The Carlson-Huckabee interview may be the wake-up call Americans need | Politics

The leading American conservative journalist Tucker Carlson’s interview with the American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, caused a great stir. Since it was released on Friday, observers from across the political spectrum in the United States have taken to social media to comment.

Indeed, the interview highlighted – perhaps more than any other political or media spectacle – the growing suspicion that US officials are more loyal to a foreign country than to the US. This could very well be a defining moment for how Americans view their government’s relationship with Israel.

Israel’s ‘true friend’

Huckabee, who is also a Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas, was confirmed as US ambassador to Israel in April 2025. The news of his appointment was welcomed by the Israeli government and various pro-Israel groups, and he was hailed as a “true friend of Israel”.

That Israel is very close to Huckabee’s heart was made clear throughout his interview with Carlson, as he repeatedly brought up Israeli talking points.

He spoke of Israel’s “Biblical right” to the land; refers to the occupied West Bank as “Judea and Samaria”; and even seem to approve of Israel expanding its territory to other parts of the Middle East.

He has repeatedly spoken of Israeli interests as American interests, often using “we” which ostensibly includes Israel, and even insisting that the “problem on the border with Lebanon” is an issue Americans should care about. He defended his meeting with Jonathan Pollard, the former US intelligence analyst convicted of spying on the US for Israel, and defended his early release from prison.

Huckabee went so far as to take a jab at the US military in his attempt to defend the violations of the Israeli military in Gaza.

When Carlson pressed him about Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, he appeared to suggest that the Israeli military is more careful to avoid civilian casualties than the US military.

After Huckabee argued that Israel’s war on Gaza produced a “lower number of civilian deaths” than any modern urban war, Carlson pressed him for a point of reference.

The ambassador offered two US wars – in Iraq and Afghanistan – as comparisons, suggesting that Israeli military commanders were more concerned about protecting civilian life than their American counterparts.

A US ambassador publicly arguing that a foreign military is more humane than his own country’s armed forces inevitably raises questions about where his primary loyalties lie.

But, of course, Huckabee is not the only “true friend of Israel” within the American political elite.

The US Congress, on both sides of the aisle, is known to give loud standing ovations to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu every time he visits.

Huckabee’s boss, US President Donald Trump, has repeatedly claimed he is “the best friend to Israel … they’ve ever had.”

Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, proudly declared he was a Zionist and ensured full support and impunity for Israel as it carried out genocide in Gaza.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham boasted that he goes to Israel every two weeks “whether I have to or not.”

Eric Adams, former mayor of New York, chose to visit Israel at the end of his term in office and said that he serves as mayor of America’s largest city, Israel.

And the list goes on.

For the longest time, declarations of loyalty to Israel were considered a political advantage in American politics. But that may well change.

A wake-up call

American academics have long been interested in Israel’s great influence on American politics. Scholars such as John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have written extensively on the issue.

But for many years this inquiry was largely confined to academia or left-wing activist circles. Conservatives and liberals labeled such critics as conspiracy theorists or anti-Semites.

The Carlson-Huckabee interview may have let the cat out of the bag on the American right.

What makes the interview important is not simply the content of Huckabee’s remarks, but the interviewer, venue, audience and underlying message of the line of questioning.

A very popular conservative media figure traveled to Israel and publicly pressured a sitting US ambassador about subordinating US interests to Israeli interests. He questioned the theological and historical underpinnings of Zionism, criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinian Christians and asked why American tax dollars are sent to Israel.

In his answers, the ambassador seemed to speak more as a representative of the Israeli government than the United States government.

Judging by Huckabee’s defensively reaction after the interview and the outburst on social media, he learns an important lesson: putting Israel first and America second is no longer an asset, but a liability for American politicians.

Elected US officials will be watching the public reaction closely – especially in light of polling data showing that US public opinion towards Israel moved dramatically in recent years.

The political incentive that drove decades of unconditional support for Israel has now weakened. The political calculus is also changing—it may be politically advantageous for US officials to take more even-handed, even openly critical, approaches to Israel.

This alone indicates a significant shift.

Carlson’s interview with Huckabee didn’t create that shift, but he brought it to the heart of the American right. If the question “America first or Israel first” can now be openly asked in conservative circles, then important political boundaries have already been broken.

The Carlson-Huckabee interview may be the wake-up call American politics needs to break free from the heavy influence of a Middle Eastern country that has long undermined American interests.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial position.