The American Right’s Civil War Over Israel
On this episode of The Time of Monsters: David Austin Walsh on the deep roots of the Zionism debate among Republicans.

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Much has been written about how the Israel/Palestine conflict is dividing the left, but the
same is true of the right. Tucker Carlson’s interview with the antisemitic critic of Israel Nick
Fuentes has created an intense debate on the right about anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism,
currently playing itself out in turmoil at the Heritage Foundation. I spoke with the historian
David Austin Walsh, whose bookTaking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far
Right provides a crucial background for this story.
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Nick Fuentes with livestreamer and January 6 insurrectionist Baked Alaska at an anti-vaccine protest with members of the far-right group America First in front of Pfizer world headquarters on November 13, 2021, in New York City.
(Stephanie Keith / Getty Images)Much has been written about the how the Israel/Palestine conflict is dividing the left, but the same is true of the right. Tucker Carlson’s interview with the antisemitic critic of Israel Nick Fuentes has created an intense debate on the right about anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, currently playing itself out in turmoil at the Heritage Foundation. I spoke with the historian David Austin Walsh, whose book Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right provides a crucial background for this story. We talk about Christian Zionism.
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Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Norman Podhoretz, one of the founding fathers of neoconservatism, died on December 16 at
age 95. His legacy is a complex one, since in recent decades neoconservatism has been
supplanted in many ways by American First conservatism. But many aspects of Podhoretz’s
influence still play a shaping role on right. I take up Podhoretz’s career with David Klion (who
wrote an obituary for the pundit for The Nation) and the historian Ronnie Grinberg, who had
discussed Podhoretz in her book Write Like a Man.
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