{"id":121721,"date":"2025-06-07T17:05:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T15:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=121721"},"modified":"2025-06-07T08:52:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T06:52:41","slug":"07-05-111","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=121721","title":{"rendered":"Why does Tucker Carlson want to appease Tehran?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Why does Tucker Carlson want to appease Tehran?<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Jonathan S. Tobin<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The \u201cwoke right\u201d rages against a tougher policy on Iran as well as support for Israel. It\u2019s clear that their motives for wanting to repeat Obama\u2019s folly, which didn\u2019t put America first, are morally questionable.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

A week before U.S. elections, GOP presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump sits down for a conversation with political commentator Tucker Carlson during his Live Tour at the Desert Diamond Arena in Phoenix, Ariz, Oct. 31, 2024. Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

There has always been something that didn\u2019t add up about Tucker Carlson\u2019s stands on the Middle East. The former\u00a0Fox News<\/em>\u00a0host, who now has a show primarily seen on the X social-media platform, has always been that rare conservative talker who was, to put it mildly, unenthusiastic about the alliance with Israel. Even more strangely, he appeared soft on an Islamist regime in Iran that hated the United States and had the blood of many Americans on its hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

But while Carlson\u2019s impact on public opinion has declined since he was booted out of his prominent perch at\u00a0Fox<\/em>\u00a0and relegated to an Internet show, his influence within the inner circles of the Trump administration seems not only undiminished but perhaps increased. None of the controversies surrounding him, including his\u00a0platforming<\/a>\u00a0of Israel-haters, antisemites and Holocaust deniers, has made him radioactive enough to be exiled from the presidential court at the White House or Mar-a-Lago. To the contrary, his show has regularly hosted administration figures in recent months.<\/span><\/p>\n

An ominous negotiation<\/strong><\/h4>\n

That makes his increasingly strident views about Iran particularly ominous.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is particularly relevant now because President Donald Trump appears to be\u00a0negotiating<\/a>\u00a0a new nuclear deal that could be just as weak as the one struck with Tehran by former President Barack Obama in 2015. Though nothing has been settled, the prospect of an interim accord that would not only grant legitimacy to its nuclear program but also its right to enrich uranium is a shocking development to those who assumed that the Trump 2.0 administration would be as tough on Iran as Trump 1.0.<\/span><\/p>\n

So when Carlson launched into a lengthy\u00a0tirade<\/a>\u00a0on X denouncing Mark Levin, the host of a radio talk show, as well as the \u201cLife, Liberty & Levin\u201d program that still appears on\u00a0Fox News<\/em>, for \u201clobbying for war with Iran\u201d at the White House, it seemed something like a declaration of war on pro-Israel conservatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cwoke right\u201d movement that Carlson leads is a bafflingly diverse and often contradictory gathering of erstwhile right- and left-wingers that seem united only by their hostility to Israel, coupled with opposition to anything that is even tangentially connected to Jews and the Jewish state. While their clout should not be exaggerated, the encouragement it is giving to those inside the administration pursuing an Iran strategy that seems remarkably similar to that of Obama and Biden should not be discounted. With the outcome of these talks and the ultimate direction of the second Trump administration\u2019s foreign policy still far from determined, an examination of Carlson\u2019s efforts to bolster and to rationalize appeasement of an Islamist regime that hates America and all it stands for requires something of an explanation.<\/span><\/p>\n

An internal split on Iran<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Unraveling Trump\u2019s seeming flip-flop on Iran is no easy task.<\/span><\/p>\n

His reluctance for the United States to become involved in a new war is understandable, popular and a reasonable position to take. But the notion that the only choices that Washington has with respect to Iran are appeasement or war is simply not true. It\u2019s the same false argument that Obama offered in defense of his Iran policy. As Trump subsequently showed, a policy of serious sanctions that were rigorously enforced and imposed on American allies could do real damage to the country run by mullahs. An even tougher sanctions campaign, combined with Israeli military pressure (that has already cut down to size Iran\u2019s allies in Lebanon and destroyed them in Syria), offers hope for a third way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Iranian progress toward their nuclear ambition under the feckless Biden administration, which dropped Trump\u2019s sanctions, has brought Tehran to the brink of a nuclear weapon. That\u2019s a dismal prospect for Western security that obligates the president to consider that more diplomacy with a regime whose hostility to America is a given and that can be counted on never to keep its word, is not a rational course of action.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did Trump wind up echoing Obama talking points?<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to figure. This is, after all, the same president who rejected Obama\u2019s disastrously weak deal that enriched and empowered the Islamist regime, guaranteeing that it would get a nuclear weapon. He also imposed a punishing \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign of sanctions that restricted its ability to fund international terrorism, and in January 2020, killed its chief terrorist, Qassem Soleimani, the head of Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/span><\/p>\n

While only one person is in charge in the current White House\u2014Trump\u2014there is no question but that some of his new foreign-policy advisers seem to share an aversion to confronting Tehran. Among them are Vice President JD Vance and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence. And both are friends of Carlson.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson addresses a crowd via a video link during the federal election campaign launch for Clive Palmer\u2019s \u201cTrumpet of Patriots\u201d party on the Sunshine Coast, Australia, April 19, 2025. Photo by Dan Peled\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Probing Carlson\u2019s influence<\/strong><\/h4>\n

That means the question of Carlson\u2019s influence\u2014and that of his friends inside the administration who may agree with him on the issue\u2014is no longer merely a matter of idle speculation. It is now one of life and death, when one considers the possible implications of an accord that could lead to the lifting of sanctions and the preservation of a program that has already made Iran a threshold nuclear power.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since he left\u00a0Fox<\/em>, the filters have been off for Carlson as he has given vent to a variety of extremist views on a number of issues. His highlighting of World War II revisionism about Churchill, Hitler and the Holocaust, as well as anti-Israel views, has been presented with the same disingenuous \u201cjust asking questions\u201d approach that is customary on the far right. Carlson\u2019s acolytes may think that regurgitating Hamas talking points, whitewashing Qatar and echoing 90-year-old Nazi propaganda are the hallmarks of intelligent inquiry. But all that points to his unabashed extremism and antisemitism-adjacent views. There have also been\u00a0questions raised<\/a>\u00a0about whether Qatar or other Islamist entities have been funneling money to him in one way or the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of the reason why none of this has proved disqualifying for him is the strong reservoir of goodwill among mainstream conservatives that he built up during his years at\u00a0Fox<\/em>. During the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020, he was easily the most powerful voice refuting the spirit of moral panic about race that swept the country in the weeks and months after the killing of George Floyd that spring. At that time, he assumed something of a role as the tribune of the right, pushing back against woke ideology and myths about police hunting down African-Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in subsequent years, Carlson became less focused on giving voice to mainstream conservative opinions and ultimately burned his bridges with his employers at\u00a0Fox<\/em>. He might have sunk into irrelevance once deprived of such a potent platform as a primetime spot on the nation\u2019s most-watched cable news station. Though he reaches fewer people now on a program primarily viewed on the X social media platform, his close ties to the Trumps via the president\u2019s son, Donald Jr., proved a lifeline. The fact that he sometimes accompanied the president to public events or was seen at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida in his company ensured that he would still be seen as a figure to be reckoned with.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was solidified when, along with Elon Musk and Don Jr., Carlson\u00a0lobbied hard<\/a>\u00a0for Trump to pick Vance as his running mate. Vance\u2019s strong showing in the 2024 election and his deft ability to show serious policy chops and extreme deference to the president enhanced his standing inside the White House\u2014and did Carlson no harm either. While Vance hasn\u2019t endorsed any of Carlson\u2019s extreme stands, neither was he willing to condemn them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The vice president\u2019s stands on democracy and free speech in Europe, as well as his defense of working-class interests, are correct and broadly popular with most Republicans and conservatives. But the\u00a0Signalgate<\/a>\u00a0scandal made it clear that Vance was, at the very least, skeptical about a tough stand against Iran and the Houthis, the Islamic Republic\u2019s terrorist clients in Yemen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Carlson also made friends inside Trumpworld while angering many mainstream Republicans and Trump supporters by\u00a0rushing<\/a>\u00a0to the defense of Steve Witkoff, the president\u2019s hapless Middle East envoy. Witkoff, like Carlson, is\u00a0compromised<\/a>\u00a0by the support he\u2019s gotten from Qatar, and has made statements and pursued diplomacy that seemed to be primarily motivated by a desire to appease and rationalize the Gulf state, Iran and its terror proxy, Hamas.<\/span><\/p>\n

A classic antisemitic trope<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The more one understands Carlson\u2019s position on Iran, the more unhinged and detached from reality it seems.<\/span><\/p>\n

His rant against Levin was an absurd compilation of falsehoods and pro-Tehran spin that could just as easily have come out of an article in the Qatari-owned\u00a0Al Jazeera<\/em>\u00a0propaganda outlet. In plain contradiction of facts that are widely acknowledged by the U.S. government and other sources, Carlson claimed that Iran didn\u2019t want a nuclear weapon and was nowhere close to making one. The picture of a peaceful and non-terrorist regime he painted was as truthful as the one that classic\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0fraudster and Soviet apologist\u00a0Walter Duranty<\/a>\u00a0in the 1930s reported in which he denied Joseph Stalin\u2019s mass murder in Ukraine and equally bloody purges.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s bad enough. However, the smearing of Levin as a war-monger and the Pat Buchananesque claim that he wouldn\u2019t fight against Iran was a classic antisemitic trope.<\/span><\/p>\n

Equally false was Carlson\u2019s claim that Iran\u2014a peace-loving nation that posed no threat to America or its allies\u2014is a fearsome regional superpower that could defeat the United States and\/or Israel in war. This was given the lie by the pathetic failure of Iran\u2019s missile attacks on Israel and the fact that the Israelis have already destroyed their enemy\u2019s air defenses.<\/span><\/p>\n

That latter point makes it particularly vulnerable at the moment to an Israeli or Western attack\u2014an advantage that might be lost if Trump\u2019s talks, even if ultimately unsuccessful, delay any action until after those defenses are rebuilt or restored (with assistance by Russian, which is a current quagmire of its own in its three-year war on Ukraine). The indefinite postponement of any strike on Iran that Trump has requested that Israel honor is handing a militarily weak, politically unstable and deeply unpopular regime a lifeline.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018America First\u2019 or isolationism?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The breach between those with realistic attitudes toward Iran, such as that of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Iran appeasers, is real. Some put it down to the difference between those who embrace a true \u201cAmerica First\u201d policy and those who essentially believe in an \u201cAmerica Only\u201d policy that is hard to distinguish from isolationism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still others see this as no different from the debate that has been going on about whether a policy aimed at trying to enable Ukraine to \u201cwin\u201d a truly unwinnable war against Russia is in America\u2019s national interests. But while skepticism about that assertion is well-founded, the idea that America has no vital interest in ensuring that Islamist terrorists don\u2019t set the Middle East on fire\u2014as Iran has done with the multifront war it fomented against Israel and its threats to Arab nations like Saudi Arabia\u2014is sheer madness. Allowing Iran to retain its nuclear program with the likelihood that this would lead to their acquiring such a weapon, would only give it more power to carry on its war against the West.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is true that Trump does not have appeasing Iran as his goal, as was the case with Obama. No fool, he knows the difference between a worthless agreement and one that would actually defend America\u2019s interests, as the accord Witkoff seems to be working for clearly would not.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the same cannot be said for Carlson\u2019s position on Iran. His stand seems unquestionably rooted in a desire to abandon American strategic interests in the region, imperil Israel and empower the West-hating Iran and its Qatari ally. When one combines this with his willingness to engage in advocacy against the war in Gaza that is being fought against Iran\u2019s Hamas allies\u2014which is, like the same positions taken by woke left-wingers\u2014inextricably linked to antisemitism, it\u2019s hard to avoid the conclusion that his hysteria about those who oppose appeasement of Iran is motivated by something other than American patriotism. Carlson\u2019s soft spot for Iran and hostility for the Jewish state was\u00a0no secret<\/a>\u00a0even during his salad days at\u00a0Fox<\/em>, when Israel was a word that was seldom, if ever, spoken on the network between 8 p.m. and 9 pm.<\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know yet what Trump will ultimately do with respect to Iran and its nuclear program. But we do know that a person whose ill-intentioned motives are obvious seems to have his ear, and is seeking to persuade him to do something on that issue that is against the interests of America and its Middle East allies, as well as morally dubious.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jonathan S. Tobin<\/strong> is editor-in-chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, a senior contributor for The Federalist, a columnist for Newsweek and a contributor to many other publications. He covers the American political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS \u201cThink Twice\u201d podcast, both the weekly video program and the \u201cJonathan Tobin Daily\u201d program, which are available on all major audio platforms and YouTube. Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He has won more than 60 awards for commentary, art criticism and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history at Columbia University.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Why does Tucker Carlson want to appease Tehran? Jonathan S. Tobin The \u201cwoke right\u201d rages against a tougher policy on Iran as well as support for Israel. It\u2019s clear that their motives for wanting to repeat Obama\u2019s folly, which didn\u2019t put America first, are morally questionable. A week before U.S. elections, GOP presidential nominee and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121721"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121735,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121721\/revisions\/121735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}