As the United States fights its most just war, side by side with Israel to make the world a safer place, it is clearer than ever who will be remembered on the right and wrong side of history.
President Donald Trump will be remembered in retrospect as the leader who had the courage his predecessors lacked to do the right thing in bringing about regime change in Iran. He will be compared to president Thomas Jefferson, who courageously initiated the First Barbary War, the first major military conflict fought by the US outside its national boundaries.
The five years Jefferson fought the Barbary Muslim pirates permanently made international shipping much safer. President Trump will do the same in much, much less time.
By contrast, Trump’s former friend, podcaster Tucker Carlson, will be remembered among those who put their personal antisemitic agenda ahead of the greater good of their country and the world.
There are unfortunately several influential influencers and podcasters who have turned against American and Israel in recent years. But none has the power, the gravitas, or the White House access that Carlson has.
Carlson recently called the United States a “dying empire” and Israel “one of the ugliest countries in the world.”
The New York Times reported that Carlson met with Trump three times in the Oval Office over the past month in an effort to persuade the president against going to war with Iran. According to the report, Carlson outlined the risks to American military personnel, energy prices, and Arab partners in the region.
Carlson falsely accused Trump to his face of considering a strike only because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted it, the report said, adding that he even encouraged the president to “restrain” Netanyahu.
Anti-Israel rant goes beyond 100 minutes
This report would shock no one who has listened to Carlson in recent weeks. On one of his recent shows, in which his anti-Israel rant stretched beyond 100 minutes, he repeatedly issued his blood libel that America went to war for Israel.
“This happened because Israel wanted it to happen,” he said. “This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war. It’s not being waged on behalf of American national security objectives or to make the US safer or richer. This war is waged purely because Israel wanted it to be waged.”
Carlson said the US committed troops because Netanyahu demanded it and kept lobbying incessantly to bring down the regime of the Ayatollah.
“Nobody in the US government who I ever talked to seemed to believe this was in America’s interest,” he said. “Most people who assess this news knew it had nothing whatsoever to do with us. This is Israel’s war. That’s what it is. It’s not an attack on Israel or antisemitism or Jew-hatred to say that. It’s a fact. A head of state of nine million people came to a country of 350 million people and demanded that we help them or – in effect – do it ourselves and topple the regime in Tehran.”
Then Carlson shifted to an even more absurd theory about why Netanyahu wanted to strike in Iran. Instead of considering that a regime which spoke incessantly about annihilating Israel might actually use the thousands of missiles it developed to do it, Carlson said Netanyahu’s goal was actually to become the ruler of the Middle East.
“The point is regional hegemony,” he said. “Israel wants to control the Middle East. They want to be unrivaled in their power in their region.”
Carlson claimed to reveal information that somehow only he knew that the previous evening in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, authorities arrested Mossad agents who planned to commit attacks in those countries.
“Now, that’s weird,” he said with his goofy laugh. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would the Israelis be committing bombings in two Gulf states that are also being attacked by Iran? Aren’t they on the same side? No. Israel wants to hurt Iran and Qatar and the UAE and Saudi [Arabia] and Bahrain and Oman and Kuwait. And they have succeeded.”
Not only did the Qataris vehemently deny this report, they revealed that it was actually Iranian Revolutionary Guard spies who were arrested and expelled.
But the most dangerous false accusation Carlson delivered was about the American servicemen killed in the war, which at the time was three. Pulling at the heartstrings of Americans, he questioned why they died.
“Three Americans just died for Bibi in a war that nobody wants, in a war designed to hurt the United States, and that’s cost free?” he asked mockingly.
That same blood libel about Americans dying for Israel was also issued by Carlson in his interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, in which he dared suggest that America went to war in Iraq after September 11 because of Israel. His criticisms of the United States could not be more stunning.
Carlson came to Israel only for that interview and did not bother leaving the airport. He spoke to Huckabee there and falsely accused Israel of detaining him, even after solid video proof was provided that he had received VIP treatment.
Thankfully, the president distanced himself from Carlson and stood up to him and Megyn Kelly, who has suggested that Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) allies were turning against him due to the war.
“I think that MAGA is Trump – MAGA’s not the other two,” Trump said of Carlson and Kelly. “MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe.”
Responding to the charges from Carlson that he went to war for Israel, he said “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.” He called the war “a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.”
In an interview with journalist Jonathan Karl, the president went further.
“Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told Karl. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”
The Republican Party as a whole must join the president and shun Tucker, because such anti-Americanism uttered by a man with so many followers is extremely dangerous.
Midterm primaries are happening now, and national midterm elections are coming up. After President Trump told Americans in his State of the Union address that everything is going great, Tucker went and said the opposite.
He is harming Trump’s legacy and exploiting the war to incite the American public against Israel and Jews. Trump went to war because it was right for the United States, and Carlson was wrong to question a president who has ended so many wars and resolved so many international disputes.
It is Carlson, not the president, who has been continually promoting another country’s agenda at the expense of his own.
It is Huckabee, not Carlson, who should be seen as the ultimate role model for young American Christian Evangelicals.
They should advocate for America, be as patriotic as the ambassador, support the war against the Islamic fundamentalist Republic of Iran, and bolster Judeo-Christian values.
The writer is the chairman of Religious Zionists of America, president of the Culture for Peace Institute, and a committee member of the Jewish Agency for Israel. He currently serves as a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, appointed by President Trump. The views expressed here are his own. Martinoliner@gmail.com