David Horowitz is standing by his description of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol as a “renegade Jew” for not getting behind Donald Trump.
Horowitz explained why in the latest episode of “The Jamie Weinstein Show,” where the former New Left activist turned conservative firebrand also discussed what he loves most about Trump, why he’s never traveled to Israel, his influences and much more.
LISTEN:
Show Map:
- When David Horowitz met Hillary Clinton
- His initial impression of Donald Trump
- Responding to the conservative critiques of Donald Trump
- Why Hillary Clinton is evil
- Horowitz on the Alt-Right
- Defending his “Renegade Jew” column
- On Christopher Hitchens, Cornel West, George W. Bush and Matt Drudge
- Lessons from his career
- On his influences
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In May, Horowitz, who runs the David Horowitz Freedom Center and Frontpagemag.com, received an avalanche of criticism when he penned an article for Breitbart News entitled, “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew.” Some even called the headline anti-Semitic.
But in his interview with “The Jamie Weinstein Show,” Horowitz, who is a non-religious Jew, said he stands by his headline. When pressed, Horowitz attempted to explain it.
“Bill Kristol is a prominent American Jew and was very influential,” he said. “I think he’s not going to have much influence in the future in the Republican Party, but a very influential figure in the Republican Party, and he wants to throw the election to a party that has shown that it will betray Israel, and is betraying Israel. So that’s all that meant.
Kristol, a prominent figure in the NeverTrump movement, says he will be voting for independent candidate Evan McMullin on Election Day.
LISTEN: Bill Kristol discusses the future of the GOP post-Trump
A recent poll of Israelis actually showed that for the first time since 2000, a large plurality prefer Hillary Clinton, the person who Horowitz suggests is an existential threat to their country, over Trump. When presented with the statistic, Horowitz said, “I really know almost nothing about Israeli politics.”
“I don’t know what to make of it,” he went on. “Why did 93 percent of blacks vote for the Democratic Party, which has ruined the lives of millions of blacks in the inner-city? Why did the Germans vote for Hitler, who destroyed their country?”
In his column calling Kristol a “renegade Jew” for not supporting Trump, Horowitz admitted that he had never traveled to Israel.
“I am a Jew who has never been to Israel and has never been a Zionist in the sense of believing that Jews can rid themselves of Jew hatred by having their own nation state,” he wrote.
When asked why someone who has dedicated a significant part of his career to defending Israel in print has never made an effort go to Israel, Horowitz took a moment to choose his words carefully.
“There’s a mixture of reasons. One is of course I was raised as a Marxist,” he said. “The second is I don’t feel, of the Israelis, I don’t feel — I got to be careful how I put this, this is very tricky water that I am trying to navigate here.”
“Because I don’t feel a special kinship with Israelis,” he went on. “I feel a kinship with the Jews of Israel, because I know if they’re destroyed then, I mean, that’s part of me, that goes for all my people. But the Israeli mentality and personality, I mean to me they could be Irish. I don’t see them as kin, and they don’t see me that way either.”
Horowitz also said he has been busy running the David Horowitz Freedom Center over the last decade and a half, and hasn’t had too much time to travel abroad, not to mention as he gets older it is harder for him to deal with jet lag.
“There was one final reason,” he finally added, “and that is, naturally if I’m defending Israel, I’m going to be attacked. [They’ll say] ‘you’re defending yourself, the Jews, you’re a Zionist, and so forth.’ So I felt that by not going to Israel, I would be able more easily to defend against those kind of attacks.”
Listen to past episodes of “The Jamie Weinstein Show” and subscribe to it in iTunes:
Ben Shapiro on 2016 and the consequences of NeverTrumpism
Is Tomi Lahren the future face of Trump TV?
Bill Kristol On NeverTrump, The State Of The Republican Party And Why He Didn’t Run For President
Jack Abramoff on why Hillary Clinton’s Corruption
Grover Norquist On Trump, NeverTrumpers And Meeting George Soros
Matt Lewis On How He Went From Flipping Burgers To CNN
Roger Stone On What Donald Trump Learned From Roy Cohn
Former Israeli Amb. Michael Oren On Trump, Clinton, American Leadership And His Future Ambitions