Tucker Carlson to interview US amassador to Israel Mike Huckabee after slamming discrimination against Palestinian Christians

Tucker Carlson will interview the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, after criticising Israel for its treatment of its Christian minority population.

Responding to Carlson's video entitled 'Huckabee fails Jerusalem's Christians', the US ambassador and a member of the Christian right invited the right-wing political commentator to interview him on the issue.

"Instead of talking ABOUT me, why don’t you come talk TO me?" Huckabee posted on X. "You seem to be generating a lot of heat about the Middle East. Why be afraid of the light?"

Carlson responded, saying he would "love to", while Huckabee said he was looking forward to an interview.

Carlson was in Jordan this week, where he visited Christian holy sites and churches, praising the Jordanian government for the preservation of these places.

In an interview later in the week, he said Christians in Jordan live in a much freer environment than their brethren in neighbouring Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

"That’s significant, particularly now, because the question of how Christians are treated in the holy land is a political question, and it is because much of what happens in this region is funded by the United States, by its taxpayers, military action, but also the cultural and religious life of the region is funded to a great extent by American Christian churches," he in an interview.

"How are Christians in the Holy Land doing? Are they thriving or are they suffering? And the truth has become pretty obvious over the past couple of years, which is, in Israel, they are not thriving. Their numbers are not growing. They are shrinking, and there’s a huge debate about why."

In a video of his travels to Palestine and Jordan, where he met Christian leaders and visited holy sites, Carlson accused Huckabee of failing Christians in Jerusalem, the city where Jesus preached and was crucified.

"Why not go ahead and talk to Christians and find out their side of the story?” Carlson said.

"Why aren’t American Christian leaders like Mike Huckabee or Ted Cruz, people who invoke the Christian Bible to justify what they’re doing, why haven’t they done this?"

He also condemned Israel's actions in the Gaza war and the occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which he said brings daily hardships for Christians, whilst praising Arab and Muslim neighbours for their treatment.

"There’s a lot of evidence in the last couple of years, particularly since the Gaza War started, and the whole tone of the conversation in this area has changed quite a bit, and the rise of extremism, very noticeable, that those numbers have gotten even smaller," Carlson said.

"And in Jerusalem, if you follow this at all on the Internet, you see video clip after video clip of Christian clergy being spit at by religious extremists, not Muslim religious extremists, but Jewish religious extremists. And that’s something most Americans didn’t know happened, didn’t think could happen, particularly since the United States, the most important Christian country in the world, is funding this."

Carlson, who has long been associated with the American Christian Right, has increasingly warmed to Arab states and Islam after a history of anti-Islam and immigrant comments, particularly after Israel's war on Gaza, where Palestinian Christians have been killed or forced to flee their homes.