Though Shapiro presents himself as a conservative voice in American media, he functions primarily as a Jewish activist whose commentary consistently defends Israeli policies and advances a distinctly Talmudic perspective—that is, one that prioritizes the interests of the Israeli state over Palestinian lives.

By 2003, for instance, Shapiro argued that Israel should expel Palestinians from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. His historical justification for this position invoked the post–World War II expulsions of Germans by the Allied powers, which he cited as a moral precedent. As he wrote at the time, "Transfer is not a dirty word."[1] Shapiro declared then: "expelling a hostile population is a commonly-used and generally effective way of preventing violent entanglements."[2]