A storm is brewing in the conservative movement as Morton A. Klein, president of the influential Zionist Organization of America, issued a blistering rebuke of the Heritage Foundation’s continued support for former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
In a sharply worded opinion piece published this week by Jewish News Syndicate, Klein accused Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts of whitewashing and allying with “Jew-hating, Israel-basher Tucker Carlson” and warned that the ZOA would sever all ties with Heritage if the organization refuses to distance itself from Carlson.
For decades, the Heritage Foundation has been one of the leading intellectual bastions of American conservatism — staunchly defending the U.S.-Israel alliance and opposing antisemitism. The ZOA had long partnered with Heritage on “Project Esther,” a collaborative effort to combat antisemitism and promote pro-Israel education.
But according to Klein, that legacy is now in grave danger.
He said Heritage’s leadership under Roberts has abandoned moral clarity by defending Carlson, despite the commentator’s appalling record of promoting antisemitic voices and conspiracy theorists.
Klein’s warning represents one of the most dramatic ruptures between mainstream pro-Israel conservatives and Heritage, signaling what could become a defining schism over antisemitism within the conservative movement.
In his JNS opinion piece, Klein noted Carlson’s interviews with Holocaust denier and white nationalist Nick Fuentes; historian Darryl Cooper, who has downplayed Nazi atrocities; the Rev. Munther Isaac, a Palestinian activist accused of anti-Israel propaganda; and Cornell professor Dave Collum, who once suggested that the U.S. “should have sided with Hitler.”
Klein described these appearances as echoes of “Nazi propaganda” and said the lies spread on Carlson’s platform are “reminiscent of that same Nazi propaganda” that laid the groundwork for the Holocaust.
“As the child of Holocaust survivors who lost most of my family in the Shoah, I was taught by my parents that the foundations for the Holocaust began with extraordinary and frightening propaganda lies against the Jews,” Klein wrote.
Carlson’s guests are spreading those very lies again, he said, and Heritage’s defense of him makes it complicit.
Roberts recently appeared in a video declaring that Carlson “will always be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation.”
Roberts also criticized those condemning Carlson as part of a “venomous coalition” and a “globalist class” of “bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda” — language that Klein said invoked dangerous, centuries-old antisemitic tropes about Jewish “dual loyalty.”
Although Roberts later posted a statement condemning Fuentes’ antisemitism, he has not retracted his praise of Carlson. That, according to Klein, is not good enough.
“Sickeningly, Roberts opposed ‘canceling’ Nick Fuentes, a neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier, even though refusing to give neo-Nazis platforms is simply basic morality,” Klein wrote.
He warned that unless Roberts publicly apologizes and ends Heritage’s association with Carlson, “then the ZOA will have no choice but to cut ties with Heritage, including its participation in Project Esther.”
The controversy already has prompted a ripple effect.
Several prominent Jewish leaders and organizations — reportedly including the Israel Innovation Fund, the Coalition for Jewish Values, Young Jewish Conservatives, the Combat Antisemitism Movement, and the National Jewish Advocacy Center — have quietly withdrawn from Heritage’s antisemitism task force.
Klein also condemned Carlson’s own rhetoric about Jews and Israel. Carlson recently called Christian Zionists “heretics” infected with a “brain virus,” remarks that drew condemnation across the religious right.
He has accused prominent Jewish conservatives like Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro of being “Israel-firsters” who “endanger American soldiers” to protect Israel — comments Klein said were straight from the antisemite’s playbook.
Carlson has downplayed threats from Iran, labeling calls to stop Tehran’s nuclear program “warmongering.” Klein responded that such statements embolden America’s enemies and betray conservative principles.
In one of the opinion piece’s most searing passages, Klein invoked his family’s experience during the Holocaust: “As president of the ZOA and a child of Holocaust survivors, I vowed to combat Jew-hatred everywhere it emerges. Sadly, Jew-hatred and hatred of the Jewish state have emerged with Carlson and, by association, Heritage’s alliance with Carlson.”
Klein said his challenge to Heritage represents more than a policy disagreement — it’s a moral test.
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