In a recent interview with conservative journalist and commentator Emily Jashinsky, Tucker Carlson – who has a history of cozying up to antisemites and making antisemitic comments himself – made a bizarre claim: he said that he loves Israel. Carlson told Jashinsky:
I’ve never been against the nation of Israel. I’ve certainly been a frequent visitor there and a lover of the country and of a lot of the people. I know people there. And I’m never, I’m never rooting for anyone’s destruction or suffering. Ever. And the day I start doing that is the day I retire and like examine my own soul. So, no, I want Israel to be OK.
Shortly after, Carlson says that because of his views on Israel, “I had to like sit and spend a year being called a Nazi or an antisemite, which obviously I am not.”
Jashinsky did not counter his self-characterization.
Here is how Carlson shows his “love” and demonstrates how he is “obviously” not an antisemite:
Carlson blamed the 2026 U.S.-Israel war with Iran on the Jewish religious group Chabad. Carlson claimed that Chabad was behind the war because it wanted to build the third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem (on Judaism’s most sacred site) over the ruins of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock – the third-holiest site for
On the Tucker Carlson Show, he hosted Max Blumenthal, who is known for his anti-Israel conspiratorial rhetoric. For example, Blumenthal claimed during the interview that Israel killed many of its own citizens on Oct. 7, 2023, and tried to deny Hamas’ sexual violence against Israeli women. He also claimed that Congressman Randy Fine wants to “shut down the constitution” for Israel.
Carlson claimed that U.S. political leaders are more loyal to Israel than to America and that Israel exerts “psychological influence” that shapes how Americans perceive security threats.
He further argued that U.S. politicians who help Israel are under “a kind of spell, a kind of hypnosis, a kind of haze that people are in, where they’re doing things for reasons they don’t understand.” Carlson added that the U.S. entered the war with Iran on “Israel’s behest” and said that U.S. ambassador Mike Huckebee “betray[ed] the United States again and again and again” by “promoting” former Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. (Huckabee was one of a few politicians who argued the 30-year sentence Pollard received was too severe for someone who spied for an ally. The two met at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem in 2025).
Carlson suggested that Israelis should undergo genetical testing to determine if they are truly descendent from Abraham the Patriarch. Behind this suggestion is the antisemitic “Khazar theory” that proposes Ashkenazi Jews are not, in fact, Jewish but the descendants of a Turkic minority and therefore have no right to the Land of Israel. The implication is to question Israel’s sovereignty and right to the land.
Carlson not merely an antisemite – he is also a racist and a homophobe:
Over the years, Carlson drew on and popularized White Nationalist tropes and ideas. For example, Carlson has used the dog-whistle term “legacy Americans,” which originated in the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.
Carlson also promoted the racist “Great Replacement” theory, that alleges non-whites are “replacing” white people all over the world. For example, Carlson claimed that Democrats “were deliberately importing ‘more obedient voters from the third world’ to ‘replace’ the current electorate and keep themselves in power.” In 2022, TIME claimed that Carlson discussed the theory’s ideas over 400 times while speaking against immigration on his show (then on Fox).
Carlson also called Iraqis “primitive monkeys” and claimed that immigrants make America “poorer and dirtier and more divided.”
Lastly, Carlson used homophobic and anti-LGBT language in his shows, including against then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and was even accused of inciting violence.
Carlson’s record and comments – be it about Israel and Jews or other groups – can be described as displaying many things, but certainly not “love.” His interviewers should challenge his ridiculous, easily refutable assertions.