By Daoud Kuttab

I rarely watch right-wing Fox News. It is not easily available where I live, and I don’t try to find it online. So I don’t have much firsthand knowledge of the once-popular host who held a top prime-time slot on Fox.

Even so, I remember Tucker Carlson clearly from his time on CNN. He appeared, with his bow tie, on the debate show CNN Crossfire, where he represented the conservative point of view. I also later knew he had been let go from Fox, apparently after repeated claims about the Dominion voting machines that cost the network more than $700 million in lawsuits.

I eventually returned to Carlson’s work when he started his own online show. Warming to him did not happen quickly. It began in April 2024, when he hosted my close friend, Reverend Munther Isaac. Isaac had caused a worldwide stir by placing a doll of the baby Jesus in the rubble of Gaza and challenging Christians by preaching about Christ in the rubble in the middle of the Gaza genocide.

Isaac has for years been involved with the Christ at the Checkpoint conference of the Bethlehem Bible College. But on Carlson’s show, the discussion was not limited to Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Carlson also focused on Christian Zionists – people who enable and justify the continuation of the occupation.

At first, I admit I had trouble understanding what was happening. Many people likely felt the same way: Why would a right-wing American broadcaster give so much airtime to a Palestinian pastor who criticizes Christian Zionism?

The big question was whether this was just a one-time interview meant to get more traffic and restore Carlson’s influence. It was clear that Carlson still liked Trump, and he continued to be seen at the White House and holding meetings with the president.

Carlson was also close and apparently a mentor to Charlie Kirk, a well-known Christian nationalist in the United States who was murdered in a mysterious event. Some claimed Kirk’s death may have been linked to his changing views, especially as he began to step away from Zionist ideology and from Israel’s policies toward Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later publicly stated that Israel was not connected to Kirk’s death.

Looking back, I wonder if changes were happening to both Carlson and Kirk at the same time, driven by the reality of Gaza’s genocide and the collapse of the “halo” that many people still associate with Israel, or if one of them had influenced the other.

If Carlson truly had a “Road to Damascus” kind of conversion, it became clear that the shift did not stop after one interview. Carlson followed up with other interviews, including with another dear friend, Reverend Fares Abraham. Abraham is from the same town as Isaac – Beit Sahour, the biblical “shepherds’ field.”

In that interview, Carlson helped his viewers learn more about Palestinian Christians. Fares shared stories from his life in Beit Sahour, including seeing a close friend shot dead by Israeli forces. The interview allowed the Palestinian pastor to talk about his own mother, who was shot by Israeli soldiers.

Fares also described his wife’s upbringing. She grew up as a member of the Baptist Church in Gaza. I suspect this shocked many Christian Zionists, especially when Fares explained that the church she grew up in was shelled by Israel. Abrahm also told stories about other churches that were shelled and about Palestinian Christians being killed in what is often described as a war against Islamist Hamas fighters.

Carlson’s powerful and articulate attacks on Christian Zionism angered no one more than the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas. Huckabee’s daughter, Sara Huckabee Sanders, who served as a spokesperson during Trump’s first term, is now governor of Arkansas. Huckabee was also a former colleague of Carlson at Fox News.

After Carlson’s repeated attacks, Huckabee tweeted that if Tucker wanted to understand Christian Zionism, he should listen to its most prominent spokesperson, himself.

Carlson, who seems to love a debate, took up the offer and decided to do the interview, but according to one of his close friends, who confided to me, Tucker was worried that his life might be in danger in Israel. He made various efforts with Huckabee and his embassy staff to organize the interview at the U.S. diplomatic mission, but that fell through. In the end it was agreed to hold the interview in a side room at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Carlson spent a lot of money renting a private jet in Europe, arrived at the airport with his own bottled water, and carried out the interview (which was a whopper). Upon departure his staff were taken aside by Israeli security and interrogated. Carlson had to wait for the Israelis to release his producer, whose passport was confiscated.

When the two-hour interview with Huckabee became public, it made headlines not only because of the interrogation of the producer, but also because of what the U.S. ambassador said in defense of Zionist belief. In the interview Carlson argued that if modern-day Israel is truly the legitimate heir of the biblical Israelites, then Israel should rule the land from the Nile to the Euphrates – covering Jordan, parts of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt. Huckabee said that he would be fine with that if that is what Israel wants.

Carlson also questioned the ambassador about whether leaders should reflect what the people want. Huckabee agreed. Then Carlson asked why the United States was preparing to go to war against Iran even though most Americans oppose it. Carlson also warned that such a war could lead to a recession if the Strait of Hormuz were closed – something that later happened.

The Tucker Carlson Show continued this theme with other guests as well, including a doctor who witnessed Israeli atrocities in Gaza. Another guest was former Israeli Knesset speaker Avraham Burg, who recently declared on Substack that he is no longer a Zionist. At the same time, Carlson’s support for Trump faded as the unpopular U.S.-Israel war against Iran continued – one that Carlson described as unprovoked.

Carlson says he has not changed his support for Trump’s “America First” policies, but it is the president who has moved away from his own earlier position. In any case, Carlson is no longer invited to the White House and has been publicly attacked by Trump.

Although support for Israel often comes from Republicans and right-wing conservatives, the current U.S. primary season shows that politics are changing and reacting to the people, not the parties. The Democratic Party has continued to endorse candidates who appear to be still close to the Israeli lobby, and in some cases has not backed nominees who oppose Zionism, but with little success. A clear example is the election of State Representative Chris Rabb to represent Pennsylvania’s third district. He won by 15 points over fellow Democrats who were heavily supported by AIPAC and backed by the local Democratic political machine. Rabb spoke about the genocide in Gaza and the need for Palestinian statehood.

The contrast between Tucker Carlson’s current anti-Zionism from the right and the Philadelphia Democratic party’s pro-Zionism on the left shows that support for Palestine – and opposition to Israeli genocide – is not limited to one party or one ideology. Christian Zionists often embrace the MAGA movement and praise Trump as a saint. But even this right-wing support for Israel is clearly beginning to crack.

Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He is the author of State of Palestine NOW and a volunteer Senior Communications Officer at the World Evangelical Alliance.

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