The Lies Before the Storm

Jonathan Feldstein

Tucker Carlson. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Tucker Carlson, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikipedia

One didn’t need to watch the recent conversation/confrontation between Tucker Carlson and US Ambassador Mike Huckabee that’s created a storm of controversy. The tone and nature of the conversation were predictable. But having watched it, it was breathtaking nevertheless to see Tucker use every canard imaginable as evidence of his antisemitic pedigree. Despite claiming that he’s just asking questions, he comes across as prosecutor, judge, and jury.

The confrontation probably didn’t move anyone who is a rational thinker, other than to think of Tucker as a bottom feeding faux-journalist. It probably didn’t move any of Tucker’s amen corner of trolls. Their comments are truly frightening. And his comments create a level of incitement that is unprecedented for someone not wearing a white hood.

Billed as an “interview,” it was really more of an ambush. Tucker pounced out of the gate to attack Huckabee from multiple angles, in a program that lasted more than two hours. Tucker’s comments billed under the banner of concern for America, ranged a wide perspective of lies and antisemitic tropes. Sadly all very predictable and part of Tucker’s MO.

One thing that was unusual was that Tucker used his bully pulpit of being the host not simply to present the conversation, but leading it (and the viewers) with 25 minutes of ranting at the outset; not a 3-5 or even 7 minute intro, but a full 25 minutes barrage, nearly 25% of the length of the entire conversation with Huckabee, telling you what to look for. If he ever feigned journalist objectivity, this was thrown out the window before the confrontation even began.

Without even discussing the ambush on Huckabee, it’s important to unpack and debunk Tucker’s 25-minute stage-setting barrage of lies.

Prefacing his monologue, Tucker noted that it’s never worth talking about the backstory of a story, as it makes the conversation more about the interviewer, and takes off the record items and casts a spotlight on them. He said it’s best to let an interview speak for itself, and then he ranted for another 20+ minutes speaking about it.

Tucker claimed that the conversation with Huckabee was important because the US was on the verge of a “regime change” war against Iran, that he argued that was being driven by Israel at the behest of Netanyahu. A pundit is allowed to speculate, but he presented this nefarious lie as a truth, suggesting that a war against Iran is only in Israel’s interest, and President Trump and the US are being used as Israel’s puppet. He conveniently forgets the Islamic Republic hijacking of the US embassy and kidnapping of its staff, and 47 years of chanting “death to America” and planting its agents within US shores.

Tucker repeated a bald-faced lie with which he used to batter Huckabee, that Jonathan Pollard (a former spy who spent 30 years in US prison), with whom Huckabee had a private meeting, was the “most damaging spy in American history.” This lie is not only historically incorrect, it was repeated multiple times to paint the Israel-US relationship as anything but close allies. He employed other examples as well. In fact, when doing an objective investigation as to what US spy was indeed most damaging, Pollard does not even make the Top Ten List, which is headed by former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, former CIA spy Aldrich Ames, and John Walker.

In further castigating Israel, Tucker claimed that the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu himself called Tucker an antisemite and a Nazi and, with no evidence, that Netanyahu has directly threatened Tucker’s family. He claimed that that Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskell called him an enemy of Israel, and then alleged disingenuously that she was the one being placed in charge of Tucker’s security.

He stated erroneously that Israel is the most violent country in the world, but he neglected that in the US there are more than 120 weapons per 100 people and where personal violence is rampant in many areas, as compared to Israel where it’s under ten percent, and personal crime outside of Islamic terrorism is a fraction of that in America. Another bald-faced lie that had no relevance to his confrontation with Huckabee, just to make Israel look bad.

Tucker slandered the US Embassy handling of reporting his (very expensive) private chartered plane’s arrival to the IDF as making him feel uncomfortable. He must have been intoxicated on his privilege, as countless private jets enter Israel all the time, and the pilots and chartering companies are responsible for reporting this to Israeli authorities, not the US (or any other) embassy. The very expectation that the US embassy should serve at Tucker’s behest is a fraud.

Tucker whined about not getting a private meeting with Netanyahu, to “deliver a message” after saying how busy he was, that he needed to be “in and out” of Israel and that’s why he alleged he didn’t have time to leave the airport. If he were so busy, how would he have had the time for such a meeting, and why would he expect to be afforded that opportunity? And specifically why after accusing Netanyahu of “blood guilt” in allegedly threatening Tucker’s family. He claimed that this was due to Amalek, and that such a notion was not Christian. Yet, most Christians I know actually believe that the command to blot out Amalek in Deuteronomy 25:17-19 is correct. This week we celebrate the blotting out of Amalek’s descendant, Haman, in Persia, 2500 years ago. Yes Tucker, actual Christians actually believe that. Is Tucker a modern descendant of Amalek? I don’t know. I’m just asking a question.

If Tucker wanted to deliver a message to Netanyahu, he could write a letter, post a Tweet, or make one of his abhorrent videos. The same way that during the confrontation itself, after Tucker slandered Israeli President Hertzog as having a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, he received a letter from the President’s office triggering Tucker’s clarification. Messages can be delivered in many ways other than a face to face meeting to which Tucker has no right. It is not the duty or interest of the Prime Minister of Israel, or any head of state or government in the world, to meet with any wacko conspiracy theorist who wants an audience. But Tucker narrates this all in his opening diatribe to castigate others, and find fault with Israel.

The Lies Before the Storm Part 2

The 25-minute Tucker Carlson monologue before his confrontation with Ambassador Mike Huckabee leading viewers what to look for through the prism of endless lies and factual mistakes that there are too many to address in one article.

Another example is when Tucker pontificates that he is concerned that “Christians in areas controlled by Israel (be) treated with dignity.” He conveniently overlooks that Christians in Israel are the only Christian population that’s growing in the entire Middle East, that Christians and Christianity are protected, and that the singular threat to persecuted Christians in the Middle East and around the world is Islam. But that’s too awkward for his Qatari handlers and funders. So, he does what every antisemite in history has done: make up lies and blame the Jews.

And then of course, his cherry on top is that he claims that as a US taxpayer, he pays for all of that. Thank you for your business.

While not part of the monologue or the confrontation with Huckabee itself, a glaring omission in Tucker’s faux concern for the well being of persecuted Christians is not a mention of persecuted Christians anywhere outside of “areas controlled by Israel.” By setting it up the way he does, he allows the viewer to think that Christians persecuted in the Palestinian Authority are under “areas controlled by Israel.” But the fact is that they are not, and the fact is that they are persecuted by their Islamist neighbors, fellow Palestinian Arabs. And of course Tucker does not mention or care about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, or anywhere else. Of course not in Qatar either. But it’s too inconvenient and uncomfortable, and undermined his narrative that the Jews are to blame for Christian persecution.

Considering the fact that for centuries, Jews were persecuted by Christians, Tucker contorting and twisting this is laughable.

Of course, all the loyal Tucker followers lapped up his description of the filth of the diplomatic terminal at Ben Gurion airport, and that he’s “never seen a rattier one.” But of course, that was a necessary slander in his setting up the confrontation with Huckabee.

Inconveniently, Tucker noted that his two producers spent the night in Tel Aviv, unlike him who never left the airport complex. So, when it came time to leave, they were questioned by “thugs in t-shirts” giving the producers “the third degree.” Tucker took offense to the questions asked by Israeli security (to whom he referred as interrogators) all as part of the Israeli “police state, surveillance state” where they “put software on your phone” and are “constantly spying on you” more than in any other country. Right.

Offended by the questions asked to Tucker’s Qatari-paid staff, he claimed that these were “intel” questions, not security questions. Yet when he repeated the questions for which he was not present, it became clear that they were indeed (many of the) questions that would routinely be used to find people with nefarious agendas before boarding a plane, or people being used by those with nefarious agendas. But to Tucker, the “intel” questions were over the top. Regarding the questions, it’s out of the question that Tucker’s Qatari paid staff would have any nefarious or espionage agenda, because Tucker is telling the truth, as he always does.

Of course, in trying to deescalate the situation with Tucker personally slandering Huckabee and which led to their meeting, in the lead up to the conversation itself in which he wanted others to decide, he stacked the deck by asking who Huckabee actually worked for, implying that he worked for Israel rather than as a loyal American. “You can be certain that your government (he preached to Americans) will always take the Israeli side over yours.”

Tucker, the Wizard of Good Character, was clear to note that his driver – who had just met moments before being driven from the plane to the terminal – was a “very nice, good guy.” If Tucker is such a good judge of character of someone who he met 10 minutes earlier, how can he be so wrong other than his deliberate malice?

When one protests accusations of being an antisemite and a liar as much as he does, there’s an element of psychological DNA that’s quite revealing in his denials. Of course he is both. On multiple occasions when he’s referred to Jews, he’s added, “whatever that means.” But in Tucker’s twisted mind, he actually thinks he’s telling the truth because he has redefined (or undermined) what it means to be a Jew, so he can “truthfully” say that antisemitism is immoral because he is “only” condemning fake Jews, people who claim a Biblical deed to the Land of Israel because they are not real Jews. Not once does Tucker ever recognize Israel as the legitimate nation-state of the Jewish people.

Repeatedly telling you that he’s telling you the truth should not be necessary if he were not lying and trying to convince you. Me thinks he protesth too much. The same way he repeatedly denies being a closet Moslem for which his Qatari handlers and funders cheer his role as a loyal dhimmi. An infidel by any other name would smell as sweet.

When his opening 25-minute barrage, even before the repeated lies and slander of the confrontation with Huckabee himself, is replete with all these and other lies, it calls into question Tucker’s character and malicious intentions which are now on full display for the world to see. His agenda is clear. There’s little doubt that he’s nothing more than an antisemitic Islamic agent, and cannot in any way be confused for a credible journalist except by Pravda and Al-Jazeera standards.

Jonathan Feldstein has consented no1abba@gmail.com but he wants the following author bio

Jonathan Feldstein is president of the Genesis 123 Foundation (www,genesis123.co) whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians and Christians with Israel. He was born and educated in the U.S. and immigrated to Israel in 2004. He is married and the father of six, and grandfather of four (so far).

Two sons and a son in law are currently serving in the IDF and have been involved in combat in Gaza and Lebanon since the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel.

Jonathan is a leader working with and among Christian supporters of Israel, and shares experiences of living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel through his work, writing, and as host of the Inspiration from Zion podcast. Since the war began, he has authored more than 150 articles, and participated in a similar number of interviews, briefings, prayer events, and more.

Jonathan is working with Christian leaders all over the world to realize a true peace in Gaza, details of which can be found at www.SolutionforPeaceinGaza.com.

In 2023 he published the highly acclaimed book, Israel the Miracle (www.israelthemiracle.com), which makes a great gift for Chanukah and Christmas, and year round.