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For a month,<\/span> Michael Rectenwald had been trying to get Nick Fuentes to notice him. Rectenwald had a new political action committee devoted to anti-Zionism, and he hoped the far-right influencer would promote it to his legions of perpetually online, often antisemitic fans. But Rectenwald, a former New York University professor and one-time presidential hopeful, had struggled to stand out to the ascendant Fuentes, who has come to symbolize the formerly fringe extremes of the online right. So in October, Rectenwald posted<\/a> something sure to catch Fuentes\u2019s eye: \u201cNick has sold out to the cabal.\u201d<\/p>\n It worked. \u201cFuck you,\u201d Fuentes wrote<\/a> back.\u00a0<\/p>\n This was Rectenwald\u2019s shot. He apologized, calling Fuentes \u201ca brilliant guy.\u201d He reposted an uncannily gorgeous, computer-generated woman in a cross necklace and blazer encouraging<\/a> the two men to \u201cdrop the beef.\u201d She sat in front of an American flag and six light-up letters spelling \u201cAZAPAC,\u201d the acronym for Rectenwald\u2019s new group. If Fuentes would just endorse it, Rectenwald promised<\/a>, he\u2019d \u201ctake it all back.\u201d<\/p>\n Rectenwald launched the Anti-Zionist America Political Action Committee in August, vowing to fight to end U.S. financial and military aid to Israel and root out pro-Israel influence in Congress. AZAPAC aims to raise money to unseat pro-Israel legislators in the coming midterm elections, targeting some of the main recipients of cash from influential groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee<\/a> and Democratic Majority for Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a goal that might sound appealing for the electoral left, whose members have long struggled to make meaningful progress on Palestinian rights in Washington, D.C., largely because of the strong grip the pro-Israel lobby holds on U.S. politicians. And as Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza stretches into a third year, AZAPAC\u2019s policy goals may tap into a political energy currently unaddressed by either major party: growing anti-Israel sentiment on the right<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though the Republican party loudly backs Israel and its war effort, far-right online spaces are growing increasingly critical of Israel. While accusations of antisemitism from the pro-Israel mainstream often dog Israel\u2019s critics on the left, they appear as little cause for concern to far-right figures and their followers. As the nonpartisan AZAPAC works to sway the 2026 midterms, Rectenwald\u2019s group will test whether candidates across the political spectrum will be similarly pressed on the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.<\/p>\n The AZAPAC founder has attempted to connect with openly antisemitic figures like Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who famously praised Hitler<\/a>. Rectenwald is a regular on The Stew Peters Show, which streams on the Peter Thiel and JD Vance-funded<\/a> YouTube alternative Rumble, where the host has used slurs to describe Jewish and Black people \u2014 to no objection from Rectenwald. He\u2019s courted support from popular manosphere influencer Dan Bilzerian, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who has falsely claimed<\/a> Jewish people are behind DEI<\/a> policies, transgender identity<\/a>, and \u201copen<\/a> borders<\/a>.\u201d AZAPAC is helping fund at least one candidate who is a Hitler apologist<\/a> and another who has participated in white nationalist demonstrations<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In a conversation with The Intercept, Rectenwald made clear he\u2019s aware such affiliations could be detrimental to his cause. He said he is no longer seeking the support of Fuentes, though he remains interested in his fan base<\/a> \u2014 they\u2019re \u201cmore sincere than him on some things\u201d \u2014 and that he was unaware of \u201cthe depth of\u201d Bilzerian\u2019s antisemitic views, which are well<\/a>\u2013documented<\/a> online.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Asked about Peters\u2019s language, Rectenwald told The Intercept he would no longer appear on his show, then reversed and said he didn\u2019t want to \u201cthrow him under the bus.\u201d Peters, Rectenwald added, has \u201chelped us quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Affiliating with such figures perpetuates harmful and often violent rhetoric toward Jewish people, antisemitism and hate speech experts told The Intercept, and in the most extreme cases, conspiracy theories can motivate<\/a> violence, as occurred when a white nationalist shooter massacred worshippers at Pittsburgh\u2019s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n These antisemitic allyships also risk undermining legitimate criticism of the state of Israel \u2014 a heightened liability at a time when the federal government<\/a> and its pro-Israel allies<\/a> have launched largely spurious claims of antisemitism against advocates on the left<\/a> who support Palestine and oppose Israel\u2019s genocide.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf we give any quarter to antisemitism anywhere near our movements, we are opening ourselves up to the charges from Israel\u2019s defenders,\u201d said Ben Lorber, an author and researcher of antisemitism and white Christian nationalism. \u201cIt stands to really harm the movement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf we give any quarter to antisemitism anywhere near our movements, we are opening ourselves up to the charges from Israel\u2019s defenders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Rectenwald appears to understand what he\u2019s risking. After The Intercept reached out to AZAPAC-endorsed candidates for this story, two rejected the group\u2019s backing and were scrubbed from the site, and a third threatened to do the same. Rectenwald accused The Intercept of trying to sink his PAC.<\/p>\n Rectenwald himself has used language commonly associated with antisemitic conspiracy theories of global Jewish control, and he argues that other Israel critics embrace similar language. Online, he regularly refers to \u201cthe Jewish mafia<\/a>\u201d and \u201cJewish elites<\/a>,\u201d and last April, he self-published a novel<\/a> called \u201cThe Cabal Question.\u201d He originally wanted to call it \u201cThe Jewish Question,\u201d as he said on a podcast<\/a>, but Amazon barred him from using the title.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t use the same language and talk about the same things with the same terms,\u201d Rectenwald told The Intercept, referring to Peters. And yet, he said, \u201cI do believe he\u2019s doing pretty good work in terms of exposing the Zionist network and what it\u2019s up to.\u201d He said a significant portion of AZAPAC\u2019s early donations arrived after his appearances on Peters\u2019s show, which also runs commercials for the group.<\/p>\n Rectenwald self-published a novel called \u201cThe Cabal Question.\u201d He originally wanted to call it \u201cThe Jewish Question,\u201d but Amazon barred him from using the title.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n During a September episode while introducing Rectenwald, Peters referred to Jewish people using a common antisemitic slur<\/a>. A month earlier, he used an anti-Black slur to describe Department of Justice attorney Leo Terrell in another episode<\/a> with Rectenwald. In that episode, Peters said the U.S. is \u201coccupied\u201d by \u201canti-white, anti-Christian, anti-American Jews who are not just working on behalf of Israel, but on behalf of a more broad, satanic, Talmudic agenda that\u2019s taken shape over thousands of years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Rectenwald promised<\/a> Peters in his August appearance that AZAPAC does not have \u201cinfiltrators,\u201d \u201cdual allegiances,\u201d or \u201csneaky Jews coming in and running the show.\u201d He closed out the episode by offering Peters an invite \u2014\u00a0which he told The Intercept has since been rescinded \u2014\u00a0to be a member of AZAPAC\u2019s board.<\/p>\n An AZAPAC ad<\/a> launched in November and produced by the far-right company Dissident Media shows Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands, Palestinian children killed by Israel, re-enactments of the American Revolution \u2014 and the red, clawed hands of a puppet master manipulating strings overlaying a mashup of the American and Israeli flags.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rectenwald told The Intercept that he was not aware \u201cpuppet master\u201d was a well-known antisemitic trope and that the strings represented the pro-Israeli donor class\u2019s influence on the Trump administration. Plus, the trailer was a success: Donations poured in as it drew attention online, Rectenwald said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n AZAPAC had raised $111,556 by the end of December, according to recent FEC filings<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Of AZAPAC\u2019s 10 publicly endorsed candidates, six are running as Republicans with three Democrats and a Libertarian on its slate<\/a>. The group is more focused on Republicans, Rectenwald said, because he aims to put a dent in the GOP\u2019s pro-Israel base. AZAPAC is backing Aaron Baker, for example, an America First conservative who is running to unseat Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., a vocal supporter<\/a> of Israel and Netanyahu.<\/p>\n At least one AZAPAC candidate drew national headlines five years ago. Tyler Dykes, a Republican candidate running for Rep. Nancy Mace\u2019s congressional seat in South Carolina, was famously accused of performing a Nazi salute, which he denies, while storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and later pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers with a stolen riot shield. (Trump pardoned<\/a> Dykes on his first day in office.) Dykes also received a felony conviction<\/a> for his participation in the 2017 white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where organizers protested the removal of a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and yelled, \u201cJews will not replace us.\u201d<\/p>\n Reached by The Intercept, Dykes said in an emailed statement he denounces \u201cviolence and extremism in all its forms.\u201d He added that \u201cRobert E. Lee was a hero, and deserves to be honored as such.\u201d<\/p>\n Rectenwald told The Intercept that AZAPAC\u2019s board had vetted Dykes and other candidates. He said he was willing to tolerate certain disagreements with the candidates and their views. The endorsements, Rectenwald said, are \u201ca pragmatism of sorts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t agree with all of these candidates,\u201d Rectenwald said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to put together a coalition of sometimes very unlikely bedfellows, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n AZAPAC\u2019s endorsement process is primarily based on a 19-part questionnaire, which Rectenwald shared with The Intercept. It asks things like whether a candidate would pledge not to receive campaign donations from prominent pro-Israel groups or \u201cany other foreign lobby\/PAC\u201d; what they think of laws restricting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement or imposing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism; and whether they would vote to end military aid to Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to put together a coalition of sometimes very unlikely bedfellows, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The group\u2019s contradictions are perhaps best captured by two brief recent endorsements: two former American soldiers, Anthony Aguilar and Greg Stoker, running for Congress as progressive Green Party candidates. As a contractor working with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Aguilar, who is running in North Carolina, became a whistleblower alleging that GHF employees were firing into crowds of starving civilians at aid sites. Stoker, running in Texas, took part in last year\u2019s Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian mission meant to break Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza.<\/p>\n Their AZAPAC endorsements were short-lived.\u00a0<\/p>\n After receiving questions from The Intercept about Rectenwald\u2019s language and AZAPAC\u2019s associations with far-right figures, both Aguilar and Stoker rejected the group\u2019s backing. Mentions of them had been erased from AZAPAC\u2019s online presence by Tuesday.<\/p>\n In explaining his withdrawal, Aguilar\u2019s campaign acknowledged that anti-genocide and anti-Zionist activists \u201care falsely accused on antisemitism on a regular basis\u201d to discredit their work. \u201cFor that reason, we want to avoid being associated with any group whose statements or actions raise credible concerns of actual antisemitism,\u201d Aguilar\u2019s campaign manager said in a statement.<\/p>\n Stoker told The Intercept that \u201cI have always used my platform to fight against racial superiority,\u201d adding that AZAPAC\u2019s narrow focus on \u201cold conspiracy theories\u201d and eradicating the pro-Zionist lobby \u201cis not going to fix any of the larger systemic issues facing working class Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n Christine Reyna, a professor at De Paul University who studies the psychology of extremism, questioned why AZAPAC would endorse candidates like Dykes and Casey Putsch, a racecar driver and AZAPAC-backed Republican candidate for Ohio governor. In August, Putsch posted a video<\/a> asking Grok to list \u201call the good things<\/a> Adolf Hitler did or was responsible for creating in his life\u201d and railed against the Jewish right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, whom he called \u201can annoying little rodent<\/a>.\u201d While there\u2019s a growing number of other candidates who oppose sending military aid to Israel or have sworn off AIPAC donations<\/a>, backing candidates like Putsch and Dykes could serve as a dog whistle, Reyna said, to some of the most extreme corners of the far right.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you package these really frightening and terrible and dangerous ideologies and you hide them behind this front-facing organization that gives them legitimacy,\u201d Reyna said, \u201cThat can be extremely dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n Aligning with such America First nationalists, who tend to ignore the issue of America\u2019s own ambitions of control and profit, can harm other communities, antisemitism researcher Lorber warned, because of their anti-Blackness, xenophobia, or anti-LGBTQ views. In the case of Israel, these far-right alliances can also injure the movement for Palestinian liberation, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we get distracted chasing fantasies of Jewish cabals, it harms our analysis, it makes our work less informed and less effective,\u201d Lorber said, \u201cand it also divides our movements.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a big umbrella for a movement against unconditional support for Israel. But neo-Nazis and far-right antisemites will never be welcome in that.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Palestinian-American advocate and analyst Tariq Kenney-Shawa, whose family is from Gaza, is acutely aware of the ways pro-Israel institutions have attacked anti-Zionist work for being antisemitic. He said those bad-faith attacks were why he was concerned about AZAPAC\u2019s affiliations with the far right, which has long rooted its criticism of Israel in \u201cactually racist and antisemitic\u201d beliefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a big umbrella for a movement against unconditional support for Israel,\u201d Kenney-Shawa said. \u201cBut neo Nazis and far-right antisemites will never be welcome in that.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The day after federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Putsch, who did not respond to outreach from The Intercept, doubled down on his support for ICE\u2019s<\/a> mass deportation campaign. On social media, Putsch, who is Christian, often attacks<\/a> his opponent<\/a> Vivek Ramaswamy\u2019s Hindu faith<\/a> and Indian<\/a> ancestry<\/a>. On his campaign site, his platform includes anti-immigrant calls to \u201caccelerate deportations\u201d and limit the number of H-1B visas offered to immigrant workers.<\/p>\n His platform makes no mention of Israel or foreign policy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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The 2026 Slate<\/h2>\n
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