The top podcaster has hosted Candace Owens, who’s accused Israel of ‘being run by murderous psychopaths’
Comedian and podcaster Theo Von invoked claims that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is like the “new Hitler,” echoing statements from Turkish president and Hamas supporter Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nicaragua’s socialist dictator, Daniel Ortega.
“I think that I don’t like this stuff with Gaza and the Middle East. I don’t understand why we give so much money to Israel. Like, you know, every—a lot of the big countries are against them right now, that think Netanyahu is like the new Hitler or that Netanyahu is the worst. So I don’t understand that relationship,” Von said Wednesday on his podcast, This Past Weekend.
It is unclear exactly which “big countries” Von was referring to, but the leaders of both Turkey and Nicaragua have criticized Israel over its war in Gaza, comparing its prime minister to former German führer Adolf Hitler. Erdoğan, the Turkish authoritarian, has repeatedly gone on anti-Semitic rants, including in 2021 when he declared Israelis are “murderers” who “kill children” and are “sucking their blood.” He compared Netanyahu to Hitler during September’s U.N. General Assembly. Nicaraguan co-presidents, Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, broke relations with Israel over its war in Gaza in October, citing its “fascist and genocidal” government.
“The Israeli government is headed by a prime minister who is the son of the devil. Why? Because he is pursuing a policy of terror and he is Hitler,” Ortega said in October.
Von’s podcast consistently sits at the top of the comedy charts, ranking number three and four on Spotify and Apple, respectively, as of Thursday morning.
This wasn’t the first time Von pushed anti-Israel sentiments. In an episode posted in June, the comedian addressed the possibility Israel was “trying to get us into a war with Iran.”
“I don’t trust the Israel leader at all,” Von said. “I don’t believe anything that guy says, and I don’t think that our soldiers should have to go and defend stuff that they start.”
“I don’t know why we support them. I don’t understand that,” he continued.
Von has interviewed other vociferous critics of the Jewish state, and his comments are part of an anti-Semitic turn in the right-wing podcast universe. In March, Von interviewed Candace Owens, an anti-Semitic influencer who has accused Israel of “being run by murderous psychopaths who blackmail and control American politicians.” She also said “political Jews” and a “very small ring of specific people … are using the fact that they are Jewish to shield themselves from any criticism.”
With Von, the former Daily Wire commentator argued Israel harbors American pedophiles.
“People who have molested children in America, if they’re Jewish, they can then make their trip to Israel and be protected by the government,” Owens said.
In October 2023, Von featured Tucker Carlson, who discussed topics like sobriety, nicotine, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s popularity. Carlson has used his own platform to deride America’s involvement with Israel. Carlson has suggested Israel’s war in Gaza has disproportionately harmed Christians.
At a Turning Point USA conference last month, Carlson implied Jeffrey Epstein was working on behalf of the Mossad and blackmailing Americans.
“The real question is not ‘Was Jeffrey Epstein a weirdo who was abusing girls?’ The real question is why was he doing this, on whose behalf, and where did the money come from,” Carlson said.
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