Candace Owens and the media war Israel has sparked among US conservatives

American conservative political commentator Candace Owens has been making headlines after leaving The Daily Wire, a media outlet co-founded by conservative media personality Ben Shapiro and film director Jeremy Boreing, after heavily criticising Israel's conduct during the war in Gaza. 

“The rumours are true - I am finally free," Owens wrote on X. 

Owen's rise to prominence came primarily from her pro-Trump commentary in 2017, earning her a reputation as the "new face of black conservatism", as well as her critiques of the Black Lives Matter movement, identity politics, cancel culture and structural racism - among other topics that dot the culture wars.

Recently she has been a vocal critic of Israel and characterised its actions in the war on Gaza as genocide, but the founders of the media outlet she worked for are unabashedly pro-Israel.

Last November, Owens tweeted about the war in Gaza saying, "No government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide, ever. There is no justification for a genocide. I can’t believe this even needs to be said or is even considered the least bit controversial to state.”

Shapiro later posted a video saying Owens' opinions on Gaza were "disgraceful". 

Owens posted on X a quotation from the New Testament, beginning with, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven... You cannot serve both God and money."

Shapiro responded to that and wrote, "Candace, if you feel that taking money from The Daily Wire somehow comes between you and God, by all means quit."

Piers Morgan presses Ben Shapiro on Candace Owens' departure from The Daily Wire, but Ben refuses to respond.

"I'm not going to speak to this topic Piers."@piersmorgan | @benshapiro | @RealCandaceO pic.twitter.com/v80oMnUuLF

— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) March 26, 2024

On Tuesday on the YouTube channel, Piers Morgan Uncensored, media personality Piers Morgan pressed Shapiro on why Owens left. 

"Was she fired or did she leave at her own volition?" Morgan asked.

"I am not going to speak to this topic, Piers," Shapiro answered, smiling. 

Morgan eventually says, "I'm only curious because I know what a staunch defender of free speech you are and it would surprise me if it had been someone's opinion that would make you want to part company with them however contentious."

Shapiro answered that he is not in a hiring or firing position with The Daily Wire, as he is just a co-founder and not in management. 

"As far as the free speech situation, what I will say is that no company has the obligation to literally pay anyone. The Daily Wire is a publisher; it is not a platform. I've never called for Candace or anyone else for that matter to be banned from YouTube, to be banned from X, to be banned from any platform," he said.

Middle East Eye reached out to Owens for comment, but she did not respond by the time of publication.

Accusations of antisemitism 

Owens has spoken about “political Jews” and a “very small ring of specific people who are using the fact that they are Jewish to shield themselves from any criticism".

On Monday, she liked a post in which a user asked right-wing Rabbi Shmuley Boteach if he was “drunk on Christian blood again”.

Owens has been accused of antisemitism by the Anti-Defamation League, which posted a report highlighting far-right activist Nick Fuentes commending Owens for initiating what he called a “full-fledged war against the Jews”.

She denied antisemitism allegations and wrote on X, “Everyone can see what you guys are doing to me. Your pattern is well established and the world is waking up to it. My crime is having stood up for myself against your network of smears.”

She then said that it seems her "crime" was not believing "that American taxpayers should have to pay for Israel’s wars or the wars of any other country”.

She has spoken out about how the policies of the Democratic Party do more harm than good to the Black community, leading her and many others to shift their allegiance to the right. She is the co-founder of Blexit, a campaign that urges Black Americans to abandon the Democratic Party. 

In her book Blackout, she argues that the Democratic Party has a deep-rooted history of racism, and highlights the principles that obstruct the Black community's potential to overcome poverty, lead independent and successful lives, and actively engage in the "American dream". 

It's one reason why conservatives adored her and the left did not. It's why they applauded her when she posed for a photo with Kanye West wearing a "White Lives Matter" shirt.

But the right wing, often, draws the line at Israel. And when Owens reached outside that fold, she found herself unemployed.

Right-wing infighting 

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is an American rabbi and television and radio host. He has accused Owens of being antisemitic. But Boteach is no stranger to controversy himself. Earlier this week, he posted a video dressed as a "Candace Owens Jew" for the Jewish holiday, Purim, while he pretended to sip on Christian blood. 

He was seen with a protruding fake nose, a T-shirt stained with fake blood and adorned with $100 bill prints, face tattoos resembling the flag of Israel, and the word “Filth” written across his forehead in black marker. His costume was condemned by Jews on X who called it embarrassing, damaging, and offensive.

In another video, he can be seen dancing on the lap of a child. 

Alex Jones, a far-right radio host accused of being a conspiracy theorist, responded to the video, saying, "You have clearly had a nervous breakdown. You go around starting fights with people and then flip out when they respond. For the sake of your family seek help."

'Smearing people as racist, antisemitic, and crazy usually works for them. They don’t know how to handle the fact that the public isn’t biting this time'

- Candace Owens

A user on X replied to that tweet agreeing with Jones, saying that Owens "doesn't have a microgram of hate in her towards any race or group of people or religion. The more they attack her the more support she will get. The gigs up."

Owens responded, "It does indeed seem to be backfiring, but we have to remember we are dealing with an uncreative lot. Smearing people as racist, antisemitic, and crazy usually works for them. They don’t know how to handle the fact that the public isn’t biting this time."

Like Owens, Jones has also labelled Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide, and he too has faced backlash for it. 

On 21 March, he wrote on X, "Israel has lost the high ground. This is not war. It is robotic mass genocide. Section 1091 of Title 18, United States Code, prohibits genocide whether committed in time of peace or time of war. Genocide is defined in 1091 and includes violent attacks with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

"If you support Israel, you should not support the random killing of civilians. Israel is committing suicide with actions like this."

The following day, he called out the Israeli government, saying that the whole world turned on them.

"You can’t bomb and slowly starve people on TV and not become the bad guys in the eyes of the world. Kill Hamas not children."

Rabbi Boteach vs Ben Shapiro

But perhaps, the more notable exchange on X has been between Boteach and Shapiro. 

On Tuesday, Boteach wrote on X, "Scared-stiff, Terrified Ben Shapiro continues to hide behind the revolting antisemitic retweets of his sycophants who attack me for finally forcing him to act against his cash cow, arch anti-semite Candace Owens, rather than agreeing to debate me as to whether it was moral for him to pocket millions of dollars off her Jew-hatred, for two full years, as the American Queen of antisemites Candace Owens, accused brave IDF soldiers of genocide, refused to condemn the savagery of October 7, all under Ben Shapiro’s watch,

"Ben Schapiro is hiding in some cave in Boca as he pretends to be a defender of Israel while pockets money off the suffering of the Jewish people and the IDF."

What is the Temple Mount Movement?

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Shapiro made the news earlier this year when he launched his rap career with a track titled, Facts, which ascended to the number 1 position in the iTunes Store.

The track, resulting from a partnership between Shapiro and Canadian rapper Tom MacDonald, features verses that target critics, address cultural conflicts, critique the rap industry at large, and specifically mention the rap stars, Nicki Minaj and Lizzo.

In 2022, Shapiro made the news again when he visited Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque and performed Talmudic rituals in its courtyard, a move often banned by Israeli forces.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of Islam's holiest sites and sits in occupied East Jerusalem, which Jews refer to as the Temple Mount.

In 2021, the conservative media personality criticised a report by the Associated Press and said: "Muslims visit and pray on the Temple Mount every single day; the Temple Mount is sovereign Israeli territory. Jews are the only people restricted in any way. But it's somehow provocative for Jews to visit and pray."

While Muslims are allowed to pray in the courtyards and prayer halls of the mosque, Jews are forbidden from praying there. But Israeli ultra-nationalists, often settlers, occasionally enter the area and attempt to pray there. They are stopped from doing so by representatives of the Islamic Waqf organisation that administers the site, and by the police.

The infighting within American conservatives has also reached perhaps its most prominent personality: conservative commentator, Tucker Carlson.

Contrary to many other Republicans, Carlson has questioned the wisdom behind the US's unconditional backing of Israel's war on Gaza. Like Owens, he has been critical of Israel's war and has even slammed Shapiro for his views, saying his comments could "destroy" the country.