Richard Spencer Touts Himself As ‘White Zionist’ In Israeli Interview

Image by Getty Images
In an interview on Israeli TV, Richard Spencer said that Israelis should ignore the anti-Semitism of the “alt-right” and instead respect and empathize with his desire to create a whites-only ethno state.
“You could say that I am a white Zionist in the sense that I care about my people,” Spencer told Dany Kushmaro, the host on Israel’s Channel 2 News. “I want us to have a secure homeland that is for us and ourselves, just like you want a secure homeland in Israel.”
Kushmaro pressed Spencer on the anti-Semitic chants heard at the white nationalist held in Virginia over the weekend, such as “Jew will not replace us.” White nationalists also brandished swastika flags and held their arms in the Nazi salute at the rally, which later devolved into open brawling and violence.
“Let’s be honest, Jews have been vastly overrepresented in the historical left,” Spencer said. “They’re vastly overrepresented in what you can call the establishment.”
Kushmaro reminded Spencer that he was speaking with a Jew and that the majority of the audience was Jewish. “How should we, how should I, feel?”
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
