Tucker Carlson and Gavin Newsom agree on almost nothing. One is the most prominent voice of MAGA anti-interventionism. The other is positioning himself as the standard-bearer of the post-Biden Democratic Party. They have spent years on opposite sides of nearly every political question that has defined this era.

And yet, this week, both men pointed the same finger — at the Jews.

The mechanism differed, but the accusation was identical.

Carlson named Chabad-Lubavitch as the hidden hand behind the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. He spelled it out for his audience — C-H-A-B-A-D — and accused the movement of engineering a religious war to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque and rebuild the Third Temple on its ruins. “Christians have a way of dying disproportionately in these wars,” he said, “which tells you something about their real motives.”

Newsom, on the other hand, was more careful with his words. On Pod Save America, when asked about Israeli influence on Trump’s decision to strike Iran, he said: “In so many ways, that influence in the context of the conversation of where Trump ultimately landed on this is pretty damn self-evident.” He paused — “I want to be careful here” — and kept going. He described Israel as appropriately characterized as an “apartheid state.” He implied that Jewish influence on American foreign policy was self-evident and required no further elaboration. He was right that it required no further elaboration. His audience understood the implication without it.

“I want to be careful here” is the linguistic equivalent of a dogwhistle with a plausible deniability warranty. It means: I know what I’m saying is wrong. I know you know what I’m saying is wrong. And I’m choosing........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)