MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
For decades, Israel has enjoyed strong support from American conservatives. Now some prominent influencers on the political right are questioning that support. NPR's Geoff Brumfiel has more on what's driving the change and what it could mean.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: Red-state America has been a fan of Israel. Just ask Jackson Lahmeyer, an evangelical pastor in Oklahoma.
JACKSON LAHMEYER: In the past, everyone that was in our Christian conservative circles, you just assumed everybody supported Israel.
BRUMFIEL: That evangelical support is deeply rooted in faith, he says, but recently, Lahmeyer has noticed the conversation is changing quite a bit, particularly online.
LAHMEYER: Some very influential leaders, all of whom I like - Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Marjorie Taylor Greene - have taken a very controversial stance in regards to the nation of Israel that has actually been more of a Democratic Party platform item.
BRUMFIEL: Like in August, when Tucker Carlson interviewed a nun from the West Bank about the suffering of Palestinian Christians. Carlson said he wanted to raise awareness among Americans.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "THE TUCKER CARLSON SHOW")
TUCKER CARLSON: Israel couldn't exist without the United States, and it has the support of so many Christians in the United States. And I don't know if they're fully aware. I think they would care if they knew.
BRUMFIEL: The war in Gaza has prompted other prominent Republicans like Steve Bannon to raise criticisms of Israel. Curt Mills is editor of The American Conservative magazine. He says many of these personalities never supported Israel, and they sense now is the moment to speak up.
CURT MILLS: Tucker and Bannon are political operators and, in a lot of ways, true believers. But they are also very effective businessmen, and they would not be doing these programs if nobody gave a hoot. There's an audience for this. People are frustrated, people are angry, and they have reason to be.
BRUMFIEL: That frustration is about more than just suffering in Gaza, Mills says. Many conservatives want America to avoid becoming entangled in new wars, particularly in the Middle East, and they worry the Trump administration is allowing Israel to drive military decisions like America's attack on Iran earlier this year.
MILLS: They are using Donald Trump's presidency like a rented car - the Israelis, the Israel lobby, the Netanyahu government, the neoconservatives in his ranks.
BRUMFIEL: So outrage over the war in Gaza and the America First agenda are driving some of this conservative opposition to Israel, but there's something else - antisemitic conspiracies. Take, for example, this comment podcaster Candace Owens made about a recent meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a group of U.S. social media influencers.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "CANDACE")
CANDACE OWENS: Two years ago, the mere idea that you might share a perspective that Jews are controlling the media, that would be considered antisemitic. You would be called a Jew-hater. Fast forward to 2025, and Bibi Netanyahu is now hosting an on-camera meeting.
BRUMFIEL: The idea that Jews control the media is a long-held antisemitic trope. Owens has made other antisemitic remarks in the past, though she has repeatedly said that she does not hate Jewish people. And just last week, Tucker Carlson hosted Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who has called Hitler awesome.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "THE TUCKER CARLSON SHOW")
CARLSON: I'm going to just shut up, and you tell me what you actually believe.
NICK FUENTES: Yeah...
BRUMFIEL: Fuentes went on to make numerous antisemitic statements, including that he believed Jews were more faithful to Israel than the countries they were born in and that Jewish people prevent America from unifying around a common vision for itself.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "THE TUCKER CARLSON SHOW")
FUENTES: The main challenge to that, a big challenge to that, is organized Jewry in America.
BRUMFIEL: Carlson's interview with Fuentes sparked a firestorm on the right. Some Republicans blasted him for giving Fuentes a platform, while others, like the president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, supported Carlson's right to have an open dialogue. Why is this happening now? Shibley Telhami is a scholar at the University of Maryland who tracks public opinion about Israel.
SHIBLEY TELHAMI: Among Republicans, there's still support for Israel. That is really the core support for Israel right now. But what we've seen is really a shift.
BRUMFIEL: He says the Gaza war has damaged Israel's image, particularly with young conservatives. A Pew poll this spring found the number of Republicans under 50 with an unfavorable view of Israel has jumped 15 points since 2022. Telhami's own work shows that only 24% of young Republicans sympathize with Israel in the current conflict. And separate polling has also showed that younger conservatives are more likely to agree with antisemitic statements than other groups. Put it all together and, he says, influencers are free to speak up.
TELHAMI: These people who are critics of Israel on the right feel more empowered because they now see that even public opinion is on their side among the young generation of Republicans.
BRUMFIEL: It remains to be seen what this actually means for America's relationship with Israel. American Ambassador Mike Huckabee is a devout evangelical Christian, and the Trump administration continues to be broadly supportive.
TELHAMI: The question, of course, is whether the shift in public opinion in and of itself would lead to a shift in policy, and that's not a straightforward line.
BRUMFIEL: But it is clear that, on the American right, support for Israel is no longer the given it once was. Geoff Brumfiel, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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