On “the Jewish question,” Taylor seems to walk a tightrope.
On the one hand, he has written, “People who are constantly talking about and complaining about Jewish influence remind me of blacks who think that everything that’s ever gone wrong for blacks is because of white racism. I think that blacks need to be responsible for the their successes and failures and whites do as well.” About half the speakers at the first AmRen conference were Jewish, and Jews continue to attend conferences and support the organization. Antisemitic intellectuals like Kevin MacDonald do not write for the site nor are invited to conferences. (There are, incidentally, occasional Black, Asian, and American Indian contributors of articles. These tend to be unusual individuals.)
When David Duke rose from the audience at the 2006 AmRen conference and addressed members and was rebuked by a Jewish participant, physicist Michael Hart, Taylor’s response was regarded as too tepid by Hart’s defenders, while fans of the former Grand Wizard thought he’d come down too hard on their man. The antisemitic right considers him a panderer.
Taylor acknowledges the animosity of a lot of his followers toward Jews: “Racially conscious whites tend to be suspicious of Jews for two reasons. First, Jews have been prominent in the effort to demonize any sense of white identity. Second, Zionist Jews support an ethnostate for Jews — Israel — while they generally promote diversity for America and Europe. This is annoying, but understandable for historical reasons.”
With 1.7 million Arabs, over 20% of the population, Israel is of course hardly an ethnostate. There was good reason these citizens, almost alone in the Middle East, took no part in the “Arab Spring”: they have all the rights of Jewish Israelis except the obligation to serve in the army and have no wish to be governed by the brutal and corrupt “Palestinian” parties. And many more American Jews are leftists rather than Zionists, and a number have been vocal critics of Israel. It is certainly true, though, that Jewish organizations have strongly supported open borders, ignoring the fact that the values of the 21st century’s “huddled masses” don’t bode well for Jews. And organizations like the ADL have led the attack on First Amendment rights.
Is Taylor then a “White Nationalist”?
He rejects the term: “To me, it has an unpleasant whiff of gunpowder. One thinks of Basque nationalists and Kurdish nationalists. But,” he adds, “I entirely agree with the concept of an ethnostate that reflects the heritage and aspirations of a people.” He prefers the French word “identitaire,” but there’s no English equivalent.
