A war has erupted among right-wing commentators, with the term “woke right” emerging as the weapon of choice. At the center of this MAGA movement schism is the issue of Israel and a growing conservative backlash over the refusal of self-described opponents of cancel culture to stand up for the free speech rights of Americans who oppose Tel Aviv’s policies.
The Daily Wire once dominated the online right-wing media landscape and maintained a uniformly pro-Israel stance. Yet following Oct. 7, 2023, a shift in conservative public opinion began to take shape, with pro-Palestinian sentiment steadily on the rise. Now, a battle is underway for the soul of the MAGA base, centered on this very issue.
As the atrocities in Gaza continued, popular commentator Candace Owens began voicing her opposition to the bloodshed inflicted by the Israeli military on the Palestinian people. Soon thereafter, in the words of the pro-Israel ADL, “she departed the Daily Wire following escalating antisemitic rhetoric and public disagreement with Shapiro.”
Since that time, a wide range of popular right-wing commentators have shared criticisms of Israel. These criticisms have come from various angles—some focusing on alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza and the Israel lobby’s crackdown on free speech, others veering into outright antisemitism espoused by white nationalists like Nick Fuentes.
Meanwhile, upholding the pro-Israel point of view is a network of commentators, organizations and channels, many of which have ties to extremist Zionist donors and groups such as the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Other MAGA-aligned figures, including big tech billionaires like Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Elon Musk, remain firmly pro-Israel.
Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks says MAGA supporters *must* support Israel.
“Voices on the woke right have got to know that if you are MAGA, you are pro-Israel.”
“Donald Trump is the definition of MAGA—Donald Trump is the most pro-Israel president in history.” pic.twitter.com/DMImeT7Fxh
— Chris Menahan (@infolibnews) April 28, 2025
On the pro-Israel side, popular conservative commentator James Lindsay first popularized the term “woke right” as a slur to delegitimize his anti-Israel opposition. He has been using this label in a particularly concerted effort since early this year. Lindsay argues that the “woke right” consists of conservatives who adopt a Christian nationalist, tribalist, or ethnocentric approach to politics.
During a recent appearance on Jordan Peterson’s Daily Wire show, both Lindsay and Peterson inferred that Iran and China are behind the recent split in the MAGA movement as part of a foreign-backed conspiracy to take down former President Donald Trump.
If you can fragment his base — by getting them to argue about ‘Israel good, Israel bad’ — that’s a deep cut that you’ve just taken, pulling MAGA in half. So all it takes is one event, something that goes down in Israel, and Trump takes a side, takes the Israeli side, then bang, they can pull the thing apart.”
Wherein I explained to Jordan Peterson the anti-Israel op as an op against Trump, MAGA, and America, in the process undermining the entire Woke Right argument about me that they made the week after I said this.pic.twitter.com/FiqMOR074p
— James Lindsay, anti-Communist (@ConceptualJames) May 10, 2025
“Right-wing wokeness appropriates techniques of the illiberal left-wing variety — language policing, historical revisionism, expansive claims of ethnic oppression — but deploys them in the service of the MAGA coalition, above all white Christian males, rather than racial and sexual minorities,” explained The Atlantic’s latest commentary on the issue.
However, as with the rest of the corporate media’s coverage of this feud, the Israel issue was left out.
On Wednesday, amid an ongoing controversy with popular Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, Lindsay took to X to claim that a “woke right play” against the Daily Wire seeks to create a rift between Ben Shapiro and Walsh. The agenda, he alleges, is to generate “the ugliest conflict they can” in order to “destroy the DW’s brand, reach, and influence.” DW refers to the Daily Wire.
Matt Walsh, who made a name for himself through his documentary “What Is a Woman?” and his anti-LGBTQ stances, faded out of relevance during the course of the Gaza genocide. Recently, during an appearance on “Tucker Carlson Today,” he appeared to question whether Israel should exist, without explicitly saying so.
Matt Walsh just said Israel shouldn’t exist without saying Israel (for the obvious reasons) pic.twitter.com/c4DcQlrok9
— Abier (@abierkhatib) May 1, 2025
In response to the claim that anti-Israel conservative commentators represent a kind of “woke right,” those same figures have fired back, arguing that by defending Israel and Zionism, their critics are in fact the true “woke right.”
Comedian and libertarian commentator Dave Smith discussed this issue with Tucker Carlson earlier this week, arguing that Zionist anti-woke figures are being exposed as hypocrites:
Ben Shapiro built a career opposing identity politics, as a proud Zionist. Listen, feel however you feel about Zionism. It’s identity politics — like, that is the definition of identity politics. You cannot find a better example of a politics built on an identity, and yet you are out here saying ‘facts don’t care about your feelings’ and identity politics is wrong, then as you are saying that your number one priority is this manifestation of identity politics.”
Israeli intellectual Yoram Hazony, a prominent figure in the MAGA-aligned conservative movement, tried to shut down the use of the term in an effort to end the battle over who qualifies as the true “woke right.” Hazony has become an influential figure in the MAGA movement through his role in organizing the National Conservatism conference.
“Yes, you shmucks, ‘woke’ always meant exactly one thing: It referred to that part of the Left which anti-Marxist liberals, conservatives, nationalists, Christians, and Jews had to join forces to defeat. And by repurposing that term as a weapon against parts of this coalition, you’ve turned it into gall in our mouths,” wrote Hazony on X.
This ever-escalating MAGA clash also appears to have recently impacted the passage of pro-Israel legislation in Congress. This occurred after conservative elected officials such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie rallied against a bill that would have threatened individuals boycotting Israel with imprisonment. Ultimately, the rare right-wing revolt succeeded in defeating the IGO Anti-Boycott Act (H.R. 867).
Feature photo | A supporter wearing a yarmulke listens as First Lady Melania Trump speaks during a campaign rally for President Donald Trump on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020, in Atglen, Pa. Laurence Kesterson | AP
Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47
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