The New, Unspoken Sources of Antisemitism

The New, Unspoken Sources of Antisemitism

Antisemitism has existed since before the birth of Jesus, but it has always had various levels of emotion, motivation, and hatred behind it. It has also been shaped by the prevailing events and cultures in which it emerged.

In the current version of antisemitism, the prevailing driver is the injustice and violence done to Palestinians, and their pursuit of founding an independent nation. At the same time, the other main source is Israel’s conduct in the wars in Gaza and the West Bank, and its apparent indiscriminate killing of civilians and the destruction of entire neighborhoods.

The news stories consistently cover these as the dominant themes behind the rise in antisemitic attacks worldwide.

But there are also other sources that are not making the news. These are the most uncomfortable ones and most difficult to address. These people and groups go unmentioned by the nation’s largest Jewish groups who are fighting antisemitism, but the following are sources that do not have any remedies.

The existence of these people and groups is a byproduct of the internal political turmoil in Israel, Netanyahu’s government policies, and the rise of domestic Jewish right-wing support for Trump.

These are ahistorical and difficult to explain since many of the groups and people listed below are not Jewish religious extremists or even very observant. Their motivations stem from the need to preserve their tax-advantaged status, advance their own business agendas, and preserve the benefits they derive from unregulated capitalism. Their support of Israel and the need to fight antisemitism is a common theme.

What makes this period historic is that these domestic groups are all being whiplashed by Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank, and its intransigence in bringing thug Israeli settlers under control.

Netanyahu has made Israel a pariah nation, which has fueled the bulk of antisemitic attacks. His actions have also conflated the once quiet debate about the differences between To make the situation more complicated, today there is anti-Zionism, anti-Netanyahu, and anti-Semitism all being mixed in a flurry of rhetoric, hysteria, and panic that most major Jewish groups cannot, or don’t want to, untangle.

For example, in Israel and among many American Jews, there is a strong anti-Netanyahu sentiment. Among Arabs and their sympathizers who call for a Palestinian state, there is anti-Zionism and anti-Netanyahu sentiment. And among the hard-core, there is the old anti-Semitism.

This situation is very complicated, but the national Jewish groups–B’nai Brith, ADL, AISH–that fight anti-Semitism have not adapted their strategy and messages for this new reality. Instead, they keep using the umbrella “Antisemitism” message since it has raised hundreds of millions for their respective groups. But this is a losing strategy in 2026.

What follows is a list of people and groups that are contributing to the unspoken forces driving antisemitism.

Wealthy Jewish Businessmen in Trump’s Inner Circle

It is the dominance of a very visible number of wealthy Jewish businessmen, lobbying groups, and political leaders who are overwhelmingly associated with the Trump administration and its very unpopular policies and actions.

These wealthy businessmen and people inside the Trump administration have all caved in to the Trump administration and have been Trump’s largest financial supporters and policy implementers.

This list includes the wealthiest men and women in the world—Larry Ellison, Sergei Brin, Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer, Michael Bloomberg, Larry Page, Miriam Adelson, and Sergei Brin—many of whom (with the exception of Ballmer and Bloomberg) have essentially become Trump’s “Court Jews,” a term from medieval Europe where Jewish men served as the king’s financiers and bankers.

Then, there is the growing awareness that the AI revolution, which is controversial and considered part of the new techno-fascism movement, is being run by AI firms that are owned/managed by Jewish technologists.

This includes Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg), Google (Sergey Brin and Larry Page), Palantir (Alex Karp), Oracle (Safra Katz, Gal Tirosh, Larry Ellison), crypto (David Sacks), Shift4Payments (Jared Isaacman), and OpenAI (Sam Altman).

Inside Trump’s administration, Jews have also become top policymakers and emissaries for Trump’s agenda, including the very unpopular anti-immigrant policies and international negotiations in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Ukraine. Many of these emissaries have been investigated for conflicts of interest that mix U.S. diplomatic cover with personal business deals.

The best-known include Jared Kushner, Steve Witcoff, and Trump’s Chief of Staff, Steven Miller, possibly the most hated person in the U.S.

AIPAC and the Republican Jewish Coalition

Other Jewish partisan political groups have also taken an outspoken and very visible role in supporting Trump’s policies and have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s two presidential campaigns.

AIPAC (the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) has contributed to Trump and worked to defeat any political candidate who has not shown sufficient, unquestioned fealty to Israel. AIPAC has spent money to defeat Muslim candidates who support a Palestinian state or have criticized Israel, as well as Liberal Jewish candidates who have criticized Israel’s war policies or the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While originally formed as a non-partisan political lobbying group, AIPAC became a Trump front in 2016 when then-candidate Donald Trump spoke at AIPAC’s Policy Conference and said Barack Obama may be the worst thing that ever happened to Israel.

Soon, AIPAC was taken over by a right-wing faction funded by Miriam and the late Sheldon Adelson. Together, the Adelsons contributed about $355 million to Trump's two presidential campaigns in exchange for his solid support under all conditions for Israel.

Backing Republican conservative candidates is nothing new for the Adelsons. In 2012, Sheldon Adelson donated $150 million to block the election of “socialist” and “anti-Israel” candidate Barack Obama. He also backed Newt Gingrich for president in 2012.

Today, AIPAC’s heavy-handed public positions of the pro-Trump AIPAC have become so visibly associated with the right-wing government in Israel and Trump’s unpopular international and domestic policies that it is regarded as one of the most odious lobbying groups in Washington.

This is a dramatic shift from its operations before it abandoned its bipartisan stance to become a Trump front. At that time, before it was taken over by a pro-Netanyahu faction, it was considered one of the most effective pro-Israel lobbying groups in Washington.

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) has also assumed an outsized role in supporting Trump’s policies under the guise of advancing Congressional support for Israel.

However, the RJC has also undertaken an embarrassing and anti-historical position of trying to convince American Jews to switch parties and become Republicans. According to their view, Republicans have a better record of fighting antisemitism and will somehow represent Jews better than the Democratic Party.

This is the height of historical revisionism.

The RJC’s fascination with Republican candidates, most of whom think Biden stole the 2020 election, is a foray into a fantasyland where they are trying to convince American Jews, 80% of them Democrats, that the Republican Party of 2024 is better for American Jews.

In reality, the Republican Party is 68% white and Christian, and its former House speaker, Mike Johnson, is an avowed Christian nationalist who is “an election-denying evangelical Christian who favors a national abortion ban, Bible courses in public schools, and ‘covenant marriage,’ and who believes that L.G.B.T.Q. people are living an ‘inherently unnatural’ and ‘dangerous lifestyle’ elevated to the speakership,” according to an excellent article in the New York Times by Thomas Edsall.

But that is not the story told by the extreme RJC. They insist Republicans, including the Christian nations, are suitable for Jews. Not only is this a historical lie, but it’s also blind to the fact that American Jews overwhelmingly support liberal causes—abortion, equal rights for women and gays, fair taxation, equal access to voting rights, environmentalism, non-discrimination, immigrant rights, a smaller military budget, a robust social safety net, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

All of these programs and causes favored by 80% of American Jews are opposed by all the Republican candidates. These are the same Republican candidates who get a rousing welcome from the misguided RJC.

The RJC also cannot tell the difference between Christian evangelicals who like Israel and Jews and the Evangelicals who like Israel but don’t like Jews.

The Jeffrey Epstein Shanda

Perhaps no criminal in modern American history is as infamous as the sex offender and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

His crimes and his legacy, which are still largely unknown, will take years to emerge. But his Jewish background and the fact that many of his associates and business partners were Jewish (Leon Black, Larry Summers, Les Wexner) have made him internationally reviled.

His wealth, and the fact that he went unpunished for years, largely because he was wealthy, has created the term “the Epstein Class” to describe how wealthy men escape prosecution for sex crimes.

Can the Problem Be Corrected?

Disgraceful behavior of Jews in the Jewish community is not new. The Shanda stigma enforces Jewish community standards and builds cohesion among those who want to be part of a community that does good and brings people together.

But this is a problem when the Jewish community is broader than at any time in history in terms of observance, intermarriage, affiliation to Israel, adherence to practices and customs, and levels of basic Jewish knowledge and history.

The Shanda list includes Jews who are divisive, criminal, predatory, and an embarrassment. Yes, these people exist. They are also a source of anti-Semitism that is less visible than the Proud Boys, social media sensationalists, and Christian nationalists. It’s time for Jewish groups to expand their search for the causes of anti-Semitism.

Maybe they should adopt the old saying from the cartoon character Snoopy: “We have met the enemy, and it is us.”