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<\/a><\/p>\nYoram Hazony speaks at the National Conservative convention in Washington D.C., Sept. 2, 2025. (Dominic Gwinn \/ Middle East Images via AFP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Arfa, who served until last month as a spokesperson for Hazony, responded Thursday with a deeply personal essay in Tablet magazine titled \u201cYoram Hazony\u2019s 15 Minutes.\u201d She wrote about her departure after four years from the Edmund Burke Foundation, the organization Hazony founded that is an institutional hub of the national conservatism movement. In her essay, she accused Hazony of erasing work she and others did under his leadership and of publicly faulting Jewish institutions for failures she says he knowingly helped create.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have known and admired Yoram for many years,\u201d Arfa wrote, praising his scholarship and describing his 2015 book on the Book of Esther as one of the most influential works in her intellectual life. \u201cIt\u2019s with a heavy heart, then, that I feel compelled to set the record straight.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Israeli conservative intellectual, Hazony is one of the architects of national conservatism, arguing for a politics grounded in nationalism, religion and tradition. His ideas have gained influence among Republican politicians, donors and movement strategists, particularly within the wing of the party associated with figures like Vice President JD Vance.<\/p>\n
Hazony\u2019s influence has placed him at the center of a growing dispute on the Jewish right, as the movement he helped shape confronts allegations of antisemitism in its orbit. Hazony has declined requests for an interview from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in recent months.<\/p>\n
Because of Hazony\u2019s prominence, Arfa\u2019s break with him has resonated well beyond their personal history, highlighting a broader debate among Jewish conservatives over how to confront antisemitism when it comes not from political opponents, but from figures embedded in the American right.<\/p>\n
That debate was thrust into the open after Hazony\u2019s keynote speech earlier this week at the Second International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem, where he forcefully condemned antisemitic rhetoric aired on the program of conservative media figure Tucker Carlson. Hazony described Carlson\u2019s show as a \u201ccircus of aggressive anti-Jewish propaganda,\u201d listing familiar antisemitic tropes aired by guests.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese aren\u2019t normal political messages, disagreeing with other members of the Trump coalition on legitimate policy issues,\u201d Hazony said. \u201cThey\u2019re abusive, wild slanders, and their repeated appearance on Tucker\u2019s show has persuaded almost every Jew I know that the program\u2019s purpose is to drive Jews\u2014along with tens of millions of Zionist Christians\u2014out of the Trump coalition and out of the Republican party.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, Hazony argued that Jewish and Christian Zionist activists had failed to persuade Republican leaders to distance themselves from Carlson \u2014 not because Carlson was too powerful, but because critics had not presented their case professionally. He mocked the absence of a concise, evidence-based \u201c15-minute explainer video\u201d that could persuade conservatives unfamiliar with Carlson\u2019s program, calling this a sign of \u201cextreme incompetence\u201d by what he labeled the \u201cantisemitism-industrial complex.\u201d<\/p>\n
That claim became the focal point of Arfa\u2019s response.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth, as Yoram well knows, is that there is such a video,\u201d she wrote. According to Arfa, she and other Edmund Burke Foundation staff members worked with Hazony to produce exactly such an explainer \u2014 a 14-minute, 57-second compilation of examples of antisemitic rhetoric aired on Carlson\u2019s program.<\/p>\n
Hazony, she said, chose not to make it public.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kept it unlisted in an obscure account,\u201d Arfa wrote, adding that she was \u201cflabbergasted\u201d to hear Hazony publicly insist no such work existed. \u201cIt saddens me that he would diminish the work of his dedicated employees by erasing our efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Hazony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The dispute over Hazony\u2019s speech has become a proxy for a larger argument about responsibility and strategy. Hazony is urging Jews to focus on building alliances with what he describes as the dominant nationalist wing of the Republican Party, arguing that moralistic confrontations risk alienating potential allies and entrenching antisemitism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat would you find if you actually invested the time and effort, and opened those doors?\u201d Hazony said in his speech. \u201cMostly, you\u2019d discover that nationalist Republicans are not anti-Semites. That they are strongly committed to having Jews in their coalition. That they would like to have closer relations with the Jewish community. That many of them see Israel as an inspiration and wish America were more like Israel. In short, you\u2019d discover that most of them are potential friends and allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Critics counter that this approach shifts responsibility away from political leaders who tolerate antisemitism. Several commentators on the right have argued that treating antisemitism as a communications problem, rather than a moral red line, risks normalizing it.<\/p>\n
Tablet, where Arfa\u2019s essay was published, issued an unusually scathing response on social media, accusing Hazony of effectively blaming Jews for their own marginalization. <\/p>\n
In a post on X directly responding to a Hazony, Tablet wrote, \u201cTucker Carlson could goose-step down Pennsylvania Avenue butt-naked with a swastika carved into his forehead and it would be the fault of \u2018the anti-semitism industrial complex\u2019 for not making the case \u2018clear enough\u2019 to \u2018Republican nationalists.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Tablet\u2019s post added, \u201cThe fault doesn\u2019t lie with the Jews for being targeted by political arsonists. It lies with those people themselves, and with those who have given them political and intellectual cover, yourself included.\u201d<\/p>\n
The post went on to accuse Hazony of importing European-style ethnonationalist ideas into an American context defined by constitutional liberalism and religious pluralism, warning that such thinking risked alienating both Jews and the broader electorate.<\/p>\n
Others focused less on ideology than on political accountability. Max Abrahms, a political scientist who studies extremism and political violence, argued that Hazony\u2019s framing functioned as a defense of powerful allies who have declined to distance themselves from Carlson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI interpret this as a defense for your political allies, especially J.D. Vance and Kevin Roberts who won\u2019t ditch Tucker,\u201d Abrahms wrote. <\/p>\n
A broader critique came from Saul Sadka, a conservative writer and analyst, who accused Hazony of minimizing antisemitism in service of what he considered a marginal political project. Writing on X, Sadka argued that Hazony mischaracterized the Republican Party, overstated the influence of nationalist conservatives, and pressured Jews to align themselves with forces that, he said, are both electorally weak and tolerant of antisemitic rhetoric.<\/p>\n
For her part, Arfa,wrote in Tablet that she\u2019d prefer to stay out of the conversation now that\u2019s stopped working for Hazony. Her focus is on studying to become a rabbi at the Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam, Germany, a seminary affiliated with Reform and liberal Judaism.<\/p>\n