Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson hosted authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor at Town Hall Seattle on Sept. 24, praising their new book and calling the war in Gaza a “genocide.”
During the event, which was recorded by the Seattle Channel and uploaded on Thursday, Wilson interviewed Klein and Taylor about their book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World. The book examines what the authors describe as an alliance among religious fundamentalists, Silicon Valley technologists and ethno-nationalists who share apocalyptic visions of the future.
“Your work is so important to the left, and I am proud to share a stage with you tonight as we build power not only to defend against fascism, but to create a better world,” Wilson said.
The mayor cited “that juxtaposition of the genocide in Gaza with that AI-generation paradise where someone’s obviously going to make a lot of money selling condos,” referring to the plan to redevelop Gaza.
During a discussion of “religious end-timers,” Klein, 56, a Montreal-born Jewish Canadian author who lives in Vancouver and supports Jewish Voice for Peace, said U.S. President Trump had appointed “Mike Huckabee, who is a Christian Zionist, to be the ambassador to Israel.”
Trump nominated Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, for the post, and the Senate confirmed him in April 2025. Huckabee has publicly identified as a Christian Zionist and has expressed support for Israel and its claims to Judea and Samaria.
According to Klein, evangelical Christian support of Israeli “incursions onto Al-Aqsa are lighting a match in an already very volatile region,” for the purpose of triggering “World War III with nukes. So they have the power to create an Armageddon that we are all in.”
She said she and Taylor, 46, a Winnipeg-born Canadian American writer and activist, had studied the significance that some Christian Zionists attach to “spotless red heifers” and animal sacrifices in connection with end-times beliefs.
“Astra and I, unfortunately, had to learn about spotless red heifers and all kinds of animal sacrifices, and, you know, we wish we didn’t,” she said. “But we decided that they had become powerful enough, both within the Israeli government—not to say they control the whole government, but they control more parts of the government than has ever happened before in the history of the country, and more parts of the U.S. government.”
“We think they’re wrong, that this isn’t gonna bring the Messiah, but that doesn’t mean they can’t trigger the Armageddon, right?” Klein said.
Taylor encouraged audience members to join the Democratic Socialists of America or participate in an electoral campaign.
“Join something, because this is too much for us to take on alone,” she said. “We really have to take it on together.”
“I totally agree with that,” Wilson replied.
The Seattle mayor, who is a self-described democratic socialist, is not a DSA member and was not endorsed by the organization in her 2025 mayoral campaign. (JNS sought comment from Wilson.)
