There’s a growing firestorm of criticism aimed at Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA following Tucker Carlson’s controversial remarks at the organization’s recent Student Action Summit (SAS).
The viral clips of Carlson’s anti-Israel rant, including a bizarre attack on billionaire Bill Ackman, have led to criticism of Kirk and his organization, calling them out for platforming messaging toxic to Jews and Israel.
As someone who knows Charlie personally and has been intimately involved in the America First/MAGA movement for years, let me be clear: These attacks on Charlie Kirk are not only misguided; they’re self-defeating and divorced from the political reality we’re actually facing.
To anyone in the MAGA movement, the charge that Charlie Kirk is an antisemite is laughable. In fact, Charlie is often attacked for being too pro-Israel. As hundreds of clips of him passionately defending Israel will testify, he has been one of the strongest voices on the American Right pushing back against the rising tide of antisemitism among young conservatives.
Anyone accusing him of antisemitism is not only ill-informed; they’re projecting a distorted perspective that is unfamiliar with the volatile generational and political tensions at play.
There’s a political shift happening among young conservatives, especially among Gen Z, something many of Charlie’s older critics simply don’t understand. One of the most sensitive touchpoints for this generation is the issue of the silencing of unacceptable viewpoints.
Were Charlie to invoke a pro-Israel purity test for his speakers, he would lose his audience fast. Where to draw the line is a question that is difficult to answer, and I don’t envy Charlie. But the pro-Israel community needs to understand the sensitivities in the younger America First movement if we have any chance of winning them back.
To those who were shocked by hearing anti-Israel rhetoric laced with conspiratorial anti-Jewish overtones at the SAS, I understand your reaction. However, for many in Charlie’s audience, this worldview is not new. It has been building since October 7 and before, gaining traction on social media, podcasts, and YouTube channels.
Simply put, the stark truth is that public opinion on Israel among young American conservatives is trending in a troubling direction. It is equally true that if not for Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA, the problem would be far worse.
Charlie addresses antisemitism head-on
Charlie doesn’t run from the hard conversations. He lets the debate happen and then steps in to clarify. Take his words during the Israel debate between Josh Hammer and Dave Smith on the SAS stage, a day after Tucker Carlson’s appearance. Charlie looked his young audience in the eye and said:
“There’s this dark Jew hate out there, and you see it, and I see it. I hate it. It’s not good. And everyone in this audience, guys, don’t get yourself involved in that. I’m telling you, it will rot your brain. It’s bad for your soul. It’s bad. It’s evil. I think it’s demonic.”
Those are not the words of an antisemite. Those are the words of a man taking a moral stand, pushing back against a real and growing darkness. They are only powerful because they come from someone who is on the field of battle, someone with the credibility, courage, and cultural fluency to be heard by an audience others have already lost.
Charlie doesn’t stand alone. On that same stage was Hammer – a proud, observant Jew and one of the strongest pro-Israel voices in American media. Also speaking at the SAS was Michele Bachmann, perhaps the most pro-Israel political figure in modern American history. These weren’t token gestures; they were featured voices at one of the most important conservative gatherings of the year.
So, why the outrage?
It stems from a misunderstanding – especially among older, more traditional segments of the pro-Israel community – about what it takes to reach young people today. The MAGA coalition is broad, fragile, and filled with ideological crosscurrents. It is true, no doubt, that some genuine antisemites are trying to hijack the narrative. But few are fighting harder to stop them than Charlie Kirk.
Charlie understands Gen Z better than almost anyone on the Right. He has spent years touring college campuses, taking thousands of questions from students, often under hostile conditions. And, as I mentioned above, he’s frequently attacked by young conservatives for being too pro-Israel.
The underlying tension here is part of a broader ideological shift. Many young Americans who are suffering under the weight of inflation, endless wars, and political corruption are rightly skeptical of foreign entanglements.
A BIG part of the problem is the perceived binary by this community between “neocon” interventionism – the policies that led to decades of never-ending wars and the loss of thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars – on the one hand, and hyper-isolationism that sees every foreign conflict as irrelevant to American interests. They see US foreign aid through a lens of betrayal and waste, not loyalty or strategy. That includes aid to Israel.
This doesn’t mean they hate Jews or oppose Israel. It means they want a new paradigm. As conservative thinker Yoram Hazony recently argued in The Free Press, US President Donald Trump’s Middle East policy offers just that: empowering allies like Israel to handle threats in their region with American support, not American troops. This “third way” is exactly the position Josh Hammer laid out on the TPUSA stage.
Israel’s place in American politics is changing. That’s not a threat; it’s an opportunity. I have argued before that phasing out US military aid would ultimately strengthen Israel’s independence. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said as much. Yet, to navigate this change successfully, we need allies who can speak to young Americans in their own language. That’s what Charlie Kirk is doing.
This isn’t about political purity tests. The pro-Israel movement cannot afford to demand absolute ideological conformity. That kind of gatekeeping is not only unrealistic; it’s self-defeating. If we treat every deviation from our talking points as antisemitism, we’ll end up alienating our best advocates and find ourselves talking only to ourselves from the stands, while everyone still on the field has long left us behind.
Charlie Kirk is not the enemy. He is one of the few voices with the reach, credibility, and courage to make the case for Israel in a skeptical, cynical, and disillusioned generation. The Jewish people has no better friend in the conservative movement today.
Instead of canceling him, we should be thanking him.
The writer is director of Israel365action.com and cohost of the Shoulder to Shoulder podcast.