Comedian and podcaster Theo Von ignited controversy with an anti-Israel rant on his show, echoing the same rhetoric used by Hamas supporters and dictators abroad. On Wednesday’s episode of This Past Weekend, Von declared, “a lot of the big countries are against them right now, that think Netanyahu is like the new Hitler or that Netanyahu is the worst. So I don’t understand that relationship.”
Von’s comments closely mirrored attacks from Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has branded Israelis “murderers” who “kill children” and are “sucking their blood.” At the U.N. in September, Erdoğan also compared Prime Minister Netanyahu to Hitler. Nicaragua’s dictator Daniel Ortega made similar remarks in October, calling Netanyahu “the son of the devil” and insisting, “he is pursuing a policy of terror and he is Hitler.”
This was not the first time Von spread anti-Israel claims. In June, he suggested Israel was “trying to get us into a war with Iran” and added, “I don’t trust the Israel leader at all. I don’t believe anything that guy says, and I don’t think that our soldiers should have to go and defend stuff that they start.”
Von’s podcast ranks among the most popular in the country, making his remarks especially influential. His pattern of aligning with anti-Israel activists is part of a disturbing trend in podcast culture.
