Tucker Carlson, one of the most influential voices on the American Right, ignited a storm on Friday with a two-and-a-half-hour interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, marking what critics describe as a direct and unprecedented assault on Israel from within the heart of the Republican Party's isolationist base.
The interview, filmed days earlier, capped a sustained campaign by Carlson not only against Israel but against the Jewish people, framed in rhetoric widely viewed as overt, blunt and conspiratorial antisemitism.
Carlson, 56, was for years the most popular host on Fox News, despite repeated controversies over provocative statements, sympathy for extremist figures and promotion of conspiracy theories. He was fired in 2023 and has since reinvented himself as an independent podcaster with more than 17 million followers. On his new platform he has conducted friendly interviews with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as well as with outspoken antisemites such as Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens. He also gave airtime to self-described historian Darryl Cooper, who argued that the US had been on the wrong side of World War II.
Targeting Christian Zionists
The immediate trigger for the Huckabee interview was a new Carlson campaign aimed at what has long been Israel's most steadfast support base in the US: Christian Zionists. Through a series of videos, Carlson has sought to portray Israel as one of the world's most hostile countries toward Christians.
In one clip he accused Huckabee of having "failed in Christian Jerusalem." Huckabee, an evangelical pastor and a prominent symbol of Christian Zionism in American politics, responded on X: "Instead of talking about me, why not come talk to me?" Carlson accepted the invitation.
Even before the interview aired, Carlson claimed that he and his team had been harassed at Ben Gurion Airport. The allegations were denied by both the US Embassy and Israeli officials, and video footage showed Carlson warmly embracing one of the security personnel. Undeterred, he opened the interview with a 25-minute monologue in which he said he had feared the Israel Defense Forces might shoot down his plane, described Israel as "the most violent country in the world" and a "police state," and alleged that it installs surveillance software on the phones of all visitors.
During the interview itself, Carlson raised a series of accusations about Israel's treatment of Christians and repeated claims that Israel provides refuge to American pedophiles. He also criticized Israel's war against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.
One of the more outlandish moments came when Carlson suggested conducting DNA tests on all Israeli citizens. "Who are these people in 2026, and how do we know they're descended from Abraham?" he asked.
Pressing Huckabee on whether Ashkenazi Jews, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose family roots are in Poland, are connected to the land of Israel, Carlson said: "We've cracked the human genome. We can do this. Why not?"
Huckabee responded with visible astonishment. "I have no idea what that would prove," he said. "If they have the same language and pray to the same God and follow the same Bible, culture and tradition, doesn't that give you some clue?"
An old narrative, revived
At the core of Carlson's message is a familiar claim: that Israel is a burden on the US. According to this narrative, Israel dictates American foreign policy, costs US taxpayers billions of dollars, interferes crudely in domestic politics through a pro-Israel lobby that Carlson has called a "continuous humiliation ritual" for members of Congress, and that anyone who supports Israel is suspect of dual loyalty.
"Carlson has gone where the current has taken him," said Dr. Yoav Fromer, head of the Center for the Study of the United States at Tel Aviv University. "His persona has evolved along with the American Right, and in some ways he's also its trigger. During the Bush and neoconservative era, he was there. After the collapse of the old Republican Party and the rise of the populism that President Donald Trump put at the center of his movement, he reinvented himself. He's an evolutionary creature."
Fromer added that Carlson's ideological roots lie in the powerful America First wing of the Right, which has always contained an undercurrent of opposition to supporting Israel, grounded partly in realist foreign policy arguments and partly in talk of "too much Jewish power" and accusations of Jewish dual loyalty.
The clash with evangelical Christians is particularly significant, Fromer said. "The story with the evangelicals is interesting, because they are the core. Carlson's argument against them isn't political but theological. He interviews historians and theologians and says they're misreading the New Testament, that the previous generation of evangelicals got it wrong. He also sees the opening: younger evangelicals are less supportive of Israel than their parents."
A warning sign on the Right
The erosion of support among young evangelicals feeds into a broader question about the future leadership of the Republican Party, where Carlson may play a pivotal role.
One recent episode, largely overlooked in Israel, underscored the potential danger. In November, after Carlson conducted a sympathetic interview with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, the president of the Heritage Foundation, one of Washington's most influential conservative think tanks, publicly defended him. Although the remarks sparked backlash and internal dissent, the mere fact that leading institutions on the American Right struggled to distance themselves from Carlson alarmed observers.
"I don't think anyone comes close to him in ratings," Fromer said. "He also leads others, like Megyn Kelly, who used to be very supportive of Israel, because they saw where the money was. Carlson is breaking ground by showing that Israel is no longer sacred. I'm amazed at how he always manages to link Israel to things that have nothing to do with it. This is classic antisemitism. Everything circles back to a Jewish conspiracy. It's possible that this particular wing of the Right will rise, built on an anti-Israel ideology whose foundation is antisemitism."
A troubling message for the future
The leading figure frequently mentioned as a potential successor to President Trump is Vice President JD Vance, who some say has become a poster child for the MAGA movement through both his biography and his positions.
The struggle over the movement's soul surfaced at the first conference of the late Charlie Kirk's organization, Turning Point USA, following his assassination. Jewish conservative commentator Ben Shapiro sharply criticized Carlson for giving a platform to a Holocaust denier and urged the movement to set clear boundaries. He was met with jeers.
In Israel, that message alone is cause for concern about what lies ahead.
