Kanye West’s lopsided, anti-Semitic Infowars interview is ‘hateful incitement,’ says Israeli ambassador
Flattering remarks about Adolf Hitler and slanderous attacks on Jews made by Kanye West during a disturbing interview with Infowars’ Alex Jones have earned an unusually harsh condemnation from Michael Herzog, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. United States, which accused the world-renowned artist and fashion icon of “inciting hatred, which could lead to violence and the death of Jews in horrific incidents.”
West, who now goes by the mononym Ye, appeared on Infowars – the notorious website that made Jones the nation’s leading conspiracy theorist ‘Thursday morning, wearing a big coat and a black ski mask that hid his whole face.
The interview lasted three hours. Also in attendance was Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes. At one point, Laura Loomer — a far-right, pro-Trump figure who is Jewish and calls himself a “proud Islamophobe” — called on the show to speak out against “the scourge of cancel culture.”
In October, a Connecticut court found Jones liable for nearly $1 billion in damages for making false statements about the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, in which 20 children and seven adults, including the shooter, were killed. He often spread conspiracy theories based on long-standing anti-Semitic tropes.
However, even Jones sometimes seemed a little surprised by the vehemence with which West defended the genocidal Nazi leader responsible for World War II and the Holocaust. “Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler,” West said at one point.
This and other outlandish claims have earned strong condemnation from Jewish groups. “Yes Kanye, what Hitler brought to the table was genocide, racism and a world war that killed tens of millions of people and nearly destroyed our civilization,” said leaders of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an organization anti-bias named after the prominent post-war nazi hunter.
Earlier this fall, West was widely condemned for a series of anti-Semitic social media posts and interviews. But he and Fuentes were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner with former President Donald Trump, leading to accusations that the former president was normalizing anti-Semitism.
Former and future Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, said it was “misguided and wrong” of Trump — with whom he has been closely aligned — to hold court with Fuentes and West.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security published an updated bulletin on domestic extremists, who seem to be more emboldened. “Recent incidents have underscored the continuing threat to faith-based communities, including the Jewish community,” the memorandum warns.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, 2021 saw a record number of anti-Semitic incidents across the United States.
“At a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise, it is alarming that such vile rhetoric is being given a platform and legitimized,” Herzog, Israel’s ambassador, said in his statement. “No society can have room for such hateful ideas”, he later added, “no matter who expresses them”.
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