Was Tucker Carlson “Detained” At TLV By Israeli Officers, Or Is He Simply Confused?
Conservative determine Tucker Carlson traveled to Israel this week, and he claims he was detained on the airport, following a contentious interview. Nevertheless, is there extra to the story?
Tucker Carlson claims he was detained at Ben Gurion Airport
Tucker Carlson is a polarizing conservative determine, and in latest instances, he has change into a reasonably vocal critic of Israel, together with of the nation’s actions in Gaza.
On Wednesday, February 18, 2026, Carlson traveled to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport (TLV), as a way to have an interview with Mike Huckabee, america Ambassador to Israel. This adopted a web-based spat between the 2 about how Christians are handled in Israel, with Carlson accusing Huckabee of not doing sufficient to guard Christians within the nation.
The 2 have identified each other for many years, and even labored collectively at Fox Information. So Huckabee invited Carlson to interview him in particular person, saying “as a substitute of speaking about me, why don’t you come speak to me?”
Carlson flew in on a non-public jet and didn’t really go away the airport premises for the interview, as the thought was to have the interview after which go away immediately. Nevertheless, Carlson claims that shortly after the interview, Israeli officers confiscated his passport, and took him to an interrogation room.
As he defined, “males who recognized themselves as airport safety took our passports, hauled our government producer right into a facet room after which demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about.”
In the end after in depth questioning, Carlson was allowed to go away the nation. Apparently, some experiences recommend that the Israeli authorities initially didn’t wish to permit Carlson into the nation, resulting in a negotiation with the State Division. This report means that ultimately, Israel determined to not ban Carlson, as a way to keep away from a diplomatic incident. Nevertheless, these claims are disputed, as I’ll cowl beneath.
It appears like Tucker Carlson simply acquired the standard remedy?
As I examine Carlson’s expertise, I couldn’t assist however suppose “wait a second, it appears like he simply acquired the usual Ben Gurion Airport remedy?” Israel is thought for having the world’s strictest airport safety, and it’s completely regular to be positioned in a room and questioned by safety officers.
So I imagine Carlson simply doesn’t totally perceive how safety often works on the airport. Odds are that him being a critic of the nation could have subjected him to additional questioning, simply as I used to be questioned when departing the airport as a result of my journey patterns. However that’s actually simply how issues work on the airport, prefer it or not, and it doesn’t sound like he was objected to something out of the abnormal.
For what it’s value, a spokesperson for america Embassy in Israel claims that Carlson “acquired the identical passport management questions that numerous guests to Israel, together with Ambassador Huckabee and different diplomats, obtain as a part of regular entrance and exit from Israel.”
The consultant additionally pushed again on the declare of Carlson almost not being allowed into the nation, explaining that “it’s not correct that Israel solely was going to let Tucker into the nation for the interview. The one engagement the Embassy had with Israel about his go to was to coordinate his personal aircraft touchdown as half of facilitating a seamless go to. It was Tucker who selected to solely come into the nation for a number of hours and depart. And Tucker acquired the identical constructive remedy of any guests to Israel.”
In the meantime former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett took to social media to name Carlson a “hen$***,” writing “the man who’s been spouting lies about Israel for the previous two years, landed in the present day at Ben Gurion airport, took a fast image within the logistics zone, tweeted it to fake he’s really IN Israel (so he can later declare that he’s a critical reporter who toured Israel), didn’t even step foot in nation, then made up a narrative that he’s being supposedly harassed by our safety (didn’t occur), whined about it, acquired again into the personal jet and flew off.”
He concluded that “subsequent time he talks about Israel as if he’s some skilled, simply bear in mind this man is a phony!”
Backside line
Tucker Carlson traveled to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport to interview Mike Huckabee concerning the remedy of Christians within the nation. Carlson claims he was detained and questioned previous to leaving, which might be technically true.
What this leaves out is that that is principally the usual screening protocol in Israel, and it’s frequent for passengers to be questioned extensively previous to with the ability to board a flight in another country. This might be very totally different than in the event you had been interrogated previous to boarding a flight in america, or Japan, or wherever else.
What do you make of Carlson’s claims about his “detainment” in Israel?
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