Cenk Uygur — Antisemite of the Week

Cenk Uygur, founder of The Young Turks, has a long and troubling record of inflammatory rhetoric. A Turkish-born commentator, Cenk has faced repeated backlash over years of bigoted remarks – including blog posts and public statements that many have condemned as derogatory toward Jews and other minorities. His history includes questioning the Armenian Genocide, hosting known antisemite David Duke on his program, and making sweeping comments about Jewish influence and Israel.

Cenk repeatedly makes statements that go far beyond legitimate criticism of Israeli policy. Although he frames his rhetoric as opposition to Israel’s government, his commentary routinely amplifies narratives rooted in longstanding antisemitic tropes. His posts hold Israel to a unique double standard, portray Jewish and pro-Israel influence as corrupt and all-powerful, and suggest that American leaders act under foreign or Jewish control.

Below are several examples of Cenk’s claims:

He stated “I’m tired of Israel using Jews as human shields… It is not antisemitic to say Israel controls Congress.”
He has accused Israel of using “bots to influence US public and politicians… Because Israel is above the law.”
He asserted that it does not matter whether Biden or Trump wins, because “Netanyahu is still in charge.”
Cenk declared “If you don’t bow to Israel, they will hound you till the end of time…”
Cenk alleged that “the people in power are easy to understand. They’re either corrupt (paid by AIPAC) or afraid they’ll be fired by pro-Israel executives (mainstream media).”
He posted “You can’t complain about the trope, if you do the trope… They funneled money to the NY mayor to make sure American students who protested Israel were arrested.”

Collectively, these statements echo classic antisemitic conspiracies of Jewish power, dual loyalty, and global manipulation – themes explicitly identified by IHRA as textbook antisemitism. By framing Jewish individuals and institutions as secretly controlling governments, media, and public discourse, Cenk’s rhetoric crosses the line from policy critique into the propagation of age-old antisemitic narratives.

In a vindictive tirade on his program, Cenk Uygur accused Israel of genocide and claimed, “they lie to you, on purpose, to help Israel steal more land.” He sneered that Israelis “aren’t some special benighted superhumans” and that “if they die we all have to say we bow down to you… I’m so sick that everyone has to grovel to Israel.” This is not policy critique – it is dehumanization, echoing antisemitic portrayals of Jews as manipulative, all-powerful, and undeserving of empathy.

Cenk also routinely downplays terrorism and recasts Hamas as a rational actor while portraying Israel as the primary aggressor. His posts disproportionately blame Israel and cast it as morally equivalent to – or oftentimes worse than – Hamas. Cenk’s claims include:

He posted that Israel is “worse than Hamas” and in a separate post claimed “the side that has killed 25 times the number of civilians is the good guys and the other side is the evil terrorists.”
He claimed that Israeli and US officials “pretend Hamas and Hezbollah are attacking Israel for no reason… obviously they are fighting the tyrannical occupation.”
He asserted that he supports negotiating directly with Hamas because “Israel doesn’t want peace, so you have to work around them.”

By inverting victim and perpetrator roles, minimizing terrorism against Jews, and fixating exclusively on Israel, Cenk’s rhetoric moves far beyond political commentary. It weaponizes classic antisemitic tropes, demonizing and collectively vilifying the Jewish people while normalizing hostility toward Jews and their state.

Beyond promoting antisemitic tropes and double standards, Cenk has also sought to rewrite the very meaning of antisemitism itself through denying and distorting Jewish experiences.

For example:

Cenk claimed that the media has made Jewish Americans feel unsafe because “they now genuinely believe there is a powder keg of antisemitism on campuses, which isn’t remotely true.”
In reference to college campus protests, Cenk stated that “none of the students arrested harassed Jewish students” claiming instead that all students were arrested for “protesting Israel too long or in unapproved places.”
Cenk announced that the word “antisemite” has now “become counterproductive for Israeli zealots… 98% of the time it’s used is to defend some moral crime of Israel.”

Cenk Uygur has made a habit of mocking Jewish concerns as fabricated, framing outrage at antisemitic rhetoric as opportunistic, and treating the very concept of antisemitism as a tool of political convenience. The IHRA definition notes that denying, trivializing, or misrepresenting antisemitism can itself perpetuate harm against Jewish individuals and communities. Cenk Uygur doesn’t just excuse hate – he fuels it.

Cenk’s antisemitic rhetoric is not only pervasive but profitable. His YouTube platform, The Young Turks, generates significant ad revenue from their videos, effectively turning this hate into a source of income. StopAntisemitism needs YOUR help – contact the CEO Of YouTube HERE to remove ad-running ability from Cenk Uygur and The Young Turks!