Last weekend’s Turning Point Student Action Summit ratcheted up the MAGA debate over US-Israel relations to eleven with Tucker Carlson calling out Israel for alleged Epstein ties and comic Dave Smith debating Newsweek columnist Josh Hammer.
The Gateway Pundit guest author Avi Abelow from Efrat, Judea, chimes in with a provocative take: End U.S. aid for Israel and let the special partnership mature into an alliance of equals. We welcome your comments – but keep it civil, folks.
Avi Abelow: Let’s set the record straight. When Israel defends itself against Sunni jihadists like Hamas and ISIS, and Shia jihadists like Iran and Hezbollah, it’s not just fighting for its survival—it’s defending the entire free world.
Israel is the tip of the spear. The frontline outpost of Western civilization. And it’s doing the job that protects America’s soldiers, taxpayers, and future, whether the pundits want to admit it or not.
This isn’t a theory. It’s what Trump’s “America First” foreign policy looks like when done right: strong, sovereign allies like Israel handling their own neighborhoods, so America doesn’t get dragged into endless Middle East wars.
But today, that truth is under attack, from within the conservative movement itself.
I just watched the Turning Point USA debate between Dave Smith and Josh Hammer, moderated by Charlie Kirk, and I’m still stunned. Dave Smith didn’t just get basic facts wrong, he delivered Hamas-level propaganda with a libertarian language. Even worse? The crowd applauded him, and the YouTube comments are a chilling sign of how far some conservatives have strayed from truth and moral clarity. This should be a red-flag for leadership, and especially for Charlie Kirk.
And it’s not just Dave. Tucker Carlson questions the U.S.-Israel alliance. Candace Owens recites anti-Israel blood libels and calls AIPAC a threat to democracy. Vivek Ramaswamy echoes “America First” rhetoric while distancing from the only country in the Middle East that actually shares American values.
These voices aren’t exposing truth, they’re confusing patriotism with poison. And in doing so, they’re weakening the moral backbone of the conservative movement.
Let’s break it down.
Dave Smith, along with others like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon, has claimed that Israel dragged America into an illegal war of aggression against Iran, recklessly endangering U.S. soldiers in a conflict they say serves no American interest.
First of all, let’s unpack what that accusation actually means: They are all implying that President Trump, the most defiant, independent-minded U.S. president in modern history, was just a puppet. That he, along with his national security team, had no agency, no judgment, and no ability to defend American interests without being manipulated by Israel.
That’s not just insulting to Trump—it’s absurd.
Now, let’s jump into the actual issue itself.
When Israel dismantled Syrian air defenses and Iranian bases in Damascus, it didn’t ask for a single U.S. Marine. When Israel sent elite intelligence operatives into Iranian nuclear sites, it didn’t ask for U.S. commandos. When Israel took out senior Hezbollah commanders and intercepted Iranian shipments to Gaza, Israel did ask for any Americans troops.
And when Trump greenlit operations against Iranian nuclear targets, it wasn’t because Israel “dragged him” into war. It was his policy. Trump was warning back in 2015, before he even ran for president, that Iran must never be allowed nuclear weapons. That was his doctrine, and Israel supported it. Not the other way around.
In fact, Israel led the charge. We sent in our pilots. We put boots on the ground. We put in decades of intelligence work. Only after Israel did the heavy lifting, cleaning out the Iranian skies, was the U.S. then able to send in the B-2 bombers and strike the nuclear sites from above without risking US pilots or any US soldiers on the ground.
That’s not entanglement. That’s strategic delegation. That’s smart foreign policy and incredible teamwork with America’s most reliable ally in the world and the Middle East, Israel.
Let’s tackle the next big lie: “The U.S. gives Israel billions to commit war crimes.”
Nonsense.
First let’s deal with the biggest libel – war-crimes? Smith is obviously referring to the last two years of war against Iranian and Qatari funded Hamas in Gaza.
Dave’s claim is morally twisted and factually dishonest. First of all, regarding the war in Gaza, Israel makes unprecedented efforts to minimize civilian harm, dropping leaflets, sending text messages, making phone calls, and even using the “knock on the roof” technique to warn civilians before strikes. No other military in history has operated with such restraint while facing enemies embedded in dense civilian areas.
Meanwhile, Hamas deliberately fires rockets from homes, schools, hospitals, and mosques, using their own mothers, grandmothers and children as human shields by design. So when civilians tragically die, it’s not because Israel targets them, it’s because Hamas sets the stage for it, hoping to win the PR war and get people like Dave Smith to parrot their lies and demonize Israel. That’s not murder. That’s self-defense under impossible moral conditions, conditions Hamas created.
The ones responsible for what Israel is doing in Gaza are Hamas, and the states that empowered and funded it: Iran, Qatar, and Egypt. Israel isn’t the aggressor, we’re the deterrent. We’re making sure this barbarism never happens again.
Smith’s additional critique regarding Gaza, is that Israel should use special forces instead of bombing, in order to not kill as many “innocent civilians”.
Sounds great in a podcast studio, but this isn’t Call of Duty, it’s real war. Israel does use special forces extensively, including my sons and their friends who have had to fight house to house, door to door, tunnel to tunnel, endangering their lives. But you can’t dismantle an underground terror infrastructure the size of Manhattan with infantry soldiers. Hamas has hundreds of miles of tunnels, thousands of fighters, and tens of thousands of rockets, all deliberately hidden under schools, hospitals, mosques, and homes.
Israel also uses airstrikes because they are more surgical, not less. They eliminate targets with minimal Israeli casualties and often fewer Gazan ones than a prolonged ground invasion would cause. If Smith really cared about wanting to avoid bombing altogether be would be calling upon Hamas to release our hostages in Gaza and surrender.
Now, let’s touch upon Dave’s claims regarding foreign aid.
U.S. aid to Israel is not charity, it’s a security investment. Israel is the most battle-tested, cost-effective military ally America has ever had. As opposed to other US foreign aid recipients, Israel provides Israel with valuable intelligence, military technology, and day-to-day battle-tested military technology updates for the American Armed Forces and Airforce. Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig said it best:
“Israel is the largest, most battle-tested and cost-effective U.S. aircraft carrier in the world—and it doesn’t require a single American soldier to be deployed on the ground.”
That’s the truth.
But let me say something bold, and I’ve said it for years:
Let’s end U.S. aid to Israel. Not out of punishment, but out of pride.
We don’t need the cash. We need respect.
Let’s build joint US-Israel trade agreements, joint R&D partnerships, and defense collaborations that aren’t weaponized by D.C. politicians or used to leash our sovereignty.
To those who truly understand US foreign aid, it is not a gift. It’s a leash.
Foreign aid is one of Washington’s favorite tools to control the behavior of recipient countries, including its allies. And in Israel’s case, that aid has been used for decades to pressure us, constrain us, and often undermine our national security.
Let me walk you through it, since Dave clearly never bothered to do the homework.
When the U.S. gives Israel military aid—most of which is earmarked to be spent on American defense contractors—it comes with unspoken but very real strings attached:
“Don’t build in your eternal capital, Jerusalem.”
“Don’t respond too forcefully to rocket attacks from Gaza.”
“Hold off on operations in Lebanon—we’re in talks with the Lebanese government.”
“Accept another doomed ceasefire with Hamas—it’ll help our diplomatic optics.”
That’s not partnership. That’s coercion.
And when Israel pushes back—like when Netanyahu stood up in the U.S. Congress to warn about Obama’s Iran nuclear deal—what happens? The Obama administration punishes Israel diplomatically and weaponizes aid as a threat.
You think that’s support? That’s manipulation. That’s the deep state using taxpayer dollars to micromanage Israeli policy from Foggy Bottom.
And here’s the kicker: when the aid stops, people like Dave Smith lose their favorite talking point. And Israel gains moral clarity and strategic freedom.
Another poisonous lie being spread by the podcast right: “Israel controls U.S. foreign policy.”
This is antisemitic conspiracy nonsense dressed up as foreign policy realism.
Israel doesn’t run U.S. policy. If anything, U.S. administrations—Democrat and Republican alike—have spent decades pressuring Israel, not taking orders from it:
Bush Sr. withheld loan guarantees over Jewish homes being built in Judea and Samaria.
Clinton shoved the Oslo Accords down Israel’s throat, bringing arch-terrorist Yassar Arafat and terror back to our doorstep.
Obama empowered Iran with a nuclear deal and abstained at the UN while anti-Israel resolutions passed.
Biden pushed Israel to implement the “two-state solution” even as Hamas massacred 1,200+ Israeli civilians.
The idea that Israel, and Netanyahu specifically, has been running U.S. foreign policy for decades is false. Laughably false. And historically ignorant.
In fact, Netanyahu has spent his entire political career resisting U.S. foreign policy, not running it.
Few remember, but when Bibi first entered politics in the early 1990s, he ran on a platform against the creation of a Palestinian state. It was 1995, and the Clinton administration was all-in on the Oslo Accords, pushing Israel to surrender land and security for a fantasy called “peace.”
When Netanyahu became Prime Minister, he didn’t suddenly embrace that vision, he had to navigate it. Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden all pushed some version of “two states,” and Netanyahu’s policy became clear:
Pacify the U.S. without letting Israel be destroyed.
Say just enough to keep the pressure at bay—while doing everything possible to ensure that a terror state called “palestine” is never born in the heart of our homeland.
That is not someone running U.S. foreign policy. That’s someone doing damage control while protecting Israel’s red lines.
Netanyahu Is the One Leader Who Consistently Said No
While the Israeli Left bowed to U.S. pressure and gave us Oslo, the Gaza disengagement, and endless terror, Netanyahu stood up and said: enough.
He defied Obama on Iran.
He stood in the U.S. Congress and said what every Western leader should have said:
Iran must never get a nuclear bomb.
Jerusalem is our eternal, undivided capital.
Hamas is not a partner for peace, it is a genocidal terror organization.
That’s not manipulation. That’s moral clarity.
And let’s not forget, Obama, Biden, and the entire US foreign policy establishment hated Netanyahu for it. He wasn’t “pulling the strings.” He was standing alone, defending Israel’s truth in a room full of appeasers.
The voices of Smith, Carlson and Owens, who once fought against tyranny, are now parroting talking points that sound like they came from Qatar, Al Jazeera, or the Muslim Brotherhood.
They say they’re “America First”—but they’re targeting Israel, the very country that shares and defends America’s values.
And while they rant endlessly about AIPAC, they say nothing about Qatar, a regime that’s spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying off Washington, funding politicians on both sides of the aisle, hiring top PR and lobbying firms, bankrolling anti-Israel propaganda, and even hosting Hamas terrorists in five-star hotels in Doha. That’s not influence—that’s infiltration.
They also ignore CAIR, a Muslim Brotherhood front operating inside the U.S., suing schools and pushing lawfare to silence critics of Islamic extremism.
They also ignore China, Iran, and actual enemies of the United States, regimes that are actively undermining American sovereignty, corrupting US politics, infiltrating US institutions, and poisoning US media and culture from within.
China is pouring billions into American universities, tech companies, Hollywood, TikTok, and Wall Street, shaping the narrative, silencing criticism, and exporting Communist censorship disguised as “diversity” and “equity.” Meanwhile, they’re buying farmland near military bases across the country and stealing American intellectual property on an industrial scale.
Iran, through its proxies like CAIR, NIAC, and Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups, is waging an ideological war inside America, using media, lawfare, and political lobbying to normalize anti-Israel hatred, fuel antisemitism, and erode America’s moral clarity. They fund “academic research,” seed sympathetic voices in Congress, and push narratives straight out of Tehran through sympathetic Western journalists and think tanks.
But instead of exposing China’s totalitarian grip or Iran’s jihadist networks, people like Dave Smith, Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens fixate on Israel, the one democracy in the Middle East that actually strengthens American values, fights America’s enemies, and asks for nothing but mutual respect.
Instead, they choose to demonize the one democracy in the Middle East, and the one Jewish state in the world.
Why?
That’s a question every conservative needs to ask themselves.
Here’s what real America First foreign policy should look like vis a vis Israel based on an understanding of President Trump’s actions himself:
End aid, but strengthen the alliance. Let Israel be sovereign and self-funded. Replace the leash with strategic cooperation.
Expose the real foreign influence networks, Qatar, CAIR, Iran, and China, not the mythical “Israeli lobby.”
Stand with freedom, not jihad. If you believe in Western civilization, you stand with Israel. Period.
Israel doesn’t need pity or permission. We are a sovereign Jewish state, in our ancestral homeland, defending ourselves and the whole freedom-loving world against the growing Sunni and Shia jihadi terrorists.
But if the conservative movement loses its moral compass, if it turns on the very ally that has stood by America for decades, it’s not Israel that falls. It’s America.
Because this isn’t just about the Jewish state of Israel. It’s about the truth.
Another huge lie that Dave Smith likes to spew, that Gaza was a concentration camp.
That is not just wrong—it’s a slander against truth.
Before October 7, Gaza had thriving shopping malls and resorts:
The Capital Mall in Gaza City offered multi‑story retail, international brands, a food court with burgers, pizza, and ice cream, escalators and all, where Gazans boasted it was “similar to the malls in other countries
Gaza even hosted its first five‑star hotel, the al‑Mashtal, complete with a pool, piano bar, and ocean‑view suites.
From upscale restaurants like the Roots Club, to equestrian parks, seaside resorts like Blue Beach, and beachside cafés—Gaza’s middle class enjoyed real leisure and sophistication.
Hamas transformed those spaces into terror nests, burying rockets and tunnels beneath cafés, hotels, and residential buildings. The terrorists weaponized their own civilians, not Israel.
Labeling Gaza a “concentration camp” erases reality. It treats the victims as enemy property and turns a blind eye to the fact that Hamas chose luxury over human life, corrupting society before exporting terror.
The truth is clear: Gaza was never a concentration camp. It was once a society that aspired to normalcy—until Hamas turned it into a terror base and held its own people hostage. That’s not a tragic humanitarian situation—that’s terrorism masquerading as civilization.
If you want to see what Gaza looked like before October 7, follow these firsthand accounts on social media:
Gazan posts video of pre Oct. 7th Gaza:
9 minute video of Gaza pre Oct. 7th.
Luxury car dealership in Gaza
Luxury homes in Gaza
Dave Smith’s “concentration camp” claim isn’t just false, it helps Hamas hide behind innocent civilians. We must call it out, and we must call it what it is: terror disguised as tragedy.
One can either believe the libelous lies being spewed daily by Dave Smith and the others or stick with the truth.
It’s about whether Western civilization still believes in right and wrong, good from evil, truth-teller from grifter.
Israel will survive. We always have. But will America?
That depends on whether Americans are willing to wake up to the lies, and choose courage, clarity, and real partnership with the most reliable ally that America has in the whole world, Israel.
As Tucker Carlson himself quoted, yet misunderstands, God told Abraham “those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed”.
And yes, the modern State of Israel, the third Jewish commonwealth, is the manifestation of the Jewish people who speak the same language, do the same religious rituals and live in the same homeland as our Biblical ancestors did more than 3,000 years ago. The only nation in the world who can claim that. People can criticize Israeli government policy all they want, as they should be criticizing US policy all they want, but choosing to legitimize the voices of the enemies of Israel over our rights to live and defend ourselves against their evil, is choosing to curse Israel, and be cursed.
Avi Abelow is the host of the Pulse of Israel daily video/podcast and the CEO of 12Tribe Films Foundation.
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