‘Israel lost its morality’ – Tucker Carlson clashes with Israeli anchor over Gaza, Iran war

Far-right podcast Tucker Carlson tells Israeli news anchor that he believes Israel “definitely lost its morality,” defends calling Israel the “most violent country in the world.”

By World Israel News Staff

Tucker Carlson said Israel has “definitely lost its morality” and called for an end to US aid to the country in a tense interview with a news anchor from Israel’s Channel 13.

In the interview with anchor Udi Segal, broadcast Tuesday night, Carlson said his split with Trump was driven by the US-backed war with Iran, which he said “doesn’t serve the interest of the United States.”

He said Trump had spent years warning against such a conflict before joining Israel’s campaign against Tehran.

“My views did not change. His did,” Carlson said.

The exchange quickly broadened into an argument over Israel’s wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, US military support, antisemitism and whether Israel remains a democracy.

Carlson defended his past claim that Israel is “probably the most violent country in the world,” pointing to Israeli assassination operations and the use of a “golden pager” given by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Trump, a reference to the pager attack that targeted Hezbollah operatives.

When Segal challenged him by saying the targets were Hezbollah terrorists and that Israel was fighting a “ring of fire” created by Iran through Hamas and Hezbollah, Carlson said Israel had a right to defend itself but not to kill innocents.

“Killing innocents is never acceptable,” Carlson said. “Period. Under any circumstances by any person or any nation, it’s immoral.”

Segal pressed Carlson over the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, including the murder and abduction of Israeli civilians, and asked whether the United States would have responded differently to an attack on that scale.

Carlson compared Israel’s response to the US response after Sept. 11, saying America killed both perpetrators and innocent civilians.

“It is never allowable, period, for any person to kill an innocent,” he said. “You can’t kill a child. The child did nothing wrong.”

The far-right podcaster emphatically rejected any US aid to Israel.

“There’s no reason the United States should be sending any money at all to Israel, and particularly not to its military,” he said.

Carlson also accused Netanyahu of dragging the United States into the Iran war, saying Trump “caved” under pressure from the Israeli leader and his allies in the US.

“I don’t primarily blame the Israeli prime minister, who I think is wrong,” Carlson said. “I think he’s gravely hurt Israel. I think he’s leading Israel toward destruction. I think he’s a very bad leader and a very unwise leader.”

He added that he believed Netanyahu was acting in what he thought was Israel’s interest. “So I give him credit for that and always have,” Carlson said.

Trump has rejected claims that Israel pushed him into the war. In April, he said the decision to strike Iran was his own and was based on his view that Tehran could not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Carlson’s criticism of Israel has also drawn accusations that he is echoing antisemitic tropes about hidden Jewish power and dual loyalty. Segal asked him directly whether he understood why Jews and Israelis heard his claims about Netanyahu’s influence, donors and media pressure as an echo of “something very old.”

“I am not echoing anything. I’m not implying anything,” Carlson replied. “I am stating what I know to be true because I saw it.”

He said Israel “does not represent all Jews” and denied hostility toward Jews. “I oppose attacks on Jews as Jews. That is disgusting. It is immoral,” he said.

Carlson denied that Israel is a democracy “in any sense,” calling Israel’s policies in Judea and Samaria and Gaza “disgusting and immoral.”

The former Fox News host also argued that the United States is “not a democracy, either.”

“It’s the opposite of a democracy.”