My father was a famous evangelical leader and theologian by the name of Francis Schaeffer. But something neither my dad nor I could have imagined in the 1970s and 80s—when I was his nepotistic sidekick, along with Dr. C. Everett Koop spearheading the so-called evangelical pro-life movement—is what we’re seeing now in 2025: a merger of left-wing and right-wing antisemitism.
Yes, it’s happened. The 1920s are back.
But this time, it’s not Henry Ford. It’s not Father Coughlin. It’s not Lindbergh. It’s Tucker Carlson. It’s the right-wing lie machine claiming Jews are responsible for Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and cover-up, with conspiracies involving Mossad or Israeli intelligence. And on the left, much of the protest against Israel’s abuses in Palestine has taken a dark, antisemitic turn—despite being led in part by Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims who have opposed Israel since 1948.
What’s so strange is to see Tucker Carlson now sounding like the Grand Mufti of the Ottoman era, recycling antisemitic lies that stretch back thousands of years. Lies that go back to the Roman Empire, when Jews were exiled from Israel, made stateless.
Let me be clear: Whatever your views of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, the war with Hamas, or the slaughter of Palestinians—whatever your views of Israel as a nation-state—none of that justifies the rise of antisemitic rhetoric we’re seeing in America today.
After the Holocaust, even with the horrors fully documented, the U.S. State Department still quashed cases against SS officers. The antisemitic current in America has always run deep—on the far left and far right. From Communist sympathizers who covered up Stalin’s atrocities, to Nazi sympathizers like Coughlin and Lindbergh who tried to keep America out of World War II.
Now, once again, Tucker Carlson is spreading lies, this time about Jews funding Epstein. And he does it from a stage at Turning Point USA, a supposed “Christian” conservative event—without a single protest. No one called him out.
We are now on the cusp of a historical repeat: left and right uniting under the banner of blaming the Jews. Just like they did in the 1920s and 30s. It’s the old blood libel all over again—like in medieval England, where Jews were blamed for the murder of a child, sparking a wave of persecution and eventual expulsion.
Even the Christian Zionist movement carries antisemitic undertones. Reverend Hagee and his followers support Israel not for the sake of Jews, but to fulfill an apocalyptic prophecy—one that ends in slaughter for any Jews who don’t convert.
And Donald Trump? He’s not pro-Israel. He’s not pro-life. He’s pro-himself. He’ll go wherever the wind blows. If the crowd wants antisemitism, he’ll serve it.
What Tucker Carlson did—spreading a baseless claim that Epstein was a Mossad agent—is not just a conspiracy theory. It’s evil. Just like the lies that caused children to die of measles again. Just like the lies that led to polio cases like mine, when I wasn’t vaccinated.
These lies have consequences.
Tucker Carlson parroting the talking points of Islamic extremists and left-wing radicals alike—this is not accidental. It’s a convergence of hatred. And the target is the same: the Jews.
Whether it’s New York politicians backing away from pro-Palestinian slogans to protect their vote, or right-wing pundits borrowing the antisemitic rhetoric of Islamists, the message is merging. Not just anti-Israel. Anti-Jewish.
Jews are being shot in the streets again. Are we going to sit back and wait for it to become normalized?
If you don’t stand up now—if you don’t speak out when conspiracy theories tie Jews to Epstein, to evil, to lies—you will bear responsibility for the terror that follows.
This is not just stupid. This is historic, dangerous hatred.
Whatever your politics, if you don’t denounce the antisemitic conspiracy theories being spread today—from left and right alike—you are part of the problem.
