Tucker Carlson’s Apologia for Christian Antisemitism

“How does the government of Israel treat Christians?” Tucker Carlson asked Munther Isaac, the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, last week. For months since the October 7 attacks, Carlson has been at the forefront of a loose campaign of social-media influencers trying to convince Christians to abandon their support for Israel. He took things to a new level this week by turning to Isaac for answers, and claiming, “If you wake up in the morning and decide that your Christian faith requires you to support a foreign government blowing up churches and killing Christians, I think you’ve lost the thread.”

Isaac, though a Christian, has a long history of anti-Israel rhetoric that excuses terrorism. In 2021, he published an “Open Letter to U.S. Christians from a Palestinian Pastor,” in which he wrote, “We Palestinians are experiencing an occupation: one nation controlling another; the laws, policies, practices, and military of one state oppressing the people of another, controlling nearly every aspect of our lives.” Palestinians in Jerusalem, he continued, experienced ethnic cleansing at Israel’s hands and are subject to Israeli apartheid. In that article, Isaac told Christians to team up with groups such as IfNotNow and Jewish Voices for Peace — two of the groups organizing mass anti-Israel, and in many cases pro-Hamas, protests across the United States. Christians should embrace movements such as these, Isaac said, to “challenge the occupation.”

About the Author

Haley Strack

Haley Strack is a former staff writer at National Review.

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“How does the government of Israel treat Christians?” Tucker Carlson asked Munther Isaac, the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, last week. For months since the October 7 attacks, Carlson has been at the forefront of a loose campaign of social-media influencers trying to convince Christians to abandon their support for Israel. He took things to a new level this week by turning to Isaac for answers, and claiming, “If you wake up in the morning and decide that your Christian faith requires you to support a foreign government blowing up churches and killing Christians, I think you’ve lost the thread.”

Isaac, though a Christian, has a long history of anti-Israel rhetoric that excuses terrorism. In 2021, he published an “Open Letter to U.S. Christians from a Palestinian Pastor,” in which he wrote, “We Palestinians are experiencing an occupation: one nation controlling another; the laws, policies, practices, and military of one state oppressing the people of another, controlling nearly every aspect of our lives.” Palestinians in Jerusalem, he continued, experienced ethnic cleansing at Israel’s hands and are subject to Israeli apartheid. In that article, Isaac told Christians to team up with groups such as IfNotNow and Jewish Voices for Peace — two of the groups organizing mass anti-Israel, and in many cases pro-Hamas, protests across the United States. Christians should embrace movements such as these, Isaac said, to “challenge the occupation.”