American Thinker

by Bill Ireland

    Fractures within the conservative movement were on full display at Turning Point USA’s 2025 AmericaFest. Tucker Carlson, the focus of much of the controversy, was among the speakers. He endeavored to explain and defend his views without mentioning his critics by name. He also never mentioned the other name on everyone’s mind: Israel.

    But the issue wasn’t going away.

    In his speech, Tucker presented himself as a simple man adhering to a few simple principles: People shouldn’t kill other people. Hating others for their birth heritage is wrong. Policymakers should only enact polices that benefit their constituents.

    And so on.

    But by oversimplifying complex issues, Tucker took several wrong turns, resulting in indefensible conclusions.

    He began with a precept that most decent people would agree with: “We don’t consider people in terms of the groups to which they belong. We consider them as individuals -- the way that God created them.” Therefore, “Antisemitism is not just naughty; it’s immoral. And it is precisely as immoral as hating any other group.”

    This statement deliberately obscures the unique nature of antisemitism. Only one group in history has been universally vilified, slandered, persecuted, hounded from country after country, and targeted for extermination -- the Jews. In this case, a difference in degree really does reflect a difference in kind. Decency would demand that this distinction be acknowledged.

    Instead, Tucker bizarrely compared antisemitism to the so-called war on white men that we see in some parts of society. As if being denied a promotion or admission to a university were the same as being lynched, machine-gunned, or hacked to death.

    In case anyone missed his point, Tucker then zeroed in on the unspoken issue: “God is not on any country’s side...” he declared. This was, of course, a direct rebuke to the so-called Christian Zionists who base their support of Israel on their reading of Scripture as well as moral and practical reasons.

    On this issue, Tucker might have benefitted from a few passages in that Bible he reads every morning:

    “For you [Israel] are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Dt. 7:6 NIV).

    “He [God] has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation…” (Psalms 147:19-20).

    “For he who touches you [Israel] touches the apple of his [God’s] eye” (Zech. 2:8).

    To the consternation of the supersessionists, the Jews have retained their distinct identity since the time of Christ, enduring through 2,000 years of exile and persecution. And in just the last eighty years, the nation of Israel has re-emerged, thriving against overwhelming odds; Israel’s hostile neighbors outnumber it by twenty to one but have consistently failed in their efforts to destroy the world’s only Jewish state.

    A sincere Christian who reads the Scriptures, as Tucker does, ought to be able to discern the hand of God in such events.

    Tucker moved on to address the war in Gaza. He mistakenly asserted that the Bible forbids killing. Actually, there’s a lot of killing in the Bible; what it does forbid is murder -- the deliberate killing of an innocent person. Tucker, apparently moved by media portrayals of dead civilians in Gaza, declared, “Killing people who committed no crime is immoral; it will always be immoral. And people who do it will be punished for it, and nations that endorse it will be punished for it. That’s a fact!” This was aimed at American policymakers who continue to support Israel even through the ongoing Gaza war.

    It’s clear that Tucker hates killing and believes passionately in divine justice. Yet he made no reference, oblique or otherwise, to the October 7 Hamas attack that prompted Israel’s response -- and killed more than 1,200 innocent Israelis.

    Since war is a constant feature of human experience, thoughtful Christians since the time of Augustine have striven to articulate when it can be justified and how it should be conducted. Self-defense is universally recognized as a justifiable rationale for war. But it should be the last resort.

    For twenty years, Israel has tolerated relentless attacks from a neighbor committed to its destruction. Only after the unprovoked attacks of October 7 did Israel launch a campaign to destroy its mortal enemy, Hamas. Without addressing specific actions taken by Israel in the conflict, it would be hard to find a clearer basis for a just war.

    Yet, Tucker Carlson has joined the mounting chorus of voices accusing Israel of war crimes and genocide. With his millions of followers, he will continue to have an outsized influence on conservative-minded voters -- especially younger ones who lack the emotional connection to Israel that motivated their forbears.

    That is an ominous prospect for the Republican party, the United States, and the world.

Bill Ireland is a writer in Southern California billireland.com