA if you’re anti-Israel. President Trump understands this, and he stands very strongly with us. And I, you know, I really appreciate the straightforward and courageous way that he he faces people, sometimes in his own constituency, because that’s what leaders, from time to time, have to do.
Since taking office, Trump has launched the most aggressive campaign against antisemitism in American history, focusing on university campuses but also fighting anti-Jewish hatred in the media and in politics.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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