New antisemitic theories surfaced this week after the outbreak of the Iran war, with far-right commentators blaming the conflict on the Chabad Hasidic movement, as a Jewish security group warned about potential threats.

The far-right media personality Tucker Carlson led his Wednesday show with baseless claims that the war’s aim was to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque and rebuild the Jewish temple.

The mosque is located on the Temple Mount, the site of the First and Second Temples, which were central to Judaism until both were destroyed in antiquity.

“There are key players involved in this war, the one happening tonight, who believe that what we’re seeing on our television screen and on Twitter will usher in a series of events that will begin with the destruction of the Dome of the Rock, Al Aqsa Mosque, and then the rebuilding of the Third Temple,” Carlson said.

“This has been going on a long time in public through, in part, the efforts of a group called Chabad,” he said.

“Chabad has been pushing in a pretty subtle way, unless you look carefully, for the reconstruction of the Third Temple,” Carlson said.

His evidence was a handful of patches worn by Israeli soldiers showing the temple that he claimed, without evidence, had come from Chabad.

Carlson framed the conflict as a “global religious war,” sparked by Jews and fought between Christians and Muslims.

“Christians have a way of dying disproportionately in these wars, which tells you something about their real motives,” he said.

The Chabad movement, based in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, is known for its warm outreach efforts to other Jews and is not a political organization.

Rabbi Yaacov Behrman, a Chabad community leader in Brooklyn, called Carlson’s claims a “dangerous blood libel.”

“Chabad’s focus is on encouraging mitzvos — good deeds — to bring more goodness into the world and hasten the coming of the Messiah, while living responsibly in the present,” Behrman said in a statement, adding that the patches depicting the temple were unrelated to Chabad.

“Reckless rhetoric like this is dangerous and irresponsible,” Behrman said.

Other Chabad community members mocked Carlson for the claims.

New location announced: pic.twitter.com/EgUD1vvRB3 — Levi Teldon (@AlamoRabbi) March 5, 2026

New location announced: pic.twitter.com/EgUD1vvRB3

— Levi Teldon (@AlamoRabbi)........

© The Times of Israel