He was my publicist in Manila, a devout Catholic with whom I’d become friends. I was a nominally observant Jew about to visit Israel with a delegation of Philippines-based journalists.

“If you don’t mind,” my Catholic friend asked, “could you bring me a cross from the Holy Land?”

And so I did.

It took some doing. First came the challenge of finding just the right crucifix. Which turned out to be easy, given the vast abundance of them in the curio and gift shops of Jerusalem.

Ah, but then came the gentle suggestion from our Jewish guide experienced in leading followers of Jesus through their Savior’s homeland. “Place the crucifix on the Stone of Anointing,” he instructed. “Take a photo of it there, give it to him with the cross, and your friend will be forever grateful.”

And so I did, and so he was.

That legendary stone is where the body of Christ is said to have been prepared for burial. It sits just inside the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in which Jesus is believed to have been crucified, entombed, and resurrected. And just a stone’s throw away rests the room in which the purported Messiah ate his very Last Supper.

Indeed, as I was the only non-Christian in a crew of Filipinos, we visited many New Testament sites during our 10-day guided tour of the Holy Land. Among them: the ancient village of Capernaum where Jesus lived, preached, and healed; the Jordan River where he got baptized; and the Sea of Galilee where he allegedly walked on water. And everywhere stood scads of other Christians—both tourists and locals—praying for the glories of their religion.

Which is why Tucker Carlson’s recent allegations regarding Israel’s supposed suppression of Christianity took me by surprise. Don’t get me wrong, I once was an ardent Tucker fan. As a Fox News commentator for 14 years, his pronouncements and interviews often struck me as crisp and insightful.

Then something changed.

In 2023 Fox fired him amid allegations of racism, toxic behavior, and extremist views. And in the succeeding years, he seems to have sunk even deeper into that morass, especially regarding Israel.

Carlson’s latest pronouncements came in an interview with Mike Huckabee—America’s Ambassador to Israel—at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport which, it should be noted, Tucker never left except by airplane.

“Let me ask you,” he inquired near the end of the two-and-a-half-hour interview, “how Christians are treated in Jerusalem? I’ve talked to so many who’ve been spit on.”

Looking flustered, Huckabee—an evangelical Christian himself—answered in his usual measured tones. “As Christians, we have freedom of movement here,” he explained. “I go to church every Sunday. I don’t get hassled being a Christian. Everyone here knows I’m the first evangelical Christian ambassador to Israel. Do you think they hate me—no!”

Let me just say right here that I don’t deny the occasional hostile acts against Christians. Like any country, this one has its share of extremists. Based on my own observations and those since posted by many others, however, I believe they are rare. And whatever discrimination Christians may face in Israel is but a fraction of what they’d likely encounter in most of the surrounding Muslim countries.

But that answers only one of Tucker’s frequently spouted and highly volatile claims. He’s questioned the historic connection of modern-day Jews to their ancestral homeland, even suggesting that Jewish DNA be universally tested. He’s claimed Jews wield too much power in the Middle East and in the world. And he’s insinuated the widely disclaimed notion that Israel’s Oct. 7 response constituted a crime.

Here’s why it matters: Tucker Carlson has millions of followers.

He “has shifted from being a mainstream conservative media figure to a polarizing personality,” one political psychologist wrote recently in the Times of Israel. “Yet despite this, he remains highly popular.”

Which makes me very nervous.

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