MAGA infighting erupts as Heritage row exposes divide over Israel

Staff at the Heritage Foundation publicly rebelled this week against their president, Kevin Roberts, after he defended commentator Tucker Carlson for granting a forum to white-nationalist activist Nick Fuentes.

The episode marks a salient break within the conservative movement over the war on Gaza and the Trump administration's seemingly uncritical material and diplomatic support for  Israel.

Roberts's remarks reaffirming Carlson as a coalition partner prompted employees to accuse the Heritage think tank of legitimising extremist voices. The controversy ignited after Carlson's interview with Fuentes, a figure long known for Holocaust denial and antisemitic statements.

Although the exchange itself contained no explicit antisemitic remarks, the decision to give Fuentes a platform sparked immediate outrage. The backlash grew at the Republican Jewish Coalition's leadership summit, which became an open denunciation of Carlson.

Senior figures and delegates criticised him from the stage, and attendees held signs reading "TUCKER IS NOT MAGA", as pro-Israel Republicans sought to draw a clear line between their movement and the rising anti-Israel right.

This event has become the flashpoint for a deeper ideological battle within the Republican base.

On one side stands the pro-Israel faction, known by detractors as the "Israel first" wing, which continues to defend Israel's wars in the Middle East, rejecting accusations of war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon, and the now almost unanimous conclusion that the country is carrying out a genocide in the Palestinian enclave.

On the other side is a rising anti-Israel camp, which argues that US support for Israel now contradicts Trump's "America First" posture, while openly calling Israel's war on Gaza genocidal. However, this wing includes voices that explicitly embrace antisemitic and far-right extremist ideology.

Fuentes is a noted critic of Israel, but his rhetoric goes much further, with him previously comparing the Holocaust to "cookies being baked in an oven" and calling for a holy war against Jews at public rallies. He has also openly praised Hitler.

The 27-year-old leader of the "Groyper" movement has been ostracised by Republicans, but he infamously had dinner with Trump, alongside Kanye West, at Mar-a-Lago in 2022.

Meanwhile, on the pro-Israel side, Florida Representative Randy Fine - who spoke at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s leadership summit - has emerged as one of Carlson’s fiercest critics, describing him as a dangerous voice within the conservative movement.

Fine has repeatedly defended Israel's military campaign in Gaza and has used rhetoric that critics have called genocidal, saying Gaza "must be destroyed" and claiming the Palestinian cause is "an evil one", while calling for Israel to use a nuclear weapon in Gaza and openly celebrating the death of Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli forces.

Adding complexity, commentator Candace Owens -  who is one of the most popular MAGA media figures - has entered the fray by questioning US support for Israel without aligning herself with extremist figures.

Earlier in the week, she hosted an hour-long podcast with notable Israel critic Dr. Norman Finkelstein..

Public-opinion polling emphasises the scale of the shift occurring within the Republican and MAGA milieu.

A recent survey found that Americans' negative views of Israel rose from 42 percent in 2022 to 53 percent three years later - including nearly half of Republican voters under 40. Republican strategists say this generational shift is threatening one of the party’s once-automatic alliances.

In electoral politics, the fracture was visible in New York City, where the victory of Democrat Zohran Mamdani - whose platform included marked criticism of Israel - was widely interpreted as a signal of growing public weariness with the war in Gaza and US complicity.

The intensity of the internal Republican fight reflects more than a policy disagreement: it exposes the moral contradictions of the right.

The pro-Israel wing's willingness to excuse or justify what much of the world considers a genocidal war offers no clear ethical boundary, while the anti-Israel wing is seen as being too willing to embrace bigotry and extremism, which critics say disqualifies it from claiming moral high ground.

The rancour at Heritage shows that both wings are undermining the movement’s coherence and viability. Donald Trump and senior officials in his presidency have so far not commented on the ongoing "civil war" within MAGA, though the US president has continued to strongly support Israel.