Tucker Carlson is in the Holy Land. Well, at least part of it. Carlson went to Jordan to sit down with two prominent Christians to discuss their experiences as Christians in the Levant. Specifically, he set out to determine whether Christians in the Holy Land were thriving or suffering.
In conversations with the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum, and Chairman of Jordan Ahli Bank, Saad Mouasher, one would think that Christian life in the Holy Land is one of suffering, through no fault other than Israel alone.
In the hour and a half long podcast episode, The Shocking Reality of the Treatment of Christians in the Holy Land by the US-Funded Israeli Government, Carlson goes above and beyond to ensure he tells a slanted story of the reality of Christians in the Middle East, and particularly those living in and around Israel. What he does not do, however, is portray the thousands of Christians living in Israel who enjoy the same rights, freedoms, and benefits of the state as any other citizen.
Though Carlson pretends this is a balanced conversation by speaking with Christians who live in Israel and Jordan, it is anything but. The episode immediately frames Israel as systematically targeting its Christian population, through the help of the U.S. From this framing, Carlson and his guests portray Israel not as a country where Christian life – alongside all minorities – continues to exist and flourish, but as the primary threat to Christian survival in the region.
184,200 Christians live in Israel, accounting for 1.9% of the total population. Contrary to what Carlson unfoundedly states, this number has increased by 0.7% from 2023-2024. Lying, of course, is much easier when it fits the narrative Carlson is trying so desperately to sell. By claiming the Christian population is decreasing in Israel while thriving in Muslim-majority Jordan, Carlson implies that Jewish sovereignty is inherently harmful to Christian life.
This messaging is further amplified by Archbishop Hosam Naoum, who suggested that there is a colonial pattern of thinking that led the Jewish people to return to Israel. It is not colonial thinking, but rather a thousand-year-long history that connects the Jewish people to Israel. The historic achievement of the Jewish people returning to their land ensured from the outset that the state founded would protect the rights of all peoples and religions.
There has been no mass call for the removal of Christians or other minorities from their towns. Still, the decline in the number of Christians in Nazareth is framed as a uniquely Israel-backed cause. After the War of Independence, the Muslim population increased in Nazareth. With a higher birth rate than the Christian community, the Muslim population soon outnumbered the Christians in Nazareth. This shift was not the result of forced displacement or state policy targeting Christians, but of differing demographic patterns over time.
It is similarly mentioned that the Christian population of Bethlehem has also been decreasing. Yet, despite no Jews living in Bethlehem, neither Carlson nor the Archbishop can critically discuss the real reason why that change is occurring.
Read it all at Honest Reporting