From Pharaoh to Candace: A Step-by-Step Conspiracy Guide for Targeting Jews

At a Turning Point USA event, Tucker Carlson declared that Jeffrey Epstein was “extremely obviously” working for Israeli intelligence. Candace Owens has gone even further, spinning wild tales in which Israel itself was supposedly founded by a cult of pedophiles tied to the Frankists, even accusing Jews of ritual murder during Passover. Hackers even seized control of Sesame Street’s Elmo account to shout: “Donald Trump is Netanyahu’s puppet” and “Jews control the world and need to be exterminated.” Crazy as this sounds, this isn’t material from the margins of the internet – it’s pouring into the mainstream.

Conspiracy theories about Jews are exploding. The phrase “Jews control ____” appeared 45,000 times online in January 2025, the highest number in five years. To many good people today, this surge is shocking, even unprecedented. But if it is shocking, it shouldn’t be. This is the oldest method in the book for attacking Jews.

Where does this playbook begin? The Bible gives us the answer.

Is it really possible that Pharaoh didn’t know who Joseph was? Joseph, the man who saved Egypt from famine, who elevated the nation to unparalleled power and prosperity? The Sages explain that Pharaoh did know Joseph’s legacy – he simply chose to ignore it. This was no accident of forgetfulness. It was a calculated act of erasure. Pharaoh decided to behave as if Joseph and his people had contributed nothing. This is step one of the playbook: deny our contributions and paint us as parasites.

The same thing happens today. Antisemites claim we are leeches who take from America without giving back. This is a lie. Jews have fought and died for the United States since its founding. Roughly 550,000 Jews served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II, in every branch and on every front. My own grandfathers were among them—one nearly killed in the Battle of the Bulge in Europe, the other serving in the Pacific. We have helped build the country at every stage, from the Revolutionary War to Silicon Valley. This tactic works because so many people today, especially young people, are entirely ignorant of history. They don’t know what we actually contributed, so the lies rush in to fill the gap. And so antisemites, like Pharaoh, choose not to “know Joseph.” They erase Jewish sacrifice and success because it doesn’t fit their narrative.

Pharaoh’s next move was predictable.

Here the conspiracies begin. Pharaoh spreads the fear that the Israelites might rise up and overthrow Egypt from within. It was nonsense. Though the Israelites had many children, they were a small minority among the Egyptians. But Pharaoh stoked paranoia until the people believed it. Today’s antisemites do the same. Tucker Carlson insists Jews are running shadow spy networks. Conspiracy theorists claim Israel carried out 9/11, or that Jews control Washington, Wall Street, and Hollywood. Pharaoh’s paranoia lives on.

If only we Jews were that powerful, the world would be a much better place! In reality, we are not some sprawling empire of hidden power. The Jewish people number only about 14 million worldwide. That includes every last Jew, in every country. After two millennia of persecution, pogroms, holocausts, and assimilation, we are a fraction of the numbers we should have been. Yet, like Pharaoh, antisemites ascribe to us vast power – because they cannot explain our survival and success in any other way. If we are still here, still thriving, the only explanation in their minds must be some sinister plot.

This is the path every time. First come the whispers and suspicions. Then the lies are repeated until they sound like the truth. Eventually, they become policy. In Spain it meant expulsion, in Russia the pogroms, in Germany the Holocaust. Pharaoh’s script has been replayed in every generation, and it is beginning to surface again in the West.

But what set this spiral in motion in the first place? Why were the people of Israel such a target?

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz (1550–1619) explains that this verse speaks of Israel’s guilt. God had decreed that they would be strangers in Egypt, sojourners and nothing more. Yet they clung tightly to Goshen, settling in Egypt as though it were their true home. Originally, Jacob’s sons told Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land” (Genesis 47:4). They presented themselves as tenants, not owners. But they changed their minds. Egypt became too comfortable, and they no longer wished to leave. And so God was forced to uproot them through the hatred of the Egyptians.

This does not excuse Pharaoh. He chose evil. He had free will, and he chose to enslave and persecute an innocent people. For that, he was punished. Antisemites today also choose their wickedness, and they will face judgment for their evil. But the pattern remains: when Jews forget that exile is temporary, God allows hatred to rise up as a reminder. We are not meant to find our permanent home in foreign lands. Our true home is the Land of Israel.

Here lies the question that history forces upon us: will we recognize the pattern? Will we learn from Pharaoh’s playbook and understand the danger? Or will we repeat the mistake of clinging too tightly to exile until their host nation turns against them? The Bible is clear: we can either return home with our heads held high, or we can wait until Pharaoh’s heirs remind us the hard way. The choice is ours.