A ballooning dispute over a recent interview has thrust a quiet right-wing debate about foreign policy into the open
Connor Echols
For years, a debate over Israel has been raging behind the scenes of Republican politics.
Then, last week, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts thrust that battle into the open.
“Christians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemitic,” Roberts said in a widely circulated defense of Tucker Carlson following the podcaster’s friendly interview with avowed white nationalist Nick Fuentes, which focused on American support for Israel. While the right should support Israel in areas of mutual interest, Roberts continued, “conservatives should feel no obligation to reflexively support any foreign government, no matter how loud the pressure becomes from the globalist class or from their mouthpieces in Washington.”
The short video set off a civil war on the right. Many pro-Israel conservatives, from think tankers like Michael Doran to politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), have framed the debate as a question of fighting antisemitism. Fuentes is, after all, an unabashed antisemite. He has openly expressed doubt that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust, and he has called for “a total Aryan victory.” To drive the point home, Fuentes followed up the Carlson interview with a video slamming “Jewish oligarchy” and complaining about the “Holocaust religion.”
Roberts attempted to walk a tightrope by denouncing many of Fuentes’ views in a lengthy statement on X and making the case that the best way to confront these opinions was to debate them. He later explained that he made the video after facing “a lot of pressure” to “cancel Tucker,” and many MAGA leaders have indeed flocked to Roberts’ and Carlson’s defense. But these efforts have only heightened the split, in which most prominent Republicans are now being asked to pick a side.
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