Tucker Carlson and Israel’s Right to Their Land: The Mike Huckabee Interview (Part One)

See this series and this one too.

I heard that Tucker Carlson would interview Mike Huckabee and I looked forward to it.  Their session dropped the evening of February 20 on youtube.  Finally, maybe a man would give Carlson a good answer on Christian Zionism.  Huckabee was asking for this face-to-face.  Carlson has not yet talked to anyone of substance, someone who knows the Bible well, is well-versed in scripture, who could defend Christian Zionism.  I expected that he would ask Huckabee about that.  So many people would watch this and get something helpful and persuasive from it.  I hate to tell you — that did not happen.

Mike Huckabee, who is the United States Ambassador to the nation of Israel, also is a former pastor of two Southern Baptist churches in Arkansas between 1980 and 1992.  Before that, he graduated from Ouachita Baptist University and started seminary for one year before quitting at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.  This apparent training and preaching, maybe reading the Bible for a lifetime, and his believing in Christian Zionism, wanting to do this, I really thought would have him ready to give a good answer to Carlson.

The Two Biggest Take-Aways

Carlson met Huckabee at the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel and they talked for two hours.  I believe there were two big take-aways from the interview.  One, Huckabee did not, maybe could not, answer the question of Christian Zionism.  Maybe he doesn’t understand it enough, albeit better than Ted Cruz.  Perhaps more likely, it was a combination of not having a good answer and also not giving one because he is a representative of the United States government.  As such, he represents all those too who don’t believe in Christian Zionism and then the so-called separation of church and state.

Two, Tucker Carlson would not agree, although asked numerous times whether Israel as a nation had a right to its land.   Not only would he not say, “yes,” to the question, “Do you believe that Israel has a right to the land?”  He would just sit there, quiet, refusing to answer.

Huckabee would ask the same question about Israel’s homeland in the negative, and Carlson would essentially try to deny the worst, but he did not and would not agree that Israel deserved to or should exist.  Then he attacked that in different ways with Huckabee.  One major way was by challenging whether the people in Israel were Jews.  He was challenging whether there were people still in the line of Abraham from the Old Testament.

Carlson Incredibly Disrespectful

I don’t see Tucker Carlson much anymore, but I’ve seen enough of him already to know that he was incredibly combative with Mike Huckabee, most similar to how he treated Ted Cruz, except far worse.  I’m not any Huckabee fan and never have been, but Tucker Carlson was entirely disrespectful to the Ambassador.  He treated him terribly.  I would characterize him as both mouthy and petulant and worse.  Carlson nonstop did the typical leftist journalist strategy of finding a gotcha moment, which did work, because leftist publications almost immediately pounced on those statements or slips.  It is an abhorrent technique.

Carlson will very often say that he is not an antisemite, denying it vehemently.  I don’t like people throwing around that word with little to no meaning either, using it as a cudgel against people.  When I listen to Carlson, however, he’s extraordinarily anti-Israel to a suspicious degree.  From what he said in this interview, he seemed fine, not with genocide (don’t get me wrong), but with the actual elimination of the nation Israel.  The Jews could go back to the diaspora with no land of their own.  He would be fine with that.  I’m basing that assessment on what I watched in this interview.  Actual antisemites would love Carlson’s interview.

Start of Carlson-Huckabee Interview/Debate

Pollard Affair

At the very start with Huckabee almost anyone would think that Carlson would get right to the Christian Zionism question.  He didn’t.  He started instead with three different ways that, in my opinion and based on what I saw before my eyes, he could delegitimize Mike Huckabee.  Carlson did not approach these three issues at all in a good faith way.  He was awful with the way he dealt with the Ambassador.  To begin, he strenuously connected Huckabee with the Jonathan Pollard affair, Pollard a Jewish man who stole top secret information, gave it to Israel, who then gave it to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Pollard served thirty years in an American prison and then was freed to Israel.  Carlson cherry picked ways to discredit Huckabee before he ever arrived at the Christian Zionism question.  He was not a sincere broker in dealing with these controversial issues.  Carlson tried to corner Huckabee in three ways.  One, the Ambassador had met with Pollard since his station in Israel.  Two, he gave Pollard good will, even though Pollard was in no way repentant for his criminal actions.  Three, earlier Huckabee had supported a commutation of Pollard’s sentence, when he was Governor of Arkansas.

Huckabee did not give great answers to the questions about Pollard, so Carlson got mileage out of this approach.  I really don’t comprehend Huckabee meeting with Pollard and he should have given him a thousand foot pole, never finding himself in a picture with Pollard.  Pollard was an enemy of the United States.  This doesn’t discount Christian Zionism.  It does discount Mike Huckabee in a certain way though.

Israeli Official Allegation of Child Molestation in Nevada

Carlson seemed clearly to weave all his issues together to show that America now puts Israel first over its own citizens or in other words, Israel First, not America First.  In other words, Huckabee and other high ranking government officials would defend Israel over the United States. Carlson asserts that he doesn’t want to pay his taxes to Israel, and then have his country treat him worse than it would Israel.  This is apparently evidence of something very sinister to Carlson.  The second issue was an Israeli, who went to Nevada, was arrested there with an accusation that he molested an underage girl.  Aljazeera reported in August of last year:

A senior Israeli official was arrested in the United States earlier this month and charged with seeking sexual conduct with a minor, only to be released on bail with no conditions or monitoring, allowing him to flee to Israel.

I had not heard of the molestation of this girl but Carlson knew all about it, which he treated as if the American government didn’t so much care about the molestation of its American girls as it did for the nation Israel.  He also connected this to the Epstein issue, to which he circles back later.  Carlson reported that nothing had been done about this man who molested this girl — nothing from Israel, no attempt to send him back for justice, as if child molestation was a policy of the nation.  Israel was shielding this young girl molester and getting away with it with its government’s support.  Huckabee barely knew about it and Carlson pounced all over this issue.

A Parallel for Carlson with Pakistanis in England

By the way, I watched part of Carlson’s discussion with Piers Morgan and a big chunk had their sparring over Pakistanis in England.  Tucker said he met Pakistani cab drivers and really liked them.  That was his assessment of Pakistanis in England, he met cab drivers he liked.  I could easily make Tucker look like he approved of Pakistani gang rape of underaged English girls.  He was insensitive to those girls with his pro-Pakistani, Moslem, speech.  Remember this when you look at how Carlson dealt with his elder, Huckabee, in this interview.  I think Carlson was worse on the Pakistani situation than Huckabee on the Israeli official in Nevada.

The Epstein Question Again

Lastly, Carlson mentioned that the president of Israel was in the Epstein files, having visited, he called it, “Pedo Island,” referring to Pedophile Island, or Epstein Island.  Former prime minister, Ehud Barak, was good friends with and had lived with Epstein.  Carlson confronted Huckabee as to whether he had done anything about Isaac Herzog, considering his associations with Epstein.

Tucker Carlson intimates that the U.S. protected Epstein because he was a Mossad agent, Israel’s spy agency.   Then he flip flopped between saying Epstein was Mossad, that he didn’t really know though, didn’t have evidence of that, yet still suggesting it was true and expecting Huckabee to treat Epstein as Mossad.  Huckabee wasn’t up to crushing Carlson in these moments, probably because his position wouldn’t allow it.  The best Huckabee would do is use Trump’s name to see if Carlson would oppose Trump.  Carlson smears the Trump government, but conveniently disassociates Trump himself from everything he uses.

Dropping the Christian Zionism Question

It was after these three beginning, startling issues, that Tucker Carlson finally dropped his Christian Zionism question, asking Huckabee what it was.  Carlson would confess that he did not know or understand what it was, but when Huckabee would then begin and continue to give his answer, Carlson dug into what Huckabee said with what Carlson believed on the subject, showing he was in fact thinking quite a bit about how he could attack Christian Zionism.

Unfortunately, Ambassador Huckabee did a poor job of defending Christian Zionism.  He started like he was lecturing children, saying that Christian Zionism first was Christian, giving a short explanation of what he thought makes a Christian.  Carlson agreed with that inane portion of his answer.  Then Huckabee moved to Zionist, whom he said was someone who believed the Jews, Israel, should have their own homeland.  That definition wasn’t specific about the land in which Israel lives right now, so Huckabee really does miss and very sadly on this most crucial part of the explanation.  Christian Zionism would not be Zionism if it did not include Zion in it.

Overall, Huckabee just wasn’t very good in this debate.  I already explained why.  Politics surely handcuffed him or at least I hope that’s what it was, not that he just didn’t have a good biblical explanation.  He didn’t give one.  The Ambassador to Israel should have a minute, a three minute, master answer that defends Zionism for Israel.  How could Huckabee not have this?  Inexplicable.  Huckabee was not up to or for the moment and really failed here.  This is not in defense of Carlson, who was atrocious.

Two Major Attacks on Christian Zionism by Carlson

The First One:  Genesis 15:18-21 and a Land Promise

Carlson had two major attacks against Christian Zionism, both of which Huckabee gave bad answers, including offering the biggest gotcha moment in the entire interview.  I looked online and, yes, it’s all over the news and the internet.  The leftish Israel haters are feasting off of the apparently conservative Carlson.  He gave them some excellent fodder.  Thank you so much Mr. Ambassador.  A first line of attack for Carlson was his going to Genesis 15 to see the breadth of the land promised to Israel.  If Huckabee would rely on the Bible as an argument for Israel’s homeland, why not these boundaries?

Huckabee Fail

Huckabee couldn’t do anything scriptural with the Genesis 15 reference, except the ultimate faux pax of the interview.  He said that he would be fine with Israel having those boundaries.  Later he tried maybe to correct?  He said if Israel fought future wars against these nations and won this land, they could have it.  Ouch!  I’m guessing  that many people were cringing at this point.  Carlson pounced all over it and kept emphasizing what Huckabee said for supreme gotchability.  Huckabee never retracted but also never explained, leaving surrounding nations of Israel befuddled and angry.

If Huckabee was relying at all on the Bible as an authority for Israel’s homeland in Zion, then he needs an answer for Genesis 15:18-21.  Carlson perhaps did not think he could answer that question, especially politically, and yet biblically someone needs to answer it.  Why can’t Carlson answer it?  He’s responsible to do that, not just make it a gotcha question.  Not knowing the answer for Carlson also isn’t an answer.  He wasn’t getting an answer from Huckabee just like Ted Cruz couldn’t answer on Genesis 12 and didn’t even know the reference.

What is the Answer?

What is the answer to this Genesis 15:18-21 question that Huckabee never answered?  It’s crucial.  God promised these boundaries for Israel and Israel never received that land that God promised.  God still hasn’t fulfilled that promise, so Israel will have it still in the future.  If Huckabee knew the answer, it would become a gotcha for him.  He could have asked Carlson:  “Do you think God fulfills all His promises or do you think He would lie on that?  So do you think Israel should or will receive that land promise still?”  When Carlson wouldn’t answer, he could ask, “I thought you believed the Bible?!?!”

“You’re not saying God is a liar are you, Tucker?”  Tucker would huff and puff, turn red, and maybe do one of his crazy laughs.  Huckabee could continue:

“So when will Israel get that land, do you think Tucker?  It’s not never, because God doesn’t lie.  It’s still in the future, but when?  Who will do that?  Who will fulfill that promise?  We know, Tucker.  It’s the Messiah.  It’s Jesus Christ.  Do you believe that?  Jesus is coming, Tucker, and He will give Israel that land in fulfillment of the promises.  Guess what?  It will be for only those who receive Jesus Christ.  Praise the Lord, right Tucker?!  God will save Israel and give her this land promise!”

Christian Zionism

That is in fact, Christian Zionism.  It’s a bit different than Jewish Zionism and importantly so.  God will first bring an unbelieving Israel into the land, becoming a valley of dry bones, Ezekiel 37.  Then Israel will repent, Isaiah 52-53, Zechariah 12, and God will save 1/3 of Israel, Zechariah 13.  Of course, none of that would make Israel happy and offend most Jews, but it is the truth.

I don’t care if the nation Jordan doesn’t like the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel or all the Arab nations.  It is the truth and it doesn’t square with replacement and covenant theology or supercessionism.  That is how Jesus will fulfill Genesis 15:18-21, the seed of the woman, blessing Israel and all the nations of the earth.  Amen!

More to Come