Dave Smith is a libertarian comedian and political commentator who’s become one of the loudest voices against Israel in the libertarian movement. Despite being Jewish and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, Smith has made a career out of bashing the Jewish state—often in ways that echo the very antisemitic tropes he claims to oppose.
On high-profile platforms like the Lex Fridman Podcast, Smith has repeatedly labeled Israel “an apartheid state,” a charge ripped straight from anti-Israel activists who equate a complex conflict with South Africa’s racial segregation. On the Useful Idiots podcast in January 2025, Smith tried to qualify his rhetoric by saying, “My beef with Israel has nothing to do with how I feel about Jewish people.” He then went on to accuse Israel of “indiscriminately slaughtering” Palestinians.
Smith doesn’t stop at criticizing military tactics. He’s openly questioned the legitimacy of Israel’s founding, calling it “illegitimate and immoral.” On Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant podcast, he declared that “Israel isn’t a real democracy.” He’s also compared Gaza to a “concentration camp”—a grotesque analogy, especially coming from someone whose own family survived the Holocaust.
His critiques extend to the U.S.-Israel relationship, where he’s flirted with classic conspiracy theories. On Flagrant, he claimed Israel “pushed the U.S. into the Iraq War,” suggesting that American foreign policy is dictated by Israel. On The Joe Rogan Experience, he argued against U.S. military aid to Israel, framing it as a form of exploitation: “American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund Israel if it doesn’t serve the country’s interests.”
But it doesn’t end there. Smith has a history of giving platforms to individuals widely condemned for antisemitism and white nationalism. In 2017, while guest-hosting The Gavin McInnes Show, Smith proudly interviewed neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, telling him, “When Gavin asked me to guest host, you were the first person I wanted to talk to.” He later gave airtime to “Crying Nazi” Christopher Cantwell, ending their conversation by saying, “You’re a very talented guy.” Most recently, Smith has gone out of his way to defend Candace Owens amid accusations of antisemitism.
Smith’s defenders hide behind his Jewish identity, as if that makes his comments immune from critique. But critics—and they are growing—argue that identity doesn’t absolve someone from promoting dangerous narratives or aligning with known bigots.
What makes Dave Smith so relevant right now isn’t just the platform he has—it’s what he represents: a new strain of libertarianism where criticism of Israel crosses a very real line. A worldview that cloaks anti-Israel hostility in anti-interventionist language, but often ends up parroting talking points indistinguishable from those pushed by antisemites. His rise is a warning: the mainstreaming of this rhetoric is already happening.
