From Drone Fear to Qatar Praise: How Tucker Carlson's Anti-Israel Tilt Hurts Christian Priorities

Tucker Carlson’s interview with Ambassador Mike Huckabee really caught fire this past week. I like Tucker. Always have. But he’s completely lost me when it comes to Israel. I found the interview to be quite frustrating at times, but also revealing. First off, Tucker seems oddly paranoid. In his lead-up to the interview, he tells his audience that, as he was planning to fly into Israel for the meeting, he was afraid that Israel would mistake his chartered plane for an Iranian drone and shoot him down. Israel is very dangerous, he said. So he insisted that the Israeli military be informed of his arrival and told not to shoot him down. That is paranoia. Israel has never mistaken a private passenger jet for a drone and shot it down, and there is simply no reason to believe this time would be an exception. Not in my lifetime have they accidentally or intentionally shot down a passenger plane of any kind that I can find (outside of one instance many years ago of an unresponsive plane flying into restricted airspace and judged to be a threat, and that was shot down on purpose). 

But this story gives a great glimpse into Tucker Carlson’s mindset about Israel as we head into the full interview.  Outside of repeatedly claiming that he is not an anti-Semite, Carlson really doesn’t make any claims at all. Rather, he seeks to undermine Ambassador Mike Huckabee’s view on the legitimacy of the Jewish nation and the people. “What are the actual borders? Is Bibi really a Jew? Is anyone really a Jew? How do you know? Does God really still value Israel and the promise he made to Abraham? I’m just asking questions, and no one seems to know. Israel protects pedophiles. Israel commits atrocities, war crimes, and maybe genocide. Maybe not genocide, but also maybe so. Israel doesn’t sound so great to me.” That’s his interview in a nutshell. Also, Qatar is better than Israel because there are far more Christians in Qatar than in Israel, he says. 

I want to touch on that last one because he brings it up a lot.

Qatar might actually have more Christians living within its borders than Israel, but that misses the greater context. Qatar is a Muslim nation, and its government agrees with me on one point — Muslim culture and Christian culture are mutually exclusive. They can not co-exist. Their laws reflect this. Qatar has an unusually high number of foreign migrant workers. A small minority of those workers are Christians. They are treated as second-class because they are. They are relegated to live and worship in specific areas, they do not vote, and they do not hold high-ranking jobs. There are no Christian Qatari citizens.  Most importantly, Christians may not evangelize to Muslims in Qatar. There are blasphemy laws on the books, and conversion away from Islam is illegal. No pubic Christian worship is allowed, no crosses allowed outdoors, no Bible sales in bookstores.

This is a big deal because the primary task of a Christian is to evangelize. Some disagree, and have argued (this past week, in fact) that the primary task of a Christian is to be very inclusive toward unbiblical views and to eagerly support big government social programs. That’s how people know you’re a real Christian.

But that isn’t the case. Plenty of non-Christians do those things. No, the primary distinction of Christian living is presenting the gospel message whenever you have opportunity, i.e., the Great Commission, “go into all the world and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:18-20). That is illegal in Qatar. It is not illegal in Israel. 

It is illegal for a Muslim to convert to Christianity in Qatar. It is not illegal for a Jew to convert to Christianity in Israel.

This means it is illegal to live out the most important part of Christian life in Qatar, but it is legal in Israel. 

Israel is better for Christians. Tucker should know this. In fact, he does know this. So what’s his deal?

Option one, he really is an anti-Semite, in spite of his many protestations.

But there’s another option. 

I have long believed Tucker’s an isolationist who believes the United States is too involved around the world. “America first” also usually means “Not our problem,” and we should stop sending resources overseas. Because so many American Christians are unwilling to say “not our problem” when Israel is attacked, Tucker Carlson views his fellow Christians as his primary obstacle in reaching his foreign policy goals. And I think he’s probably right. We are. But his approach is all wrong. I couldn’t care less if Bibi Netanyahu can trace his lineage back to Abraham or not. I support Israel because they’re the good guys surrounded by a sea of bad guys. It’s that simple. I just hope Tucker comes around to seeing that, sooner rather than later.