1.
Tucker Carlson recently laid out his worldview in an interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. During the conversation he wondered why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a right to the land when his family came from Eastern Europe. What proof is there that Netanyahu's ancestors lived here? He does not strictly observe Jewish religious commandments, so how can he claim a right to the land in the name of the Bible? Carlson also mentioned genetic tests conducted on some of the Arabs of the land, which indicate that they have lived here for thousands of years as descendants of Jews or Samaritans.
2.
Well, Carlson views Jews first and foremost as a religion rather than a people. From the perspective of his Catholic faith, Israel is a theological scandal. For centuries, the degraded status of the Jewish people was presented as proof of the truth of Catholic doctrine: that we rejected the messianic mission of Jesus and that, in response, God annulled the covenant with the Jewish people and replaced them with the Church, the so called "spiritual Israel." This is the notorious doctrine known as replacement theology.
It is true that the Catholic Church revised its position in 1965 with the publication of the declaration Nostra Aetate ("In Our Time"), in which, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the Church distanced itself from the idea that the Jews had lost their chosen status in the eyes of God. But Carlson belongs to an extremely conservative stream of Catholicism that never accepted the new doctrine and continues to adhere to replacement theology.
Evangelicals, including Huckabee, have explicitly rejected replacement theology. In their view, the Jewish people remain chosen, as prophet Samuel sais in the Bible: "And also the Glory of Israel (i.e. God) will not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man that He should change His mind." Carlson, Candace Owens and others like them see things differently than the great prophet.
3.
To answer your question, Mr. Carlson: Jews are first and foremost a people, not a religion. When the founder of the nation is commanded to leave his homeland for the promised land, the purpose is stated explicitly: "And I will make of you a great nation." Not a religion, but a people. A nation that possesses faith, law, morality and a prophetic culture.
Hundreds of years later, when the descendants of Abraham leave Egypt, they do so as a people. even before receiving the Torah. Their declared goal is to reach the land of their forefathers and establish a kingdom there, even though none of them were born in that land. Their claim to it is national. Only a people can receive an eternal constitution in the covenant at Sinai, not individuals, even great ones such as Abraham or Moses.
According to the Bible, God Himself delivers the nation from the womb of the Egyptian empire: "I and not an angel." That act seals our national identity in an eternal covenant. Even if we are exiled, and even if new Hamans arise in every generation, we will not be destroyed. At the end of the historical process, we will return home.
In his final speech before parting from the people, just before Joshua leads them into the land, Moses repeats two decisive commands again and again: "You shall dispossess the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess it" (Numbers 33:53). Living in the land is possible even under foreign rule, Roman or British. But dispossessing the land and passing it on as an inheritance to future generations, can be done only when the people establish a political entity — a kingdom or a state — and apply their sovereignty to it. Only then can it be handed down.
4.
You see, Mr. Carlson, this land was promised to a people, not to individuals. Individuals may be expelled from it or forced into exile. But the land ultimately belongs only to the people to whom it was promised: the people of Israel.
Even if foreigners lived here, they lived here as individuals, not as a people. The only national sovereignty that existed here over the past 3,000 years was Jewish sovereignty. Aside from the People of Israel, various empires ruled over this land, but no separate political entity—that is, another state—ever arose within it.
For that, there is no need for DNA tests or examinations of religious observance. The prophets of Israel, who foretold our return from exile, did not condition it on strict religious observance (look, for example, Ezekiel chapter 37). Even so, the Jews living here today fulfill the commandments of settling the land and "coming to Israel's aid in times of distress", which is the military service. They observe Jewish holidays and mark the Sabbath as the official day of rest. They maintain the covenant of circumcision almost without exception and speak the ancient Hebrew language.
Who knows, perhaps you or your grandchildren will yet witness also the revival of the prophetic spirit returning to us, despite the opposition of antisemites such as yourself. Your hatred is not original. We have faced many like you and survived them all, in order to return to the land that was promised to us, alone, as a people.
