When we play by different rules, victory is much harder to achieve.
Imagine a wide receiver intentionally stepping out of bounds, running behind his teammates on the sidelines for 20 yards, and then reappearing downfield. A quick toss from the quarterback and voila, touchdown! The NFL anticipated such a possibility and has a rule that any player who steps out of bounds is no longer eligible for that particular play. In every sport, the white lines define our legitimate area of competition versus not being relevant. How many times did you, as a child, watch your favorite baseball players stand over a bunted ball as it made its way slowly down the baseline to see if it would go foul before reaching the bag? And how many reviews have been made in football, tennis, and soccer to learn if a ball or player was in play or out of bounds?
What's true in sports is not true in rhetoric. If we were all bound by telling the truth, then the arguments we could make would be much tighter and less extreme. But many are not in any way bound by the truth or facts; rather, they start with their endpoint and wend their way backward to put together a pathetic argument that they think is brilliant. I know from the comments that there are some readers who are sick of hearing about Tucker Carlson, and I feel for them. I was recently approached by someone whom I very much respect, and she told me that she is putting together a program to expose the lies regarding Jews and Israel of Carlson, Candace Owens, and their band of losers. I told her that it was a waste of time: people who hate Jews will always accept their rants as truth. Those with five or more functioning neurons will ignore them. But she was insistent and said that there is a mass of people who don't know. They are not bad people, but they are uninformed, so if they only hear one side, they will go with it. And with that, I sent her my first report on the subject.
Regarding Tucker and the Iranians, I have nothing to add. I know that there are people screaming that he should be arrested, but I don't know what he did, if anything. Having Donald Trump use Tucker to put the Iranians to sleep—only to have Carlson scream that it was not fair to "lull them" prior to the attack—sounds cool, but we still need a lot more evidence, which may or may not come forward one day. Everyone is presumed innocent, even the scum of the Earth.
Bibi Netanyahu is a polarizing figure in Israel and beyond. There are those who love him—they are called "BiBeasts," and as far as they are concerned, he can do no wrong. There are those who hate him, and the two most prominent in that category in Israel are the two Ehuds: Olmert and Barak. The former wants the current prime minister to join him in the almanac as the second prime minister of Israel who was sent to jail. Ehud Barak hates Bibi's international successes and wishes to either replace him or have someone under his control do so. He was actively involved in the aggressive protests prior to the October 7 massacre, and only with the Epstein material reveal has he somewhat vanished from the local radar.
Tucker Carlson recently said that Bibi Netanyahu's rhetoric was worse than Hitler's, as Hitler never expressed his desire to wipe out all of the Jews, whereas Bibi has genocidal intentions to supposedly "kill everyone" and wipe out "bloodlines." When one leaves the world of truth, he can say anything. Even if there is evidence to the contrary, he is not moved—nor are his brain-dead followers. Hitler used "Mein Kampf" to put forth his argument that the Jews were parasites on German society and the source of Germany's defeat in World War I and instability after the war. He used his inaugural speech of the new Reichstag to specifically threaten the destruction of all Jews in Europe. As he tried to get more land without triggering a full-fledged war, Hitler warned that the outbreak of war in Europe would mean "the annihilation of the Jewish race from Europe." These are his words, translated into English. Maybe Tucker could parse it and say that Hitler only meant the 9 million Jews in Europe, but the other half of the Jewish people would be totally safe. This idea was not born out when German commanders tried to identify Jews among Allied POWs. The idea that Hitler was not directly involved with the Holocaust while meeting frequently with Himmler, Heydrich, and other officials involved in the extermination of European Jewry is ludicrous. People could do things behind Joe Biden's back because his front and back were the same. Nobody could do what he wanted under Hitler and not expect to get shot if discovered. So Hitler did say that he would wipe out the Jews of Europe. Does that make Carlson's claim regarding Bibi any different?
I do not know of any clip of Bibi Netanyahu in which he specifically claims that he will wipe out entire bloodlines or kill children. One has to recall that the "pager operation" killed a dozen Hezbollah operatives and seriously wounded around 3,500—and thus took them out of the battle against Israel. Tucker described the blowing off of these terrorists' private parts as horrific and focused on the two children supposedly killed along with the thousands of wounded terrorists. He described the pager operation as a terrorist attack, while the Western world rejoiced at the incapacitation of thousands of would-be killers. Carlson claimed at the time that Israel glorified the killing of these two children; this was never the case. The most accurate military/intelligence operation in history was celebrated for severely incapacitating the terror group considered the most dangerous to Israel's continued existence. The sons of Hassan Nasrallah said that their father witnessed terrorists wounded by the exploding devices and said that the look on their father's face was one in which he knew that the game was up. The elder Nasrallah, with the blood of hundreds of civilians on his hands, was killed in a precise Israeli attack shortly thereafter.
One can go after Bibi Netanyahu over a plethora of issues. There are questions over gifts he and his wife received from a certain Hollywood personality, and whether any quid pro quo was involved. There are some issues where Bibi has said one thing but, in the end, did something completely different. Many political partners have felt that they did not receive all that they were promised by the prime minister; the ultra-Orthodox, for years, have claimed that economic and army issues were ironed out, only to find that, in reality, things did not work out as they had been promised. One can criticize Bibi on a host of issues, and as with Trump Derangement Syndrome, the Left only wants to get rid of Bibi and has nothing substantive to offer in his place. But Bibi has never suggested wiping out any bloodline; Bibi has never ordered the killing of children. Israel and others celebrated the death of terrorists and not that of children. Every war has collateral damage; only the wars in which Israel is involved is there collateral warfare to the unintentional death of any children and civilians.
Tucker reminds me of those lead singers who ditch their bands only to go out and make a lousy solo career for themselves. Tucker after Fox is a crank and an antisemite who generally interviews similar losers. Maybe Fox Tehran has an opening.