In recent weeks, the Anti-Defamation League has been busy scouring the social media posts of candidates for jobs in the administration of New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, seemingly oblivious to a major gathering of Israel haters and antisemites on the other side of the country.
The ADL, apparently fearful of offending an increasingly extremist Trump administration and big conservative donors, has in recent years focused mostly on leftist activity, while limiting scrutiny of the burgeoning antisemitism at the other end of the political spectrum.
One of its volunteers blasted the ADL for becoming a “useful idiot” for the Trump administration by failing to respond to right-wing antisemitism. “Jews and the fight against antisemitism are being cynically used to advance an authoritarian, anti-democratic agenda,” Joe Berman wrote in his resignation letter.
The ADL is not alone. Other major Jewish organizations, fearful of speaking out and incurring the wrath of an infamously vengeful president, would much rather talk about campus anti-Israel demonstrations than the Republican Party’s growing affinity for far-right bigots of various stripes, and the Trump administration’s foreign policy tilt supporting Europe’s surging nationalist right.
Extremist statements at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest
Vice President JD Vance spoke at Turning Point USA’s “AmericaFest” last week, where Jews stand in his vision of America. “By the grace of God, we will always be a Christian nation,” he told the faithful, and they responded with rousing applause. He also incredulously assured them, “You don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.”
His message was clear: you Jews and other non-Christian “others” will be tolerated in “our” white, Christian country, but just remember your place.
It’s a message US President Donald Trump has been preaching since descending on his gilded escalator a decade ago. He has banned Muslims and others from what he calls “s***hole countries” – he prefers white Christians from “nice” countries, “like Denmark [and] Switzerland.”
He may prefer those European democracies as sources of immigrants, but not their governments. He clearly prefers the autocrats and dictators who run Russia, Turkey, China, North Korea, Egypt, El Salvador, and Hungary. He is said to view Hungary’s strongman ruler, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as a role model; a self-described defender of Christian values who has been moving his country toward what he calls “illiberal democracy.”
During the 2016 campaign, Vance appeared to see through Trump’s romance with fascism, saying, “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon… or that he’s America’s Hitler.” Incidentally, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just last year compared Trump to both Hitler and Mussolini and a “threat to democracy,” even calling some Trump supporters outright Nazis.”
“Historians and election experts have compared Trump’s anti-democratic tendencies and egotistical personality to the sentiments and rhetoric of Benito Mussolini and Italian fascism,” Wikipedia noted.
Groucho Marx may have had folks like Vance and RFK Jr. in mind when he said, “I have my principles. And if you don’t like them, I have others.”
VANCE HAS BEEN leading the administration’s embrace of extremist nationalist groups in Europe, notably Germany’s neo-Nazi AfD, Alternative for Germany. Elon Musk also endorsed AfD, telling Germans they have “too much of a focus on past guilt.” Der Spiegel, a leading German newspaper, called Vance’s speech a “campaign gift” to the fascists.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz harshly criticized Vance’s embrace of the far-right, anti-immigrant, antisemitic extremists, adding, “That is not done, certainly not among friends and allies.”
America’s historic allies in Europe are worried about Trump’s drift away from democracy and the threat it poses to their security in the face of an aggressive Russian leader who wants to reconstitute the old Soviet empire.
Vance’s sympathies may lie with Russia in its attempt to seize Ukraine, as well as with neo-Nazi movements in Europe. Still, he is essentially an isolationist, a fundamental theme of the MAGA and America First movements.
A worrisome trend revealed at the Turning Point convention was the antipathy that was expressed toward Israel.
The Washington Post noted that Vance never once mentioned Israel by name in his speech, although that is what is “tearing the MAGA base apart.” Nor did he rebuke Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, Marjorie Taylor Greene, or any of the growing number of anti-Israel and antisemitic voices on the GOP’s Right.
Instead of countering the antisemites, he validated them. The GOP is not antisemitic, he told an NBC reporter, insisting “there’s a difference between not liking Israel… and antisemitism.”
“We have far more important work to do than canceling each other, he said.
SOMEONE WHO did speak out was Ben Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew and popular conservative podcaster. He called out the hatemongers pushing the Nazification of the MAGA movement and was, in turn, attacked by Carlson, Steve Bannon, and Megyn Kelly, among others.
Particularly alarming is the rising prominence of Fuentes, a far-right influencer, a Hitler and Stalin admirer, white supremacist, Christian nationalist, and outspoken antisemite. Trump invited him to dinner at Mar-a-Lago last year, along with fellow Hitler fanboy Kanye (Ye) West. Trump has not denounced Fuentes.
Vance’s failure to rebuke those who traffic in antisemitism in the GOP is more revealing than any of his words. He is next in line to the presidency, the 2028 GOP frontrunner, and presumed heir-apparent to the leadership of the MAGA cult. Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, Turning Point’s founder who was assassinated in September, has already endorsed Vance. A straw poll at AmericaFest showed 85% agree.
Downplaying antisemitism as a simple expression of policy differences and his attempt to be seen as neutral suggests that Vance sees the national bipartisan consensus of support for Israel is shrinking. And it suggests what Jfeed.com called “a colder, more transactional relationship with Israel and a greater willingness to tolerate antisemitism” in a possible Vance presidency.
And with one of this country’s two major political parties giving new legitimacy to xenophobes, bigots, and antisemites at home and abroad, it’s overdue for groups like ADL, which claim to be protecting the interests of American Jews, to show some spine and begin to come to grips with what could be the greatest threat to the security of American Jews in our history.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.