Right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson falsely claimed that President Isaac Herzog visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island during an interview filmed in Israel and released Friday.
Carlson, a prominent critic of Israel on the American right, traveled to Israel this week to interview U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. The interview was published on Carlson’s podcast and quickly drew hundreds of thousands of views online.
During the conversation, Carlson pressed Huckabee about supposed visits by Herzog to Epstein’s island, despite there being no evidence that Herzog had any connection to Epstein or ever visited his property.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Former prime minister Ehud Barak had social ties with Epstein, but there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Barak. Herzog’s name appears in the Epstein files only in reference to news articles that were included in Epstein’s email correspondence. There is no indication of a personal relationship between the two men.
Huckabee said he was unaware of any such connection.
“I was not aware there was any connection with President Herzog. I would be surprised to hear that,” Huckabee said.
“I don’t know that I’ve heard the current president of Israel respond to it, but he is listed as a visitor to ‘pedo island,’ so that’s kind of a big deal,” Carlson replied, criticizing Huckabee for not questioning Herzog about the issue.
“This is the first I’ve heard of this, so why do you expect me to have knowledge like that?” Huckabee responded.
Following the release of the Epstein files last month, an AI-generated image falsely depicting Herzog with Epstein circulated widely online amid a wave of disinformation and conspiracy theories, including antisemitic narratives involving Jews and Israel.
Although Carlson’s claims lack evidence, viewers of the interview were not informed that the allegations were baseless. More than 600,000 people viewed the video on YouTube within hours of its release, and it was widely shared across social media platforms.
Carlson also asserted, without evidence, that it was “very clear” Epstein was affiliated with Mossad. A key source cited in the Epstein files who alleged such ties has been described as a discredited fraudster and Holocaust denier.
After the interview aired and Huckabee learned that the allegations against Herzog were false, he wrote on X: “His allegations against Israeli officials could be the stuff of libel lawsuits. It was hard to follow Tucker’s line of questioning.”
Claims of ‘interrogation’ at the airport
Carlson’s visit to Israel also generated controversy after he alleged that Israeli security officials subjected members of his team to hostile questioning.
Carlson did not leave Ben Gurion Airport during his trip, but claimed that two producers were targeted for “interrogation.” Huckabee and the Israel Airports Authority rejected the accusation.
In the introduction to the interview, before Huckabee joined him, Carlson said Israeli officials held his team’s passports and that his producers were “called into rooms and given the third degree.”
Carlson said security personnel asked, “What did you say to the US ambassador?”
“They’re doing like an intel op and humiliation exercise on my producer. This isn’t security,” he said.
“The interrogator is holding his passport in his hand as he’s asking these questions,” Carlson said. “Some thug is demanding details of that conversation.”
“It’s a police state, it’s a surveillance state. You go to Israel, and they put software on your phone. Everybody knows this. They’re constantly spying on you,” he added. There is no evidence that Israeli authorities install spyware on visitors’ phones.
Questioning travelers at the airport while reviewing passports is standard procedure in Israel.
Carlson also claimed that Israel deliberately attacked the USS Liberty in 1967, a longstanding conspiracy theory on the US far right. He alleged that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened his family “because he believes in blood guilt,” and described Israel as “probably the most violent country on earth.”
Throughout both the introduction and the interview, Carlson portrayed Israel as exerting outsized influence over US policy and dragging the United States into wars, echoing longstanding antisemitic tropes about hidden Jewish power.
“Americans in the United States, can you be sure that your government will take your side over the Israeli government? No, of course not. They will always take the Israeli government’s side over yours and that’s the core problem,” he said.
“If you criticize Israel in your country, your government will censor you,” he added, despite the fact that Carlson and other prominent figures routinely criticize Israel publicly without facing government censorship.
Huckabee and Carlson remained largely cordial but frequently disagreed on basic facts.
As Carlson warned that Israel was endangering US troops, Huckabee noted that American forces have never fought on Israel’s behalf. Carlson responded by repeating the unsubstantiated claim that the Iraq War was fought at Israel’s urging and that Israel is pushing the US toward war with Iran.
“I don’t think that it’s at all accurate to even intimate that tiny, little Israel is pushing the US into something it does not want to do,” Huckabee said.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has way more influence over American foreign policy than Americans do,” Carlson replied.
Carlson also questioned Israel’s right to exist, launching into a meandering discussion about indigeneity that touched on whether Jews are an ethnicity or religion, ancient history and genetics. Huckabee said several times he could not follow Carlson’s reasoning.
Some of Carlson’s arguments mirrored rhetoric more commonly associated with the far left, including accusations that Israel murders journalists, commits genocide and blocks Christian Palestinians from accessing holy sites. He also criticized US financial aid to Israel.
The convergence of such rhetoric from both extremes reflects what is often described as the horseshoe theory of politics, in which the far right and far left adopt similar positions, particularly regarding Jews and Israel.