Will Chamberlain talks with Yoram Hazony, chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation, about why the National Conservatism conference went to Jerusalem and what happened when four young American nationalists told an Israeli audience how support for Israel is softening on the American right. Hazony argues that the fight over Israel and the Jews has become the main threat to the cohesion of the Trump coalition, and that most American and Israeli Jews misread the Republican Party as a contest between Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson. The conversation also digs into Bezalel Smotrich's speech on Muslim immigration, Mike Doran's critique and the John Locke debate, James Lindsay, and the coming fight over who inherits the Trump coalition.
In this episode:
Hazony explains why NatCon, which normally alternates between the United States and Europe, held its twelfth conference in Jerusalem
He describes Israel as a model nation state and reflects on what a young, religious, high-fertility society can show Americans and Europeans
He argues that Bezalel Smotrich's speech was the first time a senior Israeli minister said plainly that Muslim immigration to America and Europe is bad for the West, for Jews, and for Israel
He introduces Gadi Taub, the former man of the left who has become one of the most popular intellectuals on the Israeli right
He explains why Israel and the Jews, barely mentioned in NatCon's first seven years, have become the main threat to the cohesion of the Trump coalition
He lays out the idea behind the panel with Matthew Peterson, Amanda Milius, Jonathan Keeperman, and William Wolfe: bringing the tough American right to Jerusalem to talk with the tough Israeli right
He argues that Jewish leaders in both countries see the Republican Party as Ben Shapiro versus Tucker Carlson and skip over the roughly 70 percent of the party in between
Will and Hazony respond to Mike Doran's argument that the panel failed to make the realist case for the alliance
Hazony answers the charge that he wants to write John Locke out of the founding and describes the four factions that make up the NatCon coalition
He contrasts Jeremy Boreing's constructive role on the right with James Lindsay's campaign against the nationalist camp
He argues that young American nationalists broke a de facto ban on going to Israel, and he previews NatCon in Washington, DC, three months from now
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/counterweight-with-will-chamberlain/id6803321469
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/18jtv7U8cB0IW82qM9xoK8
Yoram Hazony: Edmund Burke Foundation · @yhazony
Will Chamberlain: @willchamberlain
Instagram / TikTok: @counterweightpod
00:00 Cold Open: The Fantastic Four
02:18 How did NatCon Jerusalem go?
03:06 Why hold NatCon in Jerusalem?
06:16 A young, religious society
09:00 Bezalel Smotrich on Muslim immigration
12:37 Gadi Taub and the Israeli right
13:55 What was the panel trying to accomplish?
19:15 Softening support on the right, and why the audience was Israeli
21:41 Ben Shapiro versus Tucker Carlson, and the 70 percent in between
26:20 Mike Doran's critique
35:56 Does Hazony want to expunge John Locke?
40:42 Lindsay, Jeremy Boreing, and the libertarian wing
51:09 James Lindsay in Israel
55:09 Breaking the taboo on nationalists going to Israel, and NatCon DC
