Tucker Carlson, in his fierce opposition to the war against Iran, has been pushing outlandish conspiracy theories concerning Judaism and Israel. Many people are angered by his insidious implication of Jews and Judaism in everything bad in the world, but I think we owe Tucker a debt of gratitude because he is giving us an opportunity to sort out some fundamental truths.
Firstly, it’s important to point out that Carlson isn’t generating new material but simply peddling the same antisemitic tropes used throughout the ages. If you close your eyes, you might think you’re in the 1930s, debating another war, listening to a small but vocal group warning America that sinister international Jews are dragging unsuspecting Christian Americans into war against their better interests.
My grandfather often described his feelings of anger and disappointment when, as a young US Army soldier who had escaped Nazi persecution, he overheard a drunk soldier blurt out, “Why do we have to fight this Jew war?”
But it wasn’t merely a Jew war then, and it isn’t now. To be sure, both wars involve Jews. The Nazis wanted to eradicate the entire Jewish people, and the Islamic Republic of Iran wants to obliterate the nation-state of the Jews. But most Americans now agree that Nazi Germany, with its eye on world domination, was an actual threat to the American republic; a Nazi superpower in Europe, based on racism, enslavement, and murder, was an existential danger to the entire world.
In the current conflict as well, everyone involved in both Democratic and Republican administrations since 1979 has agreed that Iran harbors a fanatical hatred of America and, as the number one sponsor of terrorism, is responsible for hundreds of American deaths.
From old hatreds to moral clarity
There is, however, a deeper and more essential issue here, and Carlson’s position can provide the counterpoint that helps clarify our own core beliefs. As a Jew, I’m unabashedly proud of the historical role of the Jewish people as a source of light and progress for the world.
To this very day, ethical monotheism brought to the world by Judaism is one of the fundamental tenets of Western civilization. Faith in God, responsibility toward one’s fellow man, morality, charity, and justice are all Jewish concepts.
It’s not a coincidence, therefore, that the most evil regimes throughout history – the ones that would shoot their own people in the eyes – are the sworn enemies of the Jews. Hitler declared the conscience to be a Jewish concept that the Nazis were casting off. The Islamic Republic, which engaged in terror and hostage-taking from its very inception, also, almost instinctively, opposes the Jews.
Make no mistake about it: this is a war of good versus evil, and it allows us to define and delineate the two. When Tucker Carlson called this war evil, he had the right idea, just inverted. He excels at taking obscure, isolated facts out of context and weaving them into a distorted alternate reality.
(A prime example of this was when he claimed that patches given to a handful of Israeli soldiers by the Chabad Hassidic sect suggested that Israel is using this war to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque!) We, however, shouldn’t let his smokescreen pervert our concept of right and wrong.
America’s interest in preventing a country that has consistently chanted “death to America” from producing nuclear weapons is as clear as day. The fact is, however, that Divine Providence has also linked American interests to the fate of civilization. I certainly am not trying to change the minds of Carlson’s followers; evil has always had a powerful allure.
I am writing to the average American who is still proud of the pivotal role our country played 80 years ago in opposing those who put people in gas chambers and ovens. As an American and as a Jew, I’m incredibly proud that we are still on the right side – opposing terrorism and barbarism in order to make the world a better place.
The writer is a Jewish educator and lecturer, as well as a psychotherapist with a private practice in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh.