Millions have now watched the viral exchange between Tucker Carlson and the Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes, over what constitutes Israel’s “right to exist”. The consensus is that Carlson emerged from the clash better than Minton Beddoes, who stumbled when asked to define her terms. Worse, commentators across the political spectrum have taken the interview as evidence that the establishment media is tone-deaf about the conflict in the Middle East.

The reaction from those on the Left, such Mehdi Hasan, has been one of incredulity that Carlson, as a Right-winger, is more adept than liberal centrists at questioning pro-Israel talking points. Much of this anger is directed at the establishment media allegedly failing to question pro-Israel propaganda with the firmness and lack of inhibition that Carlson does.

So why does Carlson seem comparatively sensible and “principled” on the subject? For one thing, he couches many of his points in the language of universalism and Christian morality, and argues that the mass killing of innocent people is always wrong, regardless of which side is responsible. Either you have universally applicable standards or, as he put it, “you don’t have standards — just preferences.” This came after the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, endured a car-crash interview with Carlson last month, in which he declared that Israel had the right to seize more Arab land because of the Bible.

Much of the resentment against the “right to exist” argument is a convenient tactic of deflection, just when the latest outrage by the Israeli state is in the news. This argument has been used to the point where we have normalised the idea of an annexed West Bank spearheaded by a zealous government. Those who invoke this argument therefore do so at their own risk when they’re not clear about what is meant by Israel — not in the abstract, but in the concrete reality of the present day.

Ironically, Minton Beddoes justified the premise of her question by citing the world order of nation-states built after the Second World War, based on respected territorial borders. When Carlson responded by asking whether Lebanon and Gaza also have a right to exist, in light of Israeli attacks over the past two years, she struggled to answer. Anyone can spot the double standards at play here. It confirms a common criticism of liberals: that they talk a good game about universal rights, but fold when it’s time to back up this position.

Carlson further suggested that Israel’s levelling of Gaza was not in tune with the virtues of “Western civilisation”. Instead, it resembles a vice of “Eastern civilisation” — that of collective punishment. This is intriguing in the context of the war within the American Right over Israel. Many of Carlson’s foes believe in the idea that Israel’s war on Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran is a war for “Western civilisation”. He and his allies, meanwhile, believe the problem is that Israel is not “Western” and that the West’s support for it is part of its moral and political corruption.

Liberal-centrist criticism of Israel tends to be tactical and mostly concerned with the effects on Israel’s “image”. Already, this cedes the classical-liberal ground to the likes of Carlson, who can claim to stand for “principles” in highlighting obvious crimes.

Thus, the presenter seems “reasonable” because he isn’t straitjacketed into morally condemning Israel and isn’t cowed by the usual “propaganda” questions. He isn’t a college Leftist jacked up on misreadings of Frantz Fanon, but instead a prominent conservative media personality speaking the language of universal human rights. All the while, liberal centrists are still tiptoeing over which politically correct language should be used in talking about Israel. As war spreads across the region, another round of the “right to exist” argument can only ring hollow. If liberals won’t take a principled stance more vociferously, then Carlson and his allies will. Minton Beddoes shouldn’t be surprised when more people now listen to him.

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Ralph Leonard is a British-Nigerian writer on international politics, religion, culture and humanism.

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