Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon pushed back after Elad Nehorai — who describes himself as “ex-Hasidic” — accused Dillon of engaging in anti-Semitism.
“There are two questions every comedian must ask himself when writing a joke: 1. Is it funny? 2. Will it end my career because it offends the most powerful-but-insecure people in the world who mitigate mockery at their expense by self-identifying as oppressed and powerless?” Dillon wrote in the post that Nehorai described as anti-Semitic.
“Straight up antisemitism from the CEO of the Babylon Bee,” Nehorai tweeted about Dillon’s post.
“I wasn’t talking about Jews, @EladNehorai. Why would you assume I was? We were locked in Twitter jail for 8 months for a joke about radical gender ideology. Other comedians have been canceled, and even physically attacked, for similar crimes,” Dillon tweeted.
“Let’s say this is true. It’s a perfect example of how attacks on trans people are steeped in antisemitic tropes. The idea that a vulnerable community actually has unchecked power & controls the media: it’s antisemitism transferred to another group. On the day they were massacred,” Nehorai wrote.
Dillon, who is a Christian, responded to another Twitter user by writing, “I am a Jew,” and adding that he is “Ashkenazi.”
Elon Musk announced last week that the the Babylon Bee, a popular satire site, had been reinstated on Twitter. Earlier this year, before Musk acquired the company, Twitter slapped the Bee down for a tweet about Rachel Levine, and the Bee declined to delete the offending post as Twitter demanded as a condition for unlocking the account.
Babylon Bee CEO: We won’t delete this tweet