Carlson’s Mendacious Attack Against Israel

Peloni: Tucker Carlson interviewed Rev. Munther Isaac today who is a Lutheran Pastor from Bethlehem. There is no good faith explanation for the gross lies and distortions which were described by Carlson and Isaac and which were distinctly intended to undermine the connection between Israel and the American Christian community.  It has actually been the Pals who have carried out an anti Christian agenda over the years, with devastating effect on the Christian community in the areas controlled by the Pal, while Christians living in Israel, like the Pal citizens living in Israel, enjoy the rights and priveledges of all Israelis and as such, they are provided with far greater rights and privileges than exist in any country surrounding Israel.

What follows are some very important responses to this interview.

Caroline Glick, X    April 9, 2024

This is mendacious hit piece that shows Tucker’s generally well-hidden hand. The Christian population of Bethlehem all but disappeared after the PLO took over in 1996 due to Islamic persecution. The only Christian population in the Middle East that is growing is the Christian community in Israel.

The Christian community in Gaza disappeared after Hamas took over in 2005.

In 2002, PLO terrorists took nuns and priests hostages in a standoff with IDF forces in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Mike Doran, X    April 9, 2024

This is stupid and malevolent. Christians live far better in Israel than in any of the surrounding countries. Palestinian rule — not Israeli — is what drove Christians from Bethlehem. Before the Israelis withdrew, per the Oslo Accords, Christians thrived there.

Tucker has become a validator of Hamas propaganda. Disgusting.

Allow me to respond to @TuckerCarlson’s interview here with @MuntherIsaac by talking about the facts, rather than speculating about whether Tucker hates Israel, or is an antisemite. He says he is concerned about Christians; I’ll accept that. But there’s no excuse for this. (1/nn)

First, a fact about Bethlehem. Christians used to be a majority there; they are now a minority. The Palestinian Authority has been Islamizing the city since taking control of Bethlehem 30 years ago. Israeli “occupation” is hardly the primary issue. (2/10)

THE BELEAGUERED CHRISTIANS OF THE PALESTINIAN-CONTROLLED AREAS

Another fact: Bethlehem has become an antisemitic city under Palestinian control, far worse to Jews than even to Christians. In 2007, I was told not to speak Hebrew there; in 2023, I was told to remove my yarmulke, or cover it with a hat. In the birthplace of Jesus, a Jew. (3/10)

Rev. Isaac does not believe Israel should exist, a fact Tucker does not discuss. He also repeats many false claims about Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, like the claim Israeli snipers killed 2 civilians in a church, which the IDF (which admits other mistakes) refuted. (4/10)

Remarkably, Rev. Isaac criticizes the Abraham Accords, a peace agreement between Israel and several Arab states. One who is truly interested in peace should welcome that development. For Rev. Isaac, that peace deal is bad because it distracts from the Palestinian struggle. (5/10)

Rev. Isaac is an activist who campaigns worldwide against evangelical Christian support for Israel. He tells Carlson evangelicals should not use the Bible as a basis for supporting Israel. He is entitled to these beliefs but they are not authoritative in any broader sense. (6/10)

Rev. Isaac says Israel is “not as free as people say” for Christians, claiming it is tough to register conversions. (Bureaucracy is tough for everyone in Israel, due to laws dating to the Ottoman era.) Tucker extrapolates, falsely, Christians have “fewer rights” in Israel. (7/10)

Carlson adds some of the interview’s most incendiary comments, suggesting that the U.S. should not give Israel aid if one Christian is killed and should not support a foreign government that he says is guilty of “blowing up churches and killing Christians,” which is false. (8/10)

One suspects Carlson’s real target is Republican foreign policy. He mocks “self-professed Christians” in the U.S. whom he says are “sending money to oppress Christians,” another false and inflammatory statement. He attacks evangelical @SpeakerJohnson for supporting Israel. (9/10)

There are many pro-Israel Christian Arabs (tak to @YosephHaddad). Concern about Christians would suggest backing Israel against Islamist Hamas and opposing Palestinian Authority policies. Tucker has taken his opposition to a U.S. role in foreign wars to an absurd extreme. (10/10)

@YosephHaddad Apologies for typos; I’m on a flight to Israel.

April 10, 2024 | 14 Comments »

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14 Comments / 14 Comments

  2. As a Christian who loves Israel, I feel safer in Tel Aviv than in any city with Joe Biden as President.

    I went to St George’s (an Episcopal School where we went to church every day and twice on Sunday) – the same Prep School as Tucker. Every year our class went to Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI a few miles away to understand religious tolerance. That was 20 years before he got there.

    My father was President of a well known charity in NYC in the Lower East Side and his right hand man was Jewish. I was fortunate to grow up with no Jewish animosity.

    Something happened to Mr. Carlson. I mean his mother abandoned him and probably left a scar that won’t heal.

    I will pray for him that he comes to his senses regarding Israel.

  3. The same URL

    Thomas L Friedman

    He claims that there is a co-dependence between Netanyahu and Hamas

    This is total conspiracy by Friedman.

    It’s a slander of the Jews

    It seems to me to be down there with German Nazis

    GZERO Media
    Who’s winning the Israel-Palestine information war?
    April 10, 2024GZERO Staff

    Who’s winning the Israel-Palestine information war? | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer
    To fully grasp why the Gaza war remains so far from a peaceful resolution, you need to understand the codependency between Israel’s Far Right and Hamas. So says Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman on “GZERO World.”

    “They both advocate for control of everything between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean,” Friedman tells Ian Bremmer. “Just for different people.” In a wide-ranging interview, Friedman makes the case for a lasting post-war peace and explains why both Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government and Hamas are obstacles to that peace.

    (I have no doubt most Jews will be very alarmed by what Friedman and the other guy is saying. That there’s an equivalence between Hamas and Netanyahu. Where can he end with that claim…that a new Holocaust of the Jews is in order in the view of Friedman – because the vast majority of Jews today are supporting Netanyahu)

  4. This is being used already in Europe against Israel

    Mediterranean,” Friedman tells Ian Bremmer. “Just for different people.” In a wide-ranging interview, Friedman makes the case for a lasting post-war peace and explains why both Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government and Hamas are obstacles to that peace.

    https://www-gzeromedia-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.gzeromedia.com/amp/whos-winning-the-israel-palestine-information-war-2667710225?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17127676097147&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gzeromedia.com%2Fgzero-world-clips%2Fwhos-winning-the-israel-palestine-information-war

  5. Caroline Glick is absolutely right. As for Tucker, I have yet to see him support Israel and her people. He will lose a lot of subscribers over this, including me.

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  6. I can’t disagree with any of this.

    This is of course not in any way an accurate portrayal of Carlson, and if it were, his outrageous attacks on Israel, which are intensifying, would not be so great of a concern as they stand today. He is in fact not a conspiracy theory kook. He is however a very clear antisemite, whose world view requires the deligitimization of Israel, and he has bought himself a great deal of trust capital with the American people with which to pursue this objective.

    Indeed, being the lone voice on many topics to expose a great many troubling aspects of American society today has led to people accepting Carlson’s reporting as well based, no matter how outrageous the reports might be, and this is because his reports have been as accurate as they have been revealing, with the curious exception of his recent comment as they apply to Israel and the supporters of Israel.

    Simultaneously, it should be noted that his perspective is not one in which America should be led to regain the power and potential lost over the past decades as is the MAGA model, but to actually shutter America’s foreign policy at America’s borders. This isolationist worldview, however, is not in any way consistent with the MAGA platform, which is and has always been one in which America significantly engages in international affairs, albeit in a manner which directly supports American interests and the interests of America’s key regional allies with whom America is partnered around the world, among whom Israel very much remains as a primary element.

    So this should be seen as a clear and distinct shot across the bow of the Trump doctrine. It is clear that Carlson and his anti Israel allies such as Candace Owens intend to try to hijack the internationalist MAGA movement, and replace it with their own isolationist world view, but the elephant in the room which will impede this from happening will be Trump himself. Hence, it will be interesting to see what comes next in this battle for the hearts and minds of the MAGA supporters, but this growing feud between these two world views is very much on the rise, and the repeated point of friction over which this feud is taking form is the continued support for Israel.

  7. I disagree. In fact the deep state, beginning with the State Department has long been anti-Israel. It’s only because of Congress and many previous presidents that we have been supporting Israel. For example, Nixon defied the State Department by sending planes to Israel during the Yom Kippur war. I don’t know how anyone can look at the current democrat party, which controls the deep state and conclude they support Israel. Don’t make excuses for Carlson, he’s simply a plain old-school, white nationalist antisemite.

    Israel has been supported by both sides of the Deep State, which leads many to conclude that by association, Israel is “bad”. It’s a very simplistic and often emotional reaction to the abuses of the Deep State and its representatives.

  8. Interesting article with interesting comments, especially the last one by Peloni.

    I read another article about Tucker’s recent interview to which someone (“anon-tmva”) posted the following comment, which may partly explain why Tucker has been less than friendly to Israel and Jews:

    “Tucker’s position is understandable, on a deeper level, although I don’t agree with it. It’s a typical case of throwing out the baby with the baby water.

    As we all know, there is a rapidly growing wave of anti-establishment/anti-Deep State thought. I support it unequivocally; it’s absolutely vital for our future.

    However, like in any such movements, some get carried away. They come to question and often reject any and every position taken in the past by the representatives of the State. Everything that was done in the past is tainted by the corruption of the Deep State, therefore it must be automatically bad. End of discussion.

    Israel has been supported by both sides of the Deep State, which leads many to conclude that by association, Israel is “bad”. It’s a very simplistic and often emotional reaction to the abuses of the Deep State and its representatives.

    While I agree entirely that the Deep State is thoroughly rotten, I think it’s a stretch to assume that everything in its past is rotten. Yes, it might sound crazy. How can a rotten system produce anything that is not rotten? I don’t know, by accident, by ignorance, but somehow it happens.

    It takes a cool head to separate the wheat from the chaff. Personally, I think Tucker is so deeply jaded by the rot he has witnessed first hand in D.C. for decades, that he lost some much needed objectivity.”

    He then responded to a comment by another reader with the following:

    “There are anti-establishment figures that have been anti-Israel for a long time. Those are not the ones I’m talking about.

    I’m talking about anti-establishment people who have not been anti-Israel, and who are now getting caught in the “everything is rotten,”

  9. @Laura

    Actually he’s a far right, conspiracy theory kook.

    This is of course not in any way an accurate portrayal of Carlson, and if it were, his outrageous attacks on Israel, which are intensifying, would not be so great of a concern as they stand today. He is in fact not a conspiracy theory kook. He is however a very clear antisemite, whose world view requires the deligitimization of Israel, and he has bought himself a great deal of trust capital with the American people with which to pursue this objective.

    Indeed, being the lone voice on many topics to expose a great many troubling aspects of American society today has led to people accepting Carlson’s reporting as well based, no matter how outrageous the reports might be, and this is because his reports have been as accurate as they have been revealing, with the curious exception of his recent comment as they apply to Israel and the supporters of Israel.

    Simultaneously, it should be noted that his perspective is not one in which America should be led to regain the power and potential lost over the past decades as is the MAGA model, but to actually shutter America’s foreign policy at America’s borders. This isolationist worldview, however, is not in any way consistent with the MAGA platform, which is and has always been one in which America significantly engages in international affairs, albeit in a manner which directly supports American interests and the interests of America’s key regional allies with whom America is partnered around the world, among whom Israel very much remains as a primary element.

    So this should be seen as a clear and distinct shot across the bow of the Trump doctrine. It is clear that Carlson and his anti Israel allies such as Candace Owens intend to try to hijack the internationalist MAGA movement, and replace it with their own isolationist world view, but the elephant in the room which will impede this from happening will be Trump himself. Hence, it will be interesting to see what comes next in this battle for the hearts and minds of the MAGA supporters, but this growing feud between these two world views is very much on the rise, and the repeated point of friction over which this feud is taking form is the continued support for Israel.

  11. Actually he’s a far right, conspiracy theory kook. He’s Alex Jones. Since he started on FOX I’ve always suspected he was a closet antisemite. There were subtle clues. Since FOX fired him, he’s come fully out of the closet.

    But Carlson is not a progressive, he appears to be a center right moderate.

  12. I’ve tried to warn conservatives I know that fucker Carlson was no damn good. I’ve been on to him for years. Yet how many continued to defend him. Isolationists always tend to be antisemitic.

  13. I have emailed Tucker Carlson for years and again yesterday to interview Tommy Robinson who knows more about Muslims than Carlson ever will or this useless, phony “Palestinian” Pastor.

    Robinson has risked his life for the truth. America needs to hear him. What is Carlson waiting for or does he fear the truth? Carlson is afraid to do this. Why?

    He interviewed Jew haters Andrew Tate and Kanye West for hours and then said absolutely nothing about their Jew hatred. Interesting.

    Do we detect a pattern, here?

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  14. This reminds me that many American churches have become anti-Zionist in the last several decades. I know it is true of the Presbyterian churches. One possibility for the genesis of it is that progressives in general have become anti-Zionist. This is even true for Reform Jewish congregations. I witnessed a shift towards anti-Zionism in a reform synagogue in the same period of time as Obama was working to denigrate Israel and normalize Jew hatred. Jews from Reform congregations refused to see Obama’s role in this. They idealized Obama and they de-idealized Israel which they said could not be both a democracy and a Jewish state. They had a fixed idea that Jew hatred emanated from the “far right.” They take pride in and virtue signal in supporting Muslims and Palestinians, fully accepting that Palestinians are victims of Israel and Muslims are victims of Islamophobia.

    But Carlson is not a progressive, he appears to be a center right moderate. Still, he can possibly be influenced by what he hears in church on a regular basis. Over time, if enough lies about Israel become mainstream beliefs, a person might not even know they are lies nor that they reflect antisemitic tropes.

    The anti-Zionism of Christian denominations in the US bears examining.

    During the Civil Rights movement, Jews and Christians joined together to bring about a severe blow to Jim Crow in the South. It is thus unclear to me exactly how that partnership unraveled in the years since.

    No matter what these societal trends are, every adult is responsible for his or her words. I think if Carlson were open to questioning his own beliefs, he would benefit from talking with Israelis and Jews about Israel and Zionism.