Joe Rogan accused of anti-Semitism while defending Ilhan Omar

Joe Rogan has been accused of “casually spreading anti-Semitism” on his hit podcast while trying to protect under-fire progressive MP Ilhan Omar from the same charge.

The UFC commentator discussed how certain conditions led to people being canceled as he denounced the member of the Democratic “Squad” who was booted from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over her past anti-Semitic comments.

He highlighted that Omar (D-Minn.) “apologizes for talking about how it’s ‘all about the Benjamins,'” he said of Congressmen’s 2019 message on American support for Israel.

“It’s all about money — she only talks about money,” Rogan said on an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” released on Spotify on Saturday.

“That’s not an anti-Semitic statement, I don’t think that’s the case,” Rogan insisted, using the term widely denounced as a racist term.

“Benjamins are money. The idea that Jews don’t like money is ridiculous. That’s like saying Italians don’t like pizza. It’s damn stupid. It’s bloody stupid,” he said.

Rogan then said that “whether you agree with her or not”, Omar shared “a bold opinion”.

“And that opinion isn’t their own — there are a lot of people who have that opinion and they should be represented,” he said.

He was soon attacked, however, with some critics even tagging Spotify to ask if the streaming service was “happy” that its “multimillion-dollar podcaster” was “Occasionally spitting anti-Semitism.”

British comedian David Baddiel – the author of a book on anti-Semitism called Jews Don’t Count – also accused the podcaster of spreading a “racist myth” on the show “with a big grin.”

“Actually, I’d like to stop banging the ‘Jews don’t count’ gimmick at some point, but hard to do when a racist myth about Jews is just… fluffy said on one of the biggest podcasts in the world and nobody gives anything af-k,” Baddiel tweeted its 880,000 followers early Tuesday.

“For those who are hard to understand, ‘Jews are into money’ is not like ‘Italians are into pizza,'” he stressed.

“Because unless my history class really missed something, nobody’s exterminated a large chunk of the entire Italian community for their love of pepperoni,” he quipped.

“Also, Joe Rogan has a $200 million deal with Spotify. And yet apparently it’s Jews who like money,” he tweeted.

Alex Zeldin, a columnist for Forward – formerly the Jewish Daily Forward – replied sarcastically that “Jews are the only people who have money.

“The rest of you with jobs to pay income and bills and to support families are not into money, and that’s not at all a crazy view that leads to the murder of Jews.”

A Jewish journalist tweeted: “If only my relatives who were lined up and shot were so hungry for money that they had enough to escape the Nazis.”

Rogan found irony as he discussed the dangers of cancel culture with his guests, Breaking Points journalists Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti.

Ball agreed that Omar “shouldn’t have apologized” for her “Benjamins” tweet, but acknowledged that the congresswoman “could have put it differently so people wouldn’t freak out”.

“But can’t you talk about the influence of money in DC? I mean, that’s very obvious,” Ball said.

“There’s a very obvious reason why there’s been a one-party consensus my entire life about our policy toward the Israeli government,” she added, saying that money is behind support for Israel, “just like any other damn interest in.” direct current.”

Enjeti, meanwhile, told Rogan: “I don’t agree with Ilhan Omar on a lot. Nor do I think it should be forbidden to talk about the influence of any government,” saying that the “hypocrisy” in politics “drives me insane.”

Rogan does not appear to have addressed the backlash to his comments, and his reps did not immediately respond to messages on Tuesday. Spotify also didn’t respond to messages asking for comment.

Earlier on Saturday’s podcast, Rogan told his guests that he had long since stopped “paying attention to the comments” on his shows, although the trade-off was a lack of constructive criticism.

Instead, he advised them to follow his example and tell viewers, “Look, I love you guys — I just don’t read your shit.”