The time has come to consider whether Candace Owens’ criticisms of Middle East policy constitute treason.
During her interview with Piers Morgan on June 24, Owens encouraged American soldiers to seek dishonorable discharges to avoid fighting a possible war against Iran. The rest of her anti-Israeli rants reinforced Iranian propaganda and mimicked Press TV, Iran's government-owned news agency for Western audiences.
Given that Iran has viewed itself at war with the United States since the 1979 revolution, Owens gives aid and comfort to a regime that views itself as this nation’s existential enemy.
Owens' remarks about Israeli and domestic Jewish influence in American politics match those made by two of Press TV’s British hosts: Chris Williamson, a former Labour MP, and David Miller, a former professor at the University of Bristol. On Morgan’s program, Owens blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear research and enrichment sites June 22.
"The reason that America wants a regime change in Iran is because Bibi Netanyahu is demanding it... We're very aware that Israel is dictating our foreign policy, and we would now like that to stop.
"This was not Trump's decision; it was Bibi Netanyahu's decision. He's also doing it because Miriam Adelson demands it."
Miriam Adelson is the widow of billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a Jewish-American businessman who donated millions of dollars to political candidates, especially Trump.
"He took $100 million from Miriam Adelson," Owens said. "It was very clear what she wanted. She wanted to annex the West Bank. So there was an imperialist plan that was put into place. Unfortunately, when you do a deal with the devil, you're going to have to eventually deliver the pound of flesh."
Williamson made similar accusations in 2019 when he blamed Israeli and domestic Jewish influences for the failure of Labour's Jeremy Corbyn to defeat the Conservatives' Boris Johnson in the race for prime minister.
“A hostile foreign government has mobilized its assets in the UK -- which Israeli diplomats call their ‘power multiplier’ -- in an attempt to prevent a Corbyn-led Labour government” from winning, said Williamson, who left Labour because he believed the party became "too apologetic" about accusations of anti-Semitism.
In 2021, Miller claimed that Jewish students there were "directed by the State of Israel... Israel’s assets in the UK have been emboldened by the university collaborating with them to shut down teaching about Islamophobia. The University of Bristol is no longer safe for Muslim, Arab or Palestinian students."
Miller, who regularly made anti-Jewish remarks as a professor, revealed his own sympathies in February by attending the funeral of Hassan Nazrallah, Hezb’allah’s founder.
Owens and Miller share another opinion, one Owens expressed when Morgan called Iran the main sponsor of Middle Eastern terrorism through Hezb’allah, Hamas, and the Houthis.
"No," she replied. "Israel has been a terrorist state. Israel right now is imparting a genocide and a holocaust on the Gazan people. I'm really over this idea that, somehow, Israel has the moral high ground and we have to get behind that."
Miller made the same point in 2021, when he accused Jewish university students of "being used as political pawns by a violent, racist, foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing.”
Press TV routinely runs stories that portray Israeli soldiers as no better than the Nazi SS. Owens herself has the audacity to equate Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler.
But if Israel is genocidal, why did the Israeli armed forces warn civilians in both Gaza and Lebanon to evacuate areas targeted for attack? If Israel is genocidal, why did it relinquish Gaza in 2005 and the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 for the sake of peace?
Of course, such inconvenient facts hold no interest for propagandists. Nor do the cries of "Death to Israel! Death to America!" from the Iranian regime's sycophants for nearly five decades.
In 2023, Ayatollah Ali Khameini said the phrase “is not just a slogan; it is a policy.”
Yet Owens not only dismissed such rhetoric when Morgan confronted her with it but blamed the United States for it.
"That's a chant," she said. "Why are they chanting, 'Death to America'? Could it be because of our actions in the Middle East? Iran's regime is not negatively impacting America on a day-to-day basis."
Perhaps Owens should understand how the Nazis' anti-Jewish rhetoric led to the "final solution" more than two decades after their party was founded.
Perhaps Owens should understand the potential threat of domestic terrorism from sleeper cells loyal to Iran.
But the most damning evidence of Owens' treason comes through a clip Morgan played from one of her podcasts:
"I do believe that if war with Iran is on the agenda, and that appears so, get dishonorably discharged... Who cares? Why should you go and die in a foreign land?
"Think about those men and women who died. They were pitched that they were serving their country because there were weapons of mass destruction. because of the Taliban, because of whatever. These people gave up their lives. Ask yourselves, 'For what?' The answer to that question is, 'For the elites.' They're like toy soldiers."
Offenses leading to a dishonorable discharge under the Uniform Code of Military Justice include desertion, fraud, espionage, sexual assault, and murder. Anyone dishonorably discharged loses the right to own a firearm, forfeits veterans' benefits, and risks being rejected for employment.
When Morgan pressed her, Owens not only had no regrets about her advice. She accused Morgan of overemphasizing her comments and showed no regard for military personnel who might take her advice.
"I would imagine that the people in the military who were going to listen to my podcast and were going to dishonorably discharge would know the consequences," Owens said dismissively.
But earlier in the interview, Owens said she would support American military action to force regime change in Israel.
Who's playing with toy soldiers now, Candace?
Owens thus places herself on the level of such "influencers" as Tokyo Rose, Axis Sally, Lord Haw Haw and American poet Ezra Pound during World War II. All served the Axis powers as propagandists to destroy military and civilian morale.
Compare Owens' rhetoric with Pound’s:
"You let in the Jew and the Jew rotted your Empire, and you yourselves are (doomed) by the Jew." (March 15, 1942)
“You are in black darkness and confusion. You have been hugger-mugged and carom-shotted into a war, and you know NOTHING about it.” (July 13, 1942)
“Just which of you is free from Jewish influence? Just which political-business groups are free from Jew influence, from Jew control?” (March 19, 1943)
“What are you doing in the war at all? …Every day of war is a dead day as well as a death day. More death, more future servitude, less and less of American liberty of any variety.” (May 4, 1943)
Pound was arraigned for treason in 1945 but psychological problems prevented him from standing trial. If Pound was so charged, perhaps Owens should be, as well.
Joseph D’Hippolito is a free-lance writer whose works on politics and religion have been published in such outlets as Wall Street Journal, The Federalist, the Jerusalem Post, FrontPage Magazine, American Spectator, and Human Events, among others.
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