Tucker Carlson draws scorn for claiming he was detained at Israeli airport after Mike Huckabee interview

JTA – Tucker Carlson had just barely wrapped up his interview with United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee before the two were already disagreeing on a basic fact. 

Carlson, the influential conservative commentator, flew to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, 18 February, to conduct the interview with Huckabee at Ben Gurion Airport, departing hours later without leaving the airport. But before leaving, he told the British tabloid Daily Mail that Israeli authorities had confiscated his passport, dragged his executive producer into an interrogation room, “and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about”. 

Not so, says the ambassador: what Carlson’s team experienced was simply a routine security measure. 

“Everyone who comes in/out of Israel – every country for that matter – has passports checked and is routinely asked security questions,” Huckabee wrote on X, refuting his former Fox News colleague before their conversation could go live. 

Israel’s airport authority also denied the allegations, saying Carlson’s team “were politely asked a few routine questions, in accordance with standard procedures applied to many travellers”. A longer statement from the United States Embassy in Israel also said Carlson’s decision to stay in Israel only a few hours without leaving the airport was his alone. 

Carlson’s complaints drew withering reactions from Jews and others who said they recognised the intense security practiced at Ben Gurion. The conservative commentator John Podhoretz, for example, recounted on X how he had been questioned for 20 minutes because he was couriering a dress for a relative. “I’ve known Tucker was an asshole for 30 years, but this takes the f–king cake,” he wrote. 

The back-and-forth was a preview of the hotly anticipated interview between the two divergent flanks of the Christian MAGA (Make America Great Again) coalition, whose public disagreements on Israel have paralleled a larger fissure in the Republican party. Carlson, the influential GOP (Grand Old Party) kingmaker, has increasingly embraced anti-Israel talking points on his show at the same time as he has platformed conspiracy theorists and antisemites including Nick Fuentes. A growing number of young right-wing influencers and candidates are lining up behind his views. 

Huckabee, meanwhile, is a leading evangelical Christian Zionist who has argued in favour of Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. He publicly lobbied Carlson for a sit-down after Carlson used his podcast to criticise him for what Carlson described as a failure to intervene in Israeli demonisation of Christians. Carlson agreed to a talk, and posted a picture of himself arriving on Wednesday prior to the interview. 

“Greetings from Israel,” Carlson posted to X, captioning a photo of him posing outside near an Israeli flag with his arm around business partner Neil Patel. “Sell out,” Sneako, a livestreamer and Internet personality with a long streak of antisemitic and anti-Israel comments, wrote in reply. 

To some seasoned travellers, the location was obvious. 

“That’s the walkway to the private jet terminal for VIP entry,” tweeted David Friedman, who was US ambassador to Israel during US President Donald Trump’s first term. 

“After the Western Wall; the Temple Mount; the City of David; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; the Garden of Gethsemane; Capernaum; the Sea of Galilee; Nazareth; Bethlehem; Yad Vashem; the Knesset; and about 2 million other places, this walkway is an important site – but only if you fly on private jets,” he said. “Too bad Tucker stayed in the airport in the face of so many invitations to see so many wonderful places. A huge and obviously intentional missed opportunity.” 

Trump, an ally of both Carlson and Huckabee, may have also played a hand in arranging the interview, according to a former Fox News reporter who told The Times of Israel that Trump wanted to prevent an intra-party spat over Israel that could benefit Democrats. The source, Melissa Francis, also described the interview as “emotional”, and said Carlson’s team had tried and failed also to arrange an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Little about the interview process was straightforward. The week before Carlson touched down in Israel, according to local reports, Israeli authorities had indeed briefly discussed whether to bar Carlson from entering the country over his past comments, something they routinely do for non-Jewish critics of Israel, even prominent figures. They ultimately decided to avoid a diplomatic incident, according to reports. 

In the days since agreeing to an interview with Huckabee, Carlson has posted new interviews with Ryan Zink, a pardoned 6 January rioter and Texas congressional candidate; billionaire hedge-fund manager Ray Dalio; conspiracy theorist Ian Carroll; and former US Representative Ron Paul. 

Carlson hasn’t yet published his interview with Huckabee. But late on Wednesday, he shared an interview about Israel, continuing the vendetta that started their exchange. “How does Israel treat Christians? We spoke to one whose family has lived there since Jesus. His story is shocking,” Carlson wrote to promote the video. 

For Carlson’s Jewish critics, the whole day offered yet more evidence that whatever he ultimately says about Israel should be discounted. 

“Tucker Carlson is a chickens–t. The guy who’s been spouting lies about Israel for the past two years landed today at Ben Gurion airport, took a quick picture in the logistics zone, tweeted it to pretend he’s actually in Israel so he can later claim that he’s a serious reporter who toured Israel, didn’t even set foot in country, then made up a story that he’s being supposedly harassed by our security – didn’t happen – whined about it, got back into the private jet, and flew off,” tweeted Israeli politician Naftali Bennett. “Next time he talks about Israel as if he’s some expert, just remember this guy is a phony!”