Netanyahu’s appearance on the Nelk Boys’ far-right podcast – and their softball questions for the PM amid mass starvation in Gaza – caused outrage among leftists and the MAGA-loving manosphere alike
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance on a podcast popular with young male supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump has caused significant backlash for the hosts, indicating just how unpopular the Israeli premier has become amongst a once favorable audience.
Netanyahu’s appearance on the Nelk Boys’ “Full Send” Podcast, hosted by YouTubers Kyle Forgeard and Aaron “Steiny” Steinberg, was published Monday. It was pre-recorded during his recent visit to Washington earlier this month, part of his right-wing international media blitz, which also included Fox News and Newsmax.
Netanyahu’s appearance with the Nelk Boys – who previously visited Israel in 2023 – indicated an awareness of the MAGA media landscape and the so-called manosphere of podcasters, streamers and YouTubers that helped Trump make significant inroads ahead of the 2024 election.
During the episode, Netanyahu repeated his well-established praise for Trump and attacked New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in more explicit terms than he has before. Netanyahu also spent his valuable time during a highly anticipated interview espousing his preference for Burger King over McDonald’s, rather than answering legitimate questions about the Gaza humanitarian crisis or the delays in sealing a hostage deal and cease-fire.
Immediately following the episode’s publication, the manosphere exploded with condemnation over their failure to critically question Netanyahu, as well as their decision to platform the prime minister.
On YouTube, the episode received more than three times the number of dislikes to likes, with right-wing content creator Sneako – an avowed critic of Israel – circulating a clip of the hosts saying “We are so not qualified to do this. That’s what interesting about this, we should just not be doing this.”
“When you’re right, you’re right. Maybe stick to sports betting, promoting alcohol and gambling,” said Sneako, who has previously faced bans from YouTube and Twitch for comments deemed antisemitic.
Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist and popular live streamer, joined in attacking the Nelk Boys for their trivial questioning of Netanyahu.
“You’re talking about fucking Whoppers?!” Fuentes said on his podcast, referring to Burger King’s signature burger that Netanyahu expressed his love for. “You’re genociding 2 million people.”
The hosts, meanwhile, explicitly acknowledged the backlash while live streaming later that day. “It’s a good point: Someone said having Netanyahu on is like having a modern-day Hitler on. Which honestly, it’s a good point. We’re here to fucking learn, to be honest,” Forgeard said.
The Nelk Boys then invited some of their critics on their stream to directly address the controversy, including both Sneako and Fuentes.
“He’s going to come on your show to try and get all the young, conservative, frat guys back in the pocket of Israel, and they see you as PR for Israel and doing damage control for Netanyahu,” Fuentes said to the nodding hosts. “It seems pretty unpopular and transparent Netanyahu took the interview for that purpose.”
Sneako then told the Nelk Boys that Netanyahu was “worse than Hitler.”
“Donald Trump is basically owned by Netanyahu, whether you like to believe that or not,” Sneako said, adding that Netanyahu “is the only person Trump seems afraid of. [Trump] said no more wars, then he bombed Iran.”
Forgeard and Steinberg, however, did not only explicitly address the Netanyahu episode with critics on the right. They convened with Hasan Piker, the left-wing Twitch streamer who has found himself at odds with Jewish establishment organizations over his vociferous criticism of the Gaza war.
“Would you interview Adolf Hitler during the Holocaust if you had the opportunity? Probably not, right? We had less information on the Holocaust while it was happening than we do on this modern iteration of a genocide, because we get to see it in real time,” Piker told them on their Kick stream.
“Just ’cause we have someone on doesn’t necessarily mean a W [win] for the guest,” they told Piker. “Our viewers are fucking smart.”
“I’m well-equipped to have a conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu. I can turn around and tell him the World Food Program has said there’s no evidence to suggest Hamas is stealing aid. You don’t have that follow-up in that situation,” Piker said.
Jewish left-wing podcaster Adam Friedland also joined. “You say it’s just a podcast, but you don’t realize there’s a gravity there, and powerful people want access to your platform that have a fucking agenda,” Friedland said.
“The Palestinians were dispossessed, everywhere they go they get killed, and if we can’t see ourselves in that, it’s a shanda,” Friedland added, using the Yiddish term for “shame” to reject Steinberg’s invocation of his own Judaism during the podcast.
Benjamin Netanyahu on the fullsendpodcast LIVE at 12PM/EST pic.twitter.com/eJLLxYvhMd
— Full Send Podcast (@fullsendpodcast) July 21, 2025
When the hosts tried defending it by insisting they disagree with Netanyahu, Friedland retorted: “You collab-ed [collaborated] with him!”
Piker, meanwhile, called Netanyahu “infinitely worse” than Hamas while insisting “the Israeli military’s conduct is a million times worse than anything Hamas could have ever done.”
A recent Pew survey, published in April, found that the 53 percent of Americans now hold an unfavorable opinion of Israel – an 11-point increase from March 2022. Republicans aged 18–49 who reported having unfavorable views of Israel increased to 50 percent, compared to 35 percent three years ago. Among Democrats of the same age, 71 percent view Israel unfavorably, compared to 62 percent in 2022.
The Nelk Boys, meanwhile, said they will give “the other side” the opportunity to respond to Netanyahu in their next episode without specifying who it will be.
“That’s just the way we roll, bro. Someone has to do it,” said Forgeard. “If we have to fucking take the fall and be the bad guys for having the controversial people on, we’re willing to do it.”
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