Tucker Carlson's Lies About Jews and Israel
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The popular podcaster is spreading malicious lies about the Jewish State and Jews worldwide.
Tucker Carlson made headlines again after falsely claiming that he was detained at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. As his story unraveled in the world's press, Carlson doubled down on his lies, smearing Israel as intolerant and dangerous.
Carlson's fabrications about being detained in Israel are only the latest false accusations he has leveled at the Jewish state and at Jews around the world. Here are four lies that Carlson has spread about Jews in recent months, and advice on how we can stand up to his duplicity.
On Wednesday, February 18, 2026, Tucker Carlson and several staff members flew to Ben Gurion International Airport on a private plane. Carlson and his business partner Neil Patel stepped outside long enough to pose for a photo, which Carlson posted on X with the caption "Greetings from Israel," before the entire entourage went back inside. They were there solely to record an interview with U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee — which Carlson insisted on conducting inside the terminal. Critics noted the irony: a man who spends so much time attacking Israel couldn't be bothered to actually see it.
As criticism mounted, Carlson told Britain's Daily Mail that he and his staff "were detained" after the interview. "Men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about," he claimed.
The story was quickly shown to be a fabrication. Israeli officials confirmed Carlson was never detained, and the room his producer was allegedly "hauled" to was a VIP lounge. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem concurred: Carlson's group "received the same passport control questions that countless visitors to Israel, including Ambassador Huckabee and other diplomats, receive as part of normal entry and exit procedures." Despite being debunked, the accusations continue to circulate online, lending false credence to Carlson's portrayal of Israel as malevolent.
On February 4, 2026, Carlson broadcast an incendiary interview with Hosam Naoum, the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem and a known Hamas apologist. Filmed in Jordan, not Israel, Carlson titled the episode "The Shocking Reality of the Treatment of Christians in the Holy Land by US-Funded Israel." It is filled with innuendo and outright falsehoods, painting an inaccurate picture of both Jewish and Christian belief.
Researcher Dr. David Orenstein noted that "Tucker Carlson and his guest served up a hefty dose of inaccuracies and misrepresentations."
Carlson allowed Naoum's anti-Jewish statements to go unchallenged and at times seemed to encourage him toward ever more inflammatory claims about Israeli Jews. Together they falsely asserted that Jews — not radical Islamists — are responsible for the declining Christian presence in the region and have made life less welcoming for Christians in Israel. Carlson inaccurately portrayed Israel's Christians as persecuted and impoverished. In fact, Israel's small Christian population is well-established and among the country's most educated and economically successful communities.
Carlson also falsely claimed that Israel bombed Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza in 2023. In reality, a misfired rocket launched by the terror group Islamic Jihad struck the hospital. He alleged that Israeli Jews set fire to Taybeh Church near Ramallah; the fire was set by local Arab Muslims. Throughout, Carlson depicts Jews as sadistic racists, American Christian Zionists as credulous dupes manipulated by sinister Jewish interests, and consistently glosses over Arab terrorism and violence.
After Carlson criticized Ambassador Huckabee on air for allegedly failing to protect Christians in Israel, Huckabee responded on X: "Hey @TuckerCarlson instead of talking ABOUT me, why don't you come talk TO me? You seem to be generating a lot of heat about the Middle East. Why be afraid of the light?" That challenge prompted Carlson's trip to Israel on February 18 and his subsequent lies about what took place there.
In a December 2025 interview with The American Conservative, Carlson returned to a recurring obsession: the claim that Jews impose their will on non-Jews.
When a poll showed that many conservative Americans consider radical Islam the greatest threat facing the country, Carlson dismissed it, falsely claiming no one in the U.S. has been killed by radical Islam in 24 years. He then argued that persuading White Americans to fear radical Islam is "an op" — and that "we all know which foreign government it's actually coming from," meaning Israel. He called American Jewish Zionists Israel's "informal employees in the United States" and has suggested that supporters of Jews and Israel have a "brain virus."
Meanwhile, Carlson dismisses very real threats against Jews. 2025 FBI data show that American Jews are the largest target of religiously motivated hate crimes in the country and the second most targeted group overall, after Black Americans. Yet Carlson claims, without basis: "white people are the main victims of discrimination in the United States — not Jews."
Carlson routinely ignores Arab terrorism and the ongoing threats of war against the Jewish state, depicting Israel as the sole aggressor in the Middle East. The result is a distorted picture in which Jews and Israel face no genuine threats, and any sympathy for them is simply evidence of manipulation.
Carlson frequently defends hosting extremist figures by claiming he is simply "asking questions." But providing a platform for hate, often directed at Jews and Israel, is provocation, not legitimate inquiry.
In 2025, Carlson hosted avowed neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes who used the appearance to claim that Hitler and Stalin were great leaders, that American Jews run the country, and that "organized Jewry" manipulates non-Jews.
In 2024, he hosted revisionist historian Daryl Cooper, who argued that Churchill — not Hitler — was the chief villain of World War II and that the Nazis did not intend to kill Jews. Carlson praised Cooper as "the best and most honest popular historian in America."
In 2025, he hosted American nun and radical Islam apologist Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos, and did not challenge her false claim that Israel planned to "blow up" the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
By giving extremists a massive platform and mainstreaming their conspiracy theories, Carlson is making antisemitic ideas respectable again.
While Tucker Carlson seems determined to stir up as much antisemitism and hatred of Israel as he can, there are ways to push back.
Stay informed. Carlson's provocations are dangerous because some of his followers accept them as fact. Read about Israel, Judaism, the Holocaust, and related issues in reputable sources. A well-informed person is far harder to deceive.
Educate others. Blog. Write letters to the editor. Talk with friends, relatives, and colleagues. Encouraging others to become informed is the most effective way to defang a demagogue like Carlson.
Report hate speech. Don't let inaccurate or hateful content go unanswered. File reports with social media platforms, news site editors, or local authorities. Report antisemitic and other hate crimes to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Reach out to allies. Carlson's worldview demonizes many communities. Identify and cultivate local allies willing to stand with the Jewish community against hate.
Live Jewishly. When faced with anti-Jewish hatred, the most powerful response — and the one that has sustained our people through centuries of persecution — is to celebrate Jewish life proudly and without apology.
