Yoram Hazony's Fifteen Minutes of Infamy

Last week, I wrote about Yoram Hazony’s speech at the International Conference on Anti-Semitism. Hazony argued that critics simply have not made the case against Tucker Carlson. Hazony made a very unusual reference to the lack of a fifteen-minute video to make that case. I quote him in full to ensure that readers get the full context:

A third possibility is that Jews and Zionist Christians have plenty of connections in the Republican party, but that the case against Tucker over the last six months just wasn’t presented in a way that was professional, serious, and competent enough to be persuasive.

Sure, many of you think that Tucker is a leading promoter of anti-Semitism, and that the Trump movement should just ditch him.

But that’s obviously not what President Trump thinks about Tucker, who did extraordinary work building up the Trump movement over seven years as a host on Fox News. On top of that, Tucker is a very smart, passionate, and very likeable man when you meet him in person. I had lunch with him once, years ago, and I thought he was great. I invited him to NatCon 1 and he gave one of the best speeches we have ever hosted.

And Tucker has been saying—as clear as the day—that he is not an anti-Semite.

Now, if you think otherwise, you are going to have to convince people. You will have to make your case, in a persuasive way, to people who don’t spend a lot of time watching podcasts.

Have Tucker’s critics done that? Well, if they have, where is the 15-minute explainer video, that I can show my friends on the political right, which proves that this very serious accusation against Tucker is true? Where is the carefully assembled research, with links and dates and timestamps, that could convince an impartial public figure who is open to being convinced?

The answer is: There is no such 15-minute explainer video. There is no such serious research. They don’t exist because, for some reason, there are no Jews or Zionist Christians, who think it’s their job to produce such things. Or if there are people who think it’s their job, they haven’t circulated anything of the sort—to me or to anyone else in Washington who’s in a position to do anything with it.

This is an extremely high level of incompetence by the entire anti-Semitism-industrial complex, some of whose representatives are sitting right here in this room. Maybe some of you think you were persuasively “fighting anti-Semitism” over the last six months. But the unfortunate truth is that you weren’t.

When I first read this, I wondered whether a fifteen minute video is some sort of necessary condition. Is this the standard length of opposition research needed to take someone down? I didn’t give this passage much attention, as there were so many other problematic aspects of the speech.

But now, the story has developed.

The day after Hazony shared his speech, Orit Arfa published an essay at Tablet, titled “Yoram Hazony’s 15 Minutes.” Until recently, Orit worked for Hazony. I interacted with her when I spoke at NatCon 5 in September.

The story is almost too strange to believe: there is a 15-minute video.

The truth, as Yoram well knows, is that there is such a video—and the reason he knows it is because Yoram himself produced it. Fellow employees and I worked hours to produce an explainer with video excerpts of Tucker’s seven slanders against Jews that Yoram enumerated in his speech. The final cut? Fourteen minutes and 57 seconds.

But Yoram would not make this video public. He kept it unlisted in an obscure account with the stated intention of sharing it with select people in Washington. I am flabbergasted that Yoram would say that no such video exists, because he produced one. He just didn’t have the courage to put his name or his organization’s name on it or to make it public. It saddens me that he would diminish the work of his dedicated employees by erasing our efforts.

You can watch the unlisted video here:

Will Chamberain, who works for Hazony, offered a different take: Hazony knew a fifteen minute video existed, but he concluded that it didn’t make the case:

Should he have clarified by saying “there is one such video that I tasked a subordinate with making, but I haven’t published it because her work product was poor and the video was unpersuasive?”

This is all a massive stretch.

Arfa responded that Hazony had praised the video, and showed it to people:

Will, it was a group effort. He gave editorial guidance at every step and praised our teamwork and the final product. Watch it.

Someone shared with me this brilliant insight:

“When I read his speech, I was jarred by the focus on a ’15-minute video.’ Such a specific reference. There have been countless articles and op-eds and podcasts and media appearances and social media posts pointing out Tucker’s rancid antisemitism. Why did it have to be ‘a 15-minute video’? But your piece explained it. It was a tell. BECAUSE he knew there was one because you all produced it. It was what remains of his conscience goading him to tell on himself.”

This is all so strange. Frankly, I don’t know what to believe. Hazony didn’t have to say anything about a 15-minute video, but by doing so, he opened himself up to this predictable criticism.

Hazony is clearly focused on expanding the tent. But he is the center pole under the big top. When he engages in such inexplicable behavior, the entire tent begins to collapse. The leader of a moment needs to avoid unforced errors, yet Hazony continues to make them. Indeed, Hazony’s compatriot Kevin Roberts is in similar spot. As Roberts continues to fall, the edifice that is the Heritage Foundation collapses, and becomes unrecognizable.

I’ve learned that the next NatCon conference will be in Jerusalem in June 2026. That should go over well.

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