Since August 2017, I have been trying to make sense of a world in which torch-carrying Nazis marched on the campus of the University of Virginia chanting "Jews will not replace us" and "Blood and Soil." A world in which three days later, the American President said there were "fine people on both sides" of the clash in Charlottesville between murderous Nazis and counter protesters.
Soon after the protest, my friend Cliff told me about a series of podcasts called "The Land of Israel Network." He particularly wanted me to listen to a debate between two rabbis about Charlottesville. The rabbis, Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel, were veterans, comrades in the Israeli army, and neighbors building a worship retreat house in the desert.
Abramowitz was alarmed by Charlottesville, Gimpel was already deep in Trump religion world even endorsing the idea that Trump was the modern day King Cyrus of Persia--the gentile king who allowed the exiled Jews to rebuild Jerusalem. The Trumpist evangelical world widely believes the King Cyrus story.
Abramowitz and Gimpel argued. That in itself was a vast improvement over American evangelicals who simply worshipped Trump.
The Land of Israel Network is politically conservative. I listened to all of the hosts and found them to be bright and interesting even if I disagreed with them on American politics.
The exception was Rav Mike Feuer and his weekly "The Jewish Story" podcast. I have listened to every episode of "The Jewish Story" and met with Rav Mike in Israel twice. He sees contemporary politics both in America and Israel differently than the other hosts.
By 2020, all of the hosts except Rav Mike had gone further into Trumpism. Eve Harow had leading election deniers on her podcast. By this year she had Gil Hoffman on her show. Hoffman was reporting from the Ukraine border for the Jerusalem Post. Harow voiced the "both sides" opinion of Tucker Carlson et al and Hoffman shut that down. "Ukraine was attacked. Putin is evil." he said.
Yishai Fleisher also moved further into the American far right. Last month he said Ben Shapiro should be the spokesperson for diaspora Jews. Wow! So Ben Shapiro would fill the space held by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. This is something akin to the descent from William F. Buckley to Rush Limbaugh.
And then in his most recent episode, Fleisher aired a recording of him praying at CPAC in Dallas and participating in a panel. CPAC 2022 began with a keynote address by Victor Orban. A few days before speaking at CPAC Orban addressed a gathering in Hungary and endorsed "Great Replacement Theory." Short of full-blown Naziism, you can't get much more anti-Semitic than Great Replacement Theory.
The week-long celebration of White Christian Nationalism that is CPAC began with Orban and ended with Trump--King Cyrus reborn.
So I wrote to Yishai asking how he could participate in CPAC. Here is what I wrote:
Yishai,Neil
His answer: Does Ukrainian Nazism worry you?
(This is the equivalent of blaming Antifa for January 6)
My response:
Yishai,Neil
His response: [crickets]
Apparently, two Jews three opinions applies even to Great Replacement Theory.
