‘Despicable’: Vance slammed for saying anti-Zionism is not antisemitism while hosting Chanukah party

Vice President JD Vance wades into heated debate over antisemitism in the US, and whether hostility towards Israel is necessarily anti-Jewish bigotry.

By World Israel News Staff

Vice President JD Vance blamed mass immigration and multiculturalism for the rising level of antisemitism in the United States, while arguing that dislike of the Jewish state is not necessarily antisemitic.

In a series of posts to X, Vance weighed in on claims that the United States is becoming progressively more antisemitic, based on a Yale Youth poll which found that adults 22 and under are twice as likely as Americans in general to hold negative views of Jews.

Vance excoriated the study’s authors for not noting the major demographic shift in the United States, in particular the impact of mass migration.

“Mainstream journalism is just profoundly uninteresting and lame, consumed by its own pieties,” Vance wrote on Monday.

“To write an article about the ‘generational divide’ in anti-semitism without discussing the demographics of the various generations is mind boggling.”

The vice president went on to suggest that mass immigration and policies promoting multiculturalism, rather than assimilation, were responsible for the growing levels of antisemitism.

“We imported a lot of people with ethnic grievances prior generations didn’t have. We celebrated this as the fruits of multiculturalism. Now we’re super surprised that the people we imported with ethnic grievances still have those ethnic grievances.”

“The most significant single thing you could do to eliminate anti-semitism and any other kind of ethnic hatred is to support our efforts to lower immigration and promote assimilation. But these guys won’t do that, because they all lack curiosity and introspection.”

A day later, Vance responded to a user who wrote that “White conservative zoomers don’t really like Israel anymore, either.”

Vance wrote that disliking Israel was not necessarily antisemitic.

“I would say there’s a difference between not liking Israel (or disagreeing with a given Israeli policy) and anti-semitism.”

His comments drew sharply differing responses from across the political spectrum.

David Draiman, the Jewish front man for the heavy metal band Disturbed, took issue with Vance’s comments, and with their timing.

“You’re posting this while hosting a Hanukkah party…really? Respectfully sir…look at this from any Jewish person’s perspective, 90% of whom are Zionists and support the state of Israel, and tell me what you’d think?”

Hannah Grossman, an investigative reporter for Fox News and the center-right Manhattan Institute, expressed disgust with Vance’s posts.

“Despicable that as antisemitism rises, the vice president is attacking those shining a spotlight on it.”

Some users ripped Vance for his ties to far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson, while others celebrated the rise in antisemitism, claiming it reflected a “rejection” of Zionism and “white guilt.”

“You’re wrong in this one JD. Young White men are recognizing the brainwashing of their parents, rejecting Israel, rejection Zionism, rejecting White guilt,” wrote a user with the handle “RealWokeRight.”

White supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes responded to Vance’s post writing: “It’s okay to dislike Israel.”

Conservative activist James Lindsay argued that antisemites often hide under the claim they merely “disagree with” Israel while attempting to delegitimize the Jewish state’s existence.

“Making up mostly fake Israel policies to ‘disagree with’ so you can pretend you’re doing something responsible instead is definitely antisemitism, though.”