Wall Street Journal Condemns Heritage Foundation for Tolerating Antisemitic Rhetoric

By Newsmax Wires | Monday, 03 November 2025 09:11 PM EST
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board launched a fierce critique of the Heritage Foundation and its president, Kevin Roberts, accusing him of fostering antisemitism by defending right-wing figures who promote extremist ideologies. The editorial, titled “The New Right’s New Antisemites,” warned that antisemitic rhetoric is spreading rapidly, fueled by figures like Tucker Carlson and white nationalist Nick Fuentes—voices the paper described as being abetted by conservative establishment leaders.

The Journal focused on Roberts’ recent video defending Carlson after the former Fox News host invited Fuentes onto his podcast for a “chummy” discussion. Fuentes, a self-proclaimed admirer of Adolf Hitler, condemned “organized Jewry” and “Zionist Jews” as threats to America, echoing rhetoric linked to 20th-century extremism. The Simon Wiesenthal Center labeled Fuentes a “well-known white supremacist, anti-Semite, and Holocaust denier,” citing his claim that the Holocaust’s death toll of six million Jews was mathematically implausible. Fuentes also made inflammatory remarks, including saying, “I piss on your Talmud. Jews get the f out of America.”

Roberts defended Carlson, accusing a “venomous coalition” of seeking to “cancel” the pair. He stated, “I disagree with— and even abhor— things that Nick Fuentes says,” but argued against canceling him. The Journal dismissed this as a false equivalence, calling Roberts’ stance a failure of leadership that “joined in the Jew-baiting” by framing the controversy as a matter of “Christian freedom of conscience.”

The editorial condemned Roberts’ assertion that “Christians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemitic,” labeling it a “straw man” echoing left-wing defenses of anti-Israel protests. It warned that Roberts’ “no enemies to the right” philosophy risks endangering Republican prospects and national stability.

Jewish leaders condemned Roberts’ remarks, with Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America calling them “a disgrace to the conservative movement.” He demanded Heritage act to preserve its integrity, stating, “It is not ‘cancel culture’ to denounce hatred.” Internal Heritage tensions escalated as Ryan Neuhaus, Roberts’ chief of staff, was reassigned amid backlash.

The Journal drew parallels to William F. Buckley Jr., who expelled the John Birch Society in the 1960s to protect conservatism’s credibility. It warned that Roberts’ failure to confront antisemitism threatens the entire conservative movement, with Jewish commentators warning that “the right’s refusal to enforce moral boundaries has become its Achilles’ heel.”

Calls for Roberts’ resignation intensified as Jewish advocacy groups urged Heritage’s board to remove him, stating, “The Heritage Foundation must choose whether it stands with America’s founding values—or with those who admire Adolf Hitler.” The Journal concluded, “If conservatives don’t call out this poison in their own ranks, the right and America are entering dangerous territory.”