In an appearance on a new episode of the ‘Breaking Points’ podcast, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson attacked Orthodox Jewish conservative commentator Ben Shapiro for his support of Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas, following Shapiro’s criticism of him for his stance on the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel.
The conversation, steered by host Saagar Enjeti, delved into the right-wing’s involvement in international conflicts, particularly in Israel and Ukraine. Enjeti asked Carlson, “Why is it that so many of these people don’t seem to have the same level of care for actual American citizens?”
Carlson, after discussing the Ukraine-Russia war, shifted to the situation in Israel. He expressed his personal connection to both Israel and the Arab world, stating, “In the case of Israel and the Arab world, I’ve spent a fair amount of time in both and I like both. And I felt terrible for the people who were killed on October 7, I still do. So I had no weird motive, I was just thinking about it from an American perspective: Is this good for us or is it not?”
“I said first of all, if the people who live in Gaza who are being moved out are so evil and dangerous that they can’t live in the region, why would you want them to move into my country?” Carlson continued. “I mean those, what are you saying? They can’t live there because it’s too scary to live next to them but they can live next to me? So at that point, I felt very hostile about that because it showed such contempt for me and my family and my neighbors and my country — it is my country — that’s how I feel about it anyway. It’s all of our country. And so I was like disgusted by that and I said so and I don’t know why that’s weird. Why wouldn’t I be offended by that?
“And then it was immediately I’m a hater, a bigot, or something like that. None of that registered with me because, first of all, I’ve been attacked for so long. But attacks that aren’t true. You know if somebody said ‘Wow, you’ve gained some weight this summer’ I’d be like ‘Oh!’ It would hurt my feelings because it’s true! But if someone’s like ‘You’re a hater’ or ‘You hate,’ that’s not true so I don’t really care.
“But I did think it showed like the level of not just corruption, which I knew, but of like emotional instability and crazy. I mean, there are people — and I stopped reading any of it — but there are people on the “right” who have spent the last two months every single day focused on a conflict in a foreign country as our own country becomes dangerously unstable, on the brink of financial collapse, with tens of millions of people who shouldn’t be here in the country, we don’t know their identities or the purpose of their being here.
“Like, stuff that could destroy the country for real and make it impossible for my kids to live here. They’ve said nothing about that, and they’re focused with laser intensity on foreign conflicts that I’m like, at some point I’ve got four kids. If I’m so caught up in the problems of my neighbor’s children and completely ignoring my own children as they get addicted to drugs and kill themselves, you know, I’m not against helping my neighbors’ kids, but clearly I don’t love my kids. I mean, that’s you know, that’s the only logical conclusion. And they don’t care about the country at all. And that’s, you know, that’s kind of their prerogative. But I do. Because I have no choice, because I’m from here, my family’s been here hundreds of years, I plan to stay here.
“I’m shocked by how little they care about the country and including the person you mentioned [Shapiro]. And I can’t imagine how someone like that could get an audience of people who claim to care about America, because he doesn’t, obviously.”
Shapiro has been vocal in his disapproval of Carlson’s viewpoints, especially after Carlson appeared to downplay the significance of the attack on Israel. Shapiro labeled Carlson’s comparison of the attack to drug overdose deaths in the U.S. as “idiocy” and “moral stupidity.” Additionally, Shapiro has accused Carlson of being “disingenuous” in his claims that Israel supporters are advocating for a U.S.-led war against Iran.
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20 Responses
I’m glad he “doesn’t want to be vp”
He’s so full of himself
Is it smart to pull the “anti-semite” trigger on anyone whose opinion we disagree with ?
Not a fan of Tucker, nor am I seeking to defend him, but it should be noted. This was his stance on the Ukraine war long before October 7.
This is him extending the quasi isolationist foreign policy view that he holds to include isreal as another foreign war being supported by the United States. I remain unconvinced that this has anything to do with Ben Shapiro being Jewish or even the state of Israel being a Jewish state.
And yes, I would absolutely support an American led war against Iran.
If there was a smidgen of a reason to do what we did to Iraq and Libya then Iran is certainly a target for our ire and our armor.
Thank you Fox News for kicking Carlson out overnight! Yasher koach!
Far from it!
Just because someone is an isolationist, and is consistently against any US involvement in foreign wars, makes him an anti-semite?
Of-course I think he’s wrong, and to my opinion this is totally different than Ukraine. Even from a US prospective is worth it. If Israel is left to fend for itself and ends-up loosing to the Muslim-Brotherhood, the entire region is immediately radicalized, and the west is next, and by then the snowball will be X10 the size…
But Tucker just doesn’t see it that way, and all he’s saying is that the US should not fan the flames of a 3rd world war. He might be basically right, but Hashem is pulling the strings…
“I mean those, what are you saying? They can’t live there because it’s too scary to live next to them but they can live next to me?
This kushya is mey’ikara lesah. it is too scary for A JEW to live next to them that’s why they can’t live there
Got it. You bad man
By now Ben Shapiro has egregiously peoclai his loyalty to a foreign country and abandoned his homeland AMERICA.
He claims to represent Jews. Hes causing more antisemitism w his vile rhetoric than Tucker can ever try to.
Ben is dangerous.
I don’t see anything antisemitic in the quoted statements. I disagree with them, but they’re completely within the bounds of reasonable discourse, and there’s nothing antisemitic about them. Carlson sees Shapiro as neglecting this country’s problems because he’s so focused on the problems of another country. That’s a reasonable concern, even if I think he’s wrong. I think Shapiro does care about this country and its problems, but there are plenty of people who can focus on them, while he focuses on something else.
It has never been the Jewish way to call people names. Insults are the arguments of those who are wrong and know it. Why it’s necessary to choose to attack high-profile personalities is beyond me. Perhaps it’s the only way to push up ratings these days…as per our former president.
While he’s not necessarily an antisemite, frum Jews who have been shamelessly worshipping at his feet need to realize that he is not our friend.
I don’t know of anyone, least if all Ben Shapiro, who wants Palestinian Arabs to leave Gaza and come to America. Liberals supporters of Israel want the Arabs to stay in Gaza (minus Hamas), while those who advocate for expelling Arabs are not advocating to send them to America but rather to other Arab countries. So Carlson is arguing with a straw man, as he so often does.
Please post this in a way that we can all discuss my remarks as a USA born Yeshiva and post grad univ. background Rabbi and former PTSD specialist living in Israel:
I am not sure Tucker is an antisemite AND I am sure that Ben should admit and defend that USA Jews and all Americans should push the USA to destroy Iranian regime and nuclear assets NOW. I have seen both Ben and wiser older Mark Levin be nieve and wrong because they are trapped in their american culture boxes/world views: i.e. Mark interviewed Bill Barr and gave him credibility and honor to the end when we all knew ASAP when Epstein was murdered that Barr was a rat. Regarding this issue: Why is Carlson so delusional as to think that if the USA does NOT attack and destroy Iranian nuclear weapons and stop their proxies NOW—that USA will not irreversibly damage western civilization to the point of no return BY NOT ACTING AS THE SUPERPOWER MUST. Unless there is a new world order now led by USA and Saudis –militarily pushing Moslem world to disown jihadism and scare jihadists— by banding together with a positive economic incentive model—jihad will now be Everywhere and destroy the USA and the eu very very soon—especially with their open immigration policies which tucker himself is smart enough to protest.
Disagreeing with a fellow American does not make them an Anti-Semite.
I’m not sure the YW feels the need to call out Tucker who has been consistent in his views regarding America’s foreign policy.
I think YW should apologize.
No, he’s not. He’s an American who wants what’s best for his country, and he definitely has a point.
Shapiro, on the other hand, is doing a great job inflaming the anti-Semitism in this country, both by reinforcing the dual-loyalty tropes and by sending the message that Israel is a Jewish state, putting all American Jews in danger from those seeking to avenge it’s perceived misdeeds.
He’s an anti-Semite. He had the anti-Semite Candace Owens on his show bashing Shapiro. Why is Owens who is also busy with bashing Israel not anti-American? Because she criticizes Israel so that’s why she’s not anti-American according to them. But if you defend Israel you’re anti-American according to Carlson. Ben Shapiro has spoken about the US more than Carlson has. He speaks every day, in campuses and around the world about the US. He has given hundreds of speeches on conservative ideology to preserve the US. Meanwhile , Carlson talks not half as much as Shapiro and every one of talks are a “major” program…Shapiro cares about the US as much as Carlson does. He also cares about Israel. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Bek Shapiro is causing a lot more antisemitism than Tucker is. Hes a Jewish supremacist and very dangerous for Jews goobally
Classic putts.
While listening to Tuckers latest what bothered me was his stance on free speech which is that ALL speech is free.. but when we learned about free speech in school they always gave the example that a person cannot yell fire in a crowded theater as it could result in hurt/dead people…pro-palestinean groups on campuses around the usa are saying “kill the jews” that can have the same result long term so saying that is free speech is absurd…
Cascade, if that is how you learned about free speech then your teacher is to blame. No, you can’t falsely shout “fire” in a theater and cause a panic that will literally hurt people. Extending that to carve out an exception to the first amendment for any speech that you consider “harmful” is INVALID and has been COMPLETELY REJECTED by the supreme court.
Do you understand that you are citing the Schenck case, in which Oliver Wendel Holmes used this stupid analogy to claim that the government could throw someone in prison for publicly opposing the draft in wartime!!! Do you understand that?! Is that what you support too?! Boruch Hashem this is not 1917 any more, and the tyranny of that era is over. Under the Wilson administration the USA was not a free country, and did not deserve to be supported by anyone. Since then the supreme court has repudiated that decision and in the 1960s protesters against the draft were protected and were able to convince the nation and the government that the draft was wrong.
There is NO QUESTION that saying “Kill the Jews” is free speech, and protected speech, and you will not find even one person who knows anything about the first amendment who will tell you otherwise. It is a halacha pesuka, or as we say “bei’ah bekutcha” (like the fact that it is permitted to eat an egg in a milchig sauce). As the supreme court has repeatedly said, protecting “mere advocacy” is at the very core of the first amendment.
Miriam regarding “supremacist” it may be prudent to use a less extreme term such as “elite”. And they’re not just among republicans, but also dems.
So, just like the irrational queen in Alice In Wonderland who shrieked “off with their heads”, it seems that Tucker is next on the “anti-semitism” chopping block.
For example, there were those irrationalists who’d rant against placards comparing Covid passports to blue Auschwitz tattoo’s. They called that “anti-semitism”. Never mind that the pics were intended as a pre-emptive warning, based on truth. What better way to warn people than via “shock-treatment”, and what shock-treatment was more true than the comparison to a massive extermination precedent?
They also labelled R.F. Kennedy an anti-semite for saying that even Anne Frank had a place to hide. Never mind that RFK was simply calling a spade a spade, namely, that modern tech makes it impossible to hide the way people were capable of doing in the past.
Regarding all the “antisemitic” stuff RFK was accused of: (1) check out Rumble for the Interview With Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Judaism and Anti-Semitism. (2) see the vid on the NY Post site – of RFK on Dov Hikind’s show.
Now maybe it’s a good time for Tucker to visit Hikind as well, to set the record straight.