Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) posted an antisemitic meme on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday, claiming that “Congress these days” had rejected “American Patriotism” in favor of “Zionism.”
The meme, which borrows images from the video for “Hotline Bling” by Drake, is commonly used to mock hypocrisy.
The idea that “Zionism” and “American Patriotism” are contradictory is a common theme on the antisemitic far-right.
Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people have the right to a state in their historic and spiritual homeland of Israel. Since the late 19th century, antisemites have used the idea of “Zion” to suggest Jewish control and manipulation of world governments.
That, for example, is the theme of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an antisemitic forgery distributed by the Russian imperial state that spread throughout Europe before the Nazi era, and which remains widely distributed in the Arab world today.
American leaders throughout history have supported the idea of a Jewish state, going back to President John Adams, who was an ardent “restorationist,” believing that a Jewish republic should emerge in the Middle East. Many Americans today support the modern State of Israel.
Massie posted the meme as the House was holding hearings about antisemitism on college campuses, which has flared since the Palestinian terror group Hamas carried out a devastating terror attack against Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people.
Massie has been under attack from pro-Israel groups after voting against funding for Israel, ostensibly on budgetary and foreign policy grounds. He appears to have taken that argument to a completely different place with his antisemitic post.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
