In a prime time interview of Tucker Carlson last night on Israel’s Channel 13, Israelis were allowed to hear some unpleasant truths expressed unapologetically. The interview runs for 49 minutes and is worth hearing as an example of how to calmly deal with frenetic ideologues. Here are a few highlights.
Carlson explained to the network’s chief political analyst, Udi Segal, that the U.S. “keeps doing things that people don’t want,” contrary to its claim as a democracy. He added: “Of course, Israel is not a democracy in any sense. There are millions of people who live under Israeli control who cannot vote. These places which Israel has controlled since 1967 have people living in them who have no control over the government that controls their lives, which is true, it’s not a democracy.”
Segal challenged Carlson’s assertion that Israel “is probably the most violent country in the world,” which prompted the observation that “no country has boasted more about killing its political opponents than Israel.” Admittedly, while many countries conduct assassinations, “Israel makes a public relations campaign out of boasting about killing its opponents.”
He said that in Gaza, Israel had committed “a historic crime,” that it was “genocide,” explaining that Israel’s actions amounted to “an effort to move an entire people out and kill a lot of them and then take their land.” He then refused to yield to Segal’s objections, saying: “What I’m saying is murdering children is wrong, you’re more upset by how I describe the murder of children than you are at the murder of children; that says a lot.”
And the U.S. is not excluded from blame: “The reason I have cause to comment on this and to say that it’s wrong is that I’m paying for it, there’s no reason the U.S. should be sending any money at all to Israel and particularly not to its military.” He added: “The Israeli prime minister pushed the U.S. president, who turned out to be far weaker than I understood, into a war that hurts the United States.” And Carlson testified that he “knows to be true” because he “saw it.” (On this last point, the White House today, took exception, issuing a statement to Channel 13 that Carlson “is a low-IQ person who spreads fake news for cheap publicity” and that “Trump told bold, decisive action to protect the American people.")
Carlson said that, according to his Christian values, he is “totally opposed to attacking people on the basis of their ethnicity,” including Jews and Israelis. “That’s why I’m disgusted by the way that Israel treats Arabs like animals or sub-humans.” Challenged on anti-Semitism, he said that his criticism was directed at government policy and “is not an attack on Jews. Israel does not represent all Jews, despite its claims. It does not. That is factually incorrect, and you know it.”
