“Israel is Just the Wedge Issue” - The Tucker Carlson vs. Ben Shapiro Ideological War

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
When you look at Ben and you look at Tucker, what do you think are the main issues, go-to issues? Israel is one of them. What other issues, specific issues, differ between Ben and Tucker?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:14)
Well, I don't even think Israel is like in the top three.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:17)
What do you think it is?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:18)
Israel is the divisive issue.
Israel is the wedge issue. Israel is the emotional issue. Of course, Ben and Tucker don't agree about Israel. And Ben, very personally, as the most famous religious Jew maybe on the planet, objects to Tucker's characterization of Israel.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:35)
He may be the most religious Jew on the planet.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:38)
The most famous religious Jew on the planet.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:39)
You put him out of Adam Sandler? I mean, that's like, you know, you're-

**SPEAKER_2** (0:41)
Adam Sandler is not an orthodox religious Jew. Yeah, Adam Sandler is a very famous Jew.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:46)
I'm giving you a hard time. I'm giving you a hard time with this. I had to give a shout out to Adam Sandler.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:51)
I love Adam Sandler.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:52)
By the way, you ever watch the movies he does? It's always the Zohan. It's the Palestinian. He always messes with people. It's phenomenal the way he does it.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:00)
I suspect Adam Sandler has really good politics.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:03)
I do as well, but he can't touch it. I don't think he can touch it, no.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:08)
But keep a wearing Sabbath-observing kosher-keeping Jews? Who's more famous than Ben in the world? So of course he cares about...

**SPEAKER_1** (1:16)
I don't follow the Jewish Leaders' Bulletin for fame. Let's just say it's Ben Shapiro.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:20)
Can you name another one? Can you name one other one?

**SPEAKER_1** (1:22)
What I'm saying to you is fine, I'm with you. So let's just say he is.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:27)
Yeah, so of course he cares about Israel, but Israel isn't even like... Tucker's a socialist.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:33)
You think Tucker's a socialist?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:34)
Tucker says he's a socialist. Watch enough interviews with him, and people will ask him, and he'll say, yeah, yeah, yeah, kind of. They'll ask him, who do you think are the best people in Congress? And he'll say, you know, Thomas Massey. But then he'll also say, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Tucker is advancing a left-wing economic vision for the future of this country.
Tucker, here's one that's, here's a huge point of disagreement, America. Tucker doesn't believe that America is a force for good. Tucker thinks that what's good about America is that his parents are buried across the street from his house. He thinks that what's bad about America is literally every good thing America has ever done. He plays around with the idea that 9-11 was an inside job. He plays around with the idea that demons gave us the bombs that allowed us to win the Second World War. He launders the idea by way of his guess that Churchill was the chief villain of the Second World War. That's no different than Antifa tearing down statues of Christopher Columbus. It's just rhetorically tearing down the statues on which this country is built, the narrative on which this country is built. If every bad thing that's ever been done to us was an inside job, he flirts with 9-11 being an inside job, the moon landing being an inside job, our greatest achievements were fake, the greatest attacks against us were fake, all the things that we did that were good were actually bad. That's not someone who loves America as it is. The America that Tucker believes in is a hypothetical America. It's America that doesn't exist. The America that exists fought the Second World War, defeated European fascists in Germany, defeated Imperial Japan, the country as is landed men on the moon and returned them safely to Earth. The country as it is has led the economic order that has extracted a billion people out of poverty in this world. The country as it is is the country that was attacked on 9-11 by Al-Qaeda and Jihadist Islam out of the Middle East. The country, that is the actual America.
So this sort of blood and soil America is just the people and the government has always been evil. Well, that's not fair. It's a government of the people. The idea that America is great, but the corporations are evil, that's not fair. The idea that the corporations are assembled bodies of people working toward common interest. So you can't make an argument that America is great except for all the things that are America, which is essentially what Tucker is doing. So yeah, I think what had been in Tucker Carlson disagree about the most, they disagree about America the most. And yeah, they also disagree about Israel. But Israel is just a tool for the dissident right to try to break the Republican Party's relationship with or evangelical Christians' relationship with the Republican Party, so they can use the Republican Party to effectuate this new political order that they want, which is largely left-wing economics and largely right-wing social policy.