The angry, and often racist, debates within the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement in the US over Israel shows that Israel is losing control of a crucial source of support, reports Chris Bambery.

Before I start this article, here’s a health warning. I am about to discuss various right-wing influencers in the US, including the recently assassinated Charlie Kirk. I in no way share their views and find many of their statements vile. However, on last month’s Unite the Kingdom march, Charlie Kirk featured prominently with the far right blaming his death on the ‘woke’ left. There must be growing confusion among them as they read or listen to right-wing American influencers today.

Within hours of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Israeli leaders rushed to praise the man. On X, Benjamin Netanyahu posted: ‘A lion-hearted friend of Israel, he fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization. I spoke to him only two weeks ago and invited him to Israel. Sadly, that visit will not take place.’ Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called Kirk an ‘incredible friend’ of Israel, adding: ‘Charlie represented the Judeo-Christian values that unite Israel and America. Above all, he was a fearless warrior for truth and freedom. He was murdered for that.’

Shortly afterwards, Netanyahu released a video on X rejecting online claims that Israel was in some way linked to Charlie Kirk’s murder as a ‘monstrous, big lie’. His statement reads: ‘Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, said that the bigger the lie, the faster it will spread. Somebody has fabricated a monstrous big lie, that Israel had something to do with Charlie Kirk’s horrific murder.’

Why would Netanyahu say this? Among MAGA supporters, conspiracy theories were spreading like wildfire that Mossad was behind the killing (I am not saying that it was, just reporting a growing belief among Trump’s base).

Kirk’s criticisms

In June, Kirk warned: ‘I can tell you right now, our MAGA base does not want a war at all whatsoever. They do not want US involvement. They do not want the United States to be engaged in this.’ Kirk later sent a letter to Netanyahu which shows he was becoming critical of Israel and Netanyahu in particular. It warns that consumers of social media know that the US gives billions to Israel but “they’re less aware of what we get in return.” … The letter was surely circulated to donors. Kirk was dependent on donors to support his political organization, Turning Point USA.

Among other statements indicating he was re-thinking his stand on Zionism, was this: ‘If you call everyone an antisemite, if they don’t take a puritanical view of the Netanyahu government, that’s bad for everybody.’ Another said: ‘I’m told by some people that if I criticize AIPAC that’s antisemitic … Do you think that AIPAC represents, I’m not saying I believe this, a sort of cutting in line in prioritization away from the American people … We vote, we’re citizens, but a separate group gets higher priority…’ He also said that Israel is like other ‘broken’ institutions. It keeps saying it has a ‘messaging problem’, when it is actually ‘doing something wrong.’ Now, these words have to be balanced by Kirk’s earlier statements which were strongly Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian.

The conservative political commentator, Tucker Carlson, who hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News from 2016 to 2023, was a keynote speaker at Kirk’s July Summit in Florida. Kirk came under strong pressure to cancel Carlson because of his critical stance on Israel and his attacks on the Israel lobby within the US.

At the summit: ‘Carlson said that rich financiers in Jeffrey Epstein’s “constellation” who care only about Israel are wrenching Americans away from their real concerns, such as the affordability crisis, and telling them to care about Iran. Carlson said that the career of Bill Ackman, the most important pro-Israel activist in the country right now, demonstrates that “useless” people end up with billions. Ackman called the speech “defamatory”. But the financier took the criticism so seriously he sought to show how he had made his money honestly.’

Max Blumenthal reported on the Grayzone that Ackman then hosted a gathering with Charlie Kirk in August in the Hamptons, the upper-class Long Island seaside colony, to discuss Kirk’s statements regarding Israel. Blumenthal reported that Ackman demanded that Kirk cancel Carlson for his views and Kirk refused.

Another pro-Israel donor cut off funds to Kirk over the Carlson issue. Tech billionaire Robert Shillman angrily withdrew a $2 million donation in the days before Kirk’s death, Max Blumenthal reports. Blumenthal posted on X: ‘The New York Times has corroborated my 9/22 report revealing that ultra-Zionist billionaire Robert Shillman cancelled a major donation to TPUSA just days before Charlie Kirk’s killing.’ Turning Point USA spreads conservative politics in high school, college, and university campuses. Kirk was a co-founder of TPUSA.

In case you are wondering who Bill Ackman is, read this: ‘Ackman is the most important player in this controversy. The 59-year-old hedge fund manager from Chappaqua, NY, is, as Carlson has said, “super aggressive.” After the Gaza war began, he became a terror to liberal and left critics of Israel, because of his financial clout and uninhibited twitter feed that reaches 1.8 million followers. Wielding a donor boycott, Ackman helped to bring down Harvard President Claudine Gay and Penn President Liz Magill nearly two years ago by claiming that they fostered an “explosion of antisemitism on campus” including “calls for violence against Jews”. Like other Israel lobbyists before him, Ackman jumps from one party to the other depending which is more pro-Israel.’

Israel’s problem

Here is another health warning: many of the posts by MAGA supporters are antisemitic and buy into conspiracy theories regarding Jeffrey Epstein and his hold over much of the elite. However, Trump has fed into this by breaking a campaign promise to release all the documentation regarding the Epstein case.

Netanyahu is aware that opinion in the US, his crucial ally, has turned against him. A poll published in the New York Times last month found that some third of Republican voters support an end to the war in Gaza and believe Israel is deliberately targeting civilians. Overall, 56% of those polled disapproved of Trump’s position on Palestine, with 36% approving it. Kirk himself said in July: ‘I’ve been trying to tell them [Israel supporters], there’s an earthquake coming in this country on this issue and in the country, and they don’t believe me.’

During Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, he took time to meet with Zionist-supporting ‘influencers’. There he talked of the need to open an eighth front in Israel’s current war, one against the US information sphere, podcasters and influencers. Netanyahu told his sympathetic audience that social media is ‘the most important weapon’. He added, ‘TikTok is the most important purchase … going on right now.’

Trump forced the Chinese multinational, Bytedance, to sell its American Tik Tok operation to a US and Abu Dhabi consortium led by Enterprise tech giant Oracle, Silver Lake and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX investment who together control a 45% stake in the firm.

‘Under the planned arrangement, Oracle will oversee the app’s security operations and continue providing cloud computing services for the new TikTok U.S. firm … Trump said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is involved in the ownership group and that his company is “playing a very big part”.’

‘It’s owned by Americans, and very sophisticated Americans,’ Trump said at the signing. ‘This is going to be American operated all the way.’ In 2017, Larry Ellison donated $16.6 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF). He is a major Trump supporter.

Israel has a problem. Netanyahu cannot stop live images circulating on social media. The horror of seeing babies being torn apart or children dying of malnutrition have been crucial to the fall in support for Israel.

Trump cannot stand for the White House once more, so he can afford to ignore his base. Nonetheless, there is a huge shift in regard to Israel, particularly among the young. Down the road that is going to pose major problems for any future president, whether Republican or Democrat. It is also creating a nightmare scenario for Zionism.