This week's edition of the excellent "Red Pilled America" podcast (here: https://redpilledamerica.com/episodes/ep-86-whigs-2/) revisits the original "America First" campaigns of Patrick Buchanan, Ross Perot, and Ron Paul.

In the context of the ongoing controversy about Kanye West and antisemitism, I think it is necessary to add a dimension to the podcast's analysis of what went wrong with these campaigns, and it has to do with the Jewish people and Israel.

First, let's talk about "the Jews." Kanye, sounding like a classic antisemite, argued that Jews control American politics because Barack Obama had Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, and Donald Trump worked with Jared Kushner.

It is true that there are Jews in influential positions in American politics -- and this is something Jews should be proud of having achieved. But there is nothing conspiratorial about it. Emanuel and Kushner supported very different policies.

Even on the subject of Israel -- where both Emanuel and Kushner might have been expected to share a similar policy -- Emanuel backed Obama's pressure campaign on Israel, while Kushner's approach was the opposite (and successful).

Jews are involved in politics for a variety of reasons -- none too different from Irish-, Italian-, or African-Americans, or any other population or interest group for that matter.

There are, however, some additional cultural factors with Jews.

We are, like Catholics, overrepresented on the Supreme Court. I believe this has at least something to do with the fact that both faiths are steeped in law, ritual, and doctrine, and that this has a cultural resonance in producing lawyers.

We are also overrepresented in the media, largely -- I believe -- because of a religious focus on literacy. And we are overrepresented -- as "Ye" complains -- in Hollywood, partly because of the cultural traditions of the Yiddish theater.

Those are just general explanations. But they have nothing to do with the desire to exercise control over anything, certainly not to the detriment of Americans or black Americans in particular, whose success Jews have often championed.

Now to the "America First" business. "America First" has a difficult resonance for Jews, because it was the slogan of isolationists during World War II, when the Jews of Europe were being murdered while America sat out the conflict.

Buchanan's version of "America First" hearkened back to that. He also had some strange anti-Jewish prejudices, including a soft spot for Nazi war criminals and a dislike of Israel, as well as the Jewish community for supporting it.

Ross Perot did not have that baggage, though his awkward relationships with minorities, notably black Americans, made Jews uncomfortable.

George H.W. Bush -- the "realist" -- was the most hostile president to Israel until Obama.

It is worth noting that the Republican "establishment" position was often hostile to Israel because Republicans -- e.g. the Bushes -- were close to Arab regimes and built U.S. foreign policy around placating the oil dynasties of the region.

It was the post-9/11 George W. Bush who finally brought the pro-Israel position into the GOP in a serious way -- though, to his detriment, he also backed a failed Palestinian state and pressured Israel during the Second Lebanon War.

The Ron Paul phenomenon made Jews nervous, partly because of past things Paul had said, but also because he was arguing for non-intervention at a time when anti-Israel voices were falsely blaming Israel and Jews for the Iraq War.

Paul's tendency to blame American foreign policy for terrorist attacks on America echoed the claims of anti-Israel activists, who blamed Israel for terror attacks by Palestinians; he could not reckon with the challenge of radical Islam.

I think it is hard to explain the failure of Buchanan and Paul's "America First" policies without noting their blind spots on Jews and Israel, which appeared to preclude the idea that some foreign alliances were beneficial to America.

Trump fixed that, and redeemed the idea of "America First," by adopting the Ronald Reagan philosophy of "peace through strength" and adapting it to a post-9/11 age. He fought terror without a war; he backed Israel to the hilt.

The result was a flourishing of peace and stability in the Middle East, aided by an aggressive domestic energy policy that reduced our dependence on the region.

Under Trump, what was "good for the Jews" was also good for America.

In that way, Trump redeemed the "America First" position from the moral problems of its isolationist origins, and the personal quirks of Buchanan and Paul, who were either hostile to Jews or far too tolerant of antisemitism.

That's why Trump's dinner with "Ye" was a problem; it's also why what Kanye West and Nick Fuentes are doing is a problem. They are threatening to tear apart the careful fabric that Trump -- yes, with Kushner -- wove together.

It's not just "the Jews" that will suffer; it's America.

Whether Trump or another candidate, we need a leader who will pursue "peace through strength" and also a policy that recognizes that the U.S.-Israel relationship is mutually beneficial.