The Tucker Carlson Challenge
Was at his Show - we both survived.
Tucker Carlson is one of the most powerful voices in today’s American right. For many of my friends and readers, he represents a foreign and threatening value system, and when I shared that I was going to be interviewed by him, more than a few of them pressured me to cancel and were angry when I refused. The reactions that surfaced online in the first hours after publication reinforced what I already knew: our field, the field of dialogue and openness, is shrinking at an alarming rate. But it was precisely from that understanding that I came to this conversation. This interview was born out of a genuine desire to step outside familiar patterns and meet the person behind the public image that has been built around him, not out of prior agreement and not out of any need to adjudicate, but out of a willingness to seriously engage with the challenges he poses to the political and cultural discourse of our time. Carlson manages to touch a raw nerve of an American society whose doubts are deepening, and the temptation is to dismiss that with slogans. I chose not to do that.
I have been deeply impressed by your writing for a while, but this was a massive mistake. It is possible that this is a function of you being Israel and not knowing the depths of danger Carlson represents. And sadly, you played directly into his and other white nationalists’ hands.
To be clear: I am not trying to demonize. I think your desire for dialogue is genuine. This is not what Carlson desires. Carlson needs people to legitimize him so he can appear mainstream and evenhanded as he spreads neo-Nazi and white nationalist ideology. I only watched a bit of the interview (I can only watch so much of him), but I already identified a few antisemitic conspiracy theories that he uses. I think you likely didn’t notice them because you were discussing it from the lens of Israeli politics as opposed to American extremism.
He also needs people like you to join his show so that when he brings on people like Nick Fuentes, who has called for all Jews in the US to be killed or deported, he can appear “evenhanded.” And more importantly, doing so in the name of dialogue. Same logic you use here, which is exactly what he was hoping for from you. This is a game he’s played for decades. You can see some of my writing on him going back a number of years on the Forward if it helps.
Carlson is not just interested in targeting Jews. He’s interested in building the exact kind of country that you are trying to prevent in Israel (or that has already come). He’s trying to hurt all our minorities, put immigrants in concentration camps, and remove all rights from women. This is not an exaggeration.
Please never fall for the right’s games. You will lose your legitimacy and they will gain their own as you do.
You’re not playing into Christian Nationalist hands. Claiming so shows a lack of understanding of the movement. While I don’t believe everything Tucker says yet, I’m personally grateful for his perspective. What I learned from listening to you is that most Israelis have limited knowledge of life beyond their immediate surroundings and what their media tells them. This is tragic, as it mirrors the limited scope of Christian Zionists and Nationalists. We Americans strive to keep media open, but the scope is rapidly shrinking due to Zionists like Ellison buying up more and more media and they push an agenda. That’s a concern. My Jewish heritage on my Mother’s side is not something I’m interested in pursuing, but throughout my life, I’ve always believed most people, regardless of their religious beliefs, are good people.