Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens Are Spreading False Messages About Jews

In recent weeks, a number of people have opined that Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens are antisemitic. Personally, I’m not sure that’s true. But their words have almost the same result as if they did hate Jews. Both care most about causing controversy and empowering themselves. Both have talent. The difficult part is trying to figure out if they really believe what they say, or they are just aggrandizing themselves.

When Owens wore a “White Lives Matter Shirt” and defended her friend Kanye West — who tweeted that he was going “death con 3 On Jewish People” — it was nonsensical for Owens to say: “If you are an honest person, you did not think this tweet was antisemitic.”

She later took a shot at Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire and an Orthodox Jew, tweeting “you cannot serve God and money.” This followed Shapiro calling Owens’ comments on the war in Gaza disgraceful, and said her “faux sophistication” has been ridiculous, and that “everyone can see the moves that she’s making.”

Owens understands very little about Israel. When Orthodox comedian Ami Kozak was a guest on her show, she said it was not “a bastion of freedom” for Muslims to be restricted to the Muslim quarter in Jerusalem, at which point Kozak corrected her that Muslims were allowed to live in different parts of Israel, and were not restricted there.

Owens did admit she could be wrong, but then again, she told Bill Maher she wasn’t sure there was a moon landing.

Interviewed by Tucker Carlson some time ago, Owens pretended to not know what upset Shapiro.

Like Owens, Tucker Carlson has also made extremely troubling statements about Israel and Jews.

Carlson said that while he was horrified by what took place on October 7, “there is an emotional response that is disproportionate I think on the part of some commentators,” and said there were bigger problems, because America was being invaded by illegal drugs.

And while it is a tragedy that people die of fentanyl, and there is no doubt that criminals have entered America due to inadequate border policy, that’s not the same thing as terrorists shooting people at a concert or innocent civilians in their homes.

Carlson knows the difference — but he doesn’t care. Which might not be surprising, given past antisemitic comments he’s made, about Ukraine, Israel, and other issues.

Carlson has opened up Shapiro, claiming that he — and effectively most American Jews — are un-American, and have dual loyalty to Israel.

While Shapiro has the facts on this side, and the higher intellect, Carlson is still a person of greater influence in America. Shapiro could destroy him in a debate, so it is no surprise that Carlson doesn’t want to go against him.

Owens has finally parted ways with The Daily Wire, probably because she realized that she will get more attention leaving, and can try and damage Shapiro in the process.

Maybe Carlson and Owens have no personal issues with Jews; we’ll never know. But we don’t have time to be their interpreters or mind readers, and their comments are having the same effect. Both Owens and Carlson are spreading messages that will result in more antisemitism and hatred of Israel.

The sad part is that, as usual, Jews are the scapegoat and we will likely face more discrimination as a result of these chess moves between conservative political commentators. The good news is that I think their moves won’t work in the long term.

The author is a writer based in New York.