Tonight, the Jewish people will celebrate Shavuot, which marks the giving of the Torah and the 10 Commandments (Aseret Hadibrot) at Mount Sinai.
They’re so intrinsic to Judaism that they appear twice in the Torah: The first time is in the Book of Exodus (Chapter 20), when the Israelites receive the laws at Mount Sinai, and again in the Book of Deuteronomy (Chapter 5), when Moses retells the events of the Exodus.
The 10 Commandments outline core ethical and spiritual obligations – two tablets that lay out the laws governing our relationship with God and those governing interpersonal relationships, as explained in the Book of Numbers.
It’s ironic that just two days before the holiday, one of the commandments – Thou shalt not bear false witness – was violated time and time again, directly on Channel 13. On Tuesday night, the station’s respected news anchor Udi Segal had the distasteful task of interviewing Tucker Carlson.
Carlson, the former Fox News contributor and a staunch supporter of Israel, has gone off the rails in recent years.
He has become a far-right proponent of conspiracy theories that spout Israeli and Jewish manipulation of American policies. His view on Israel is rooted in staunch “America First” isolationism, arguing for a complete end to US financial and military aid.
While touting the Iranian regime in Tehran, he opines unconditional support for Israel as a betrayal of the American electorate and claims the US receives no overriding strategic benefits from the relationship.
Carlson speaks out his anti-Israel ideas
The interview with Carlson, his first with an Israeli media outlet since veering over to the dark side, allowed him carte blanche to espouse his anti-Israel and anti-Zionist ideas.
Among the statements that shattered the Ninth Commandment, Carlson said Israel “is not enlightened” and “has definitely lost its morality” due to the high civilian casualties in the ongoing wars against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, all entities hell-bent on Israel’s destruction.
“The reason that I have cause to comment on this and to say that it’s wrong is that I’m paying for it,” he said. “There’s no reason the United States should be sending any money at all to Israel, and particularly not to its military.”
“If Hamas does something bad, it’s bad,” he added. “It doesn’t justify Israel doing the same bad thing, nor does it justify the US. You can’t kill people who haven’t done anything wrong… That is what enlightened people are; that is the definition of an enlightened country.”
While stopping short of calling it genocide, Carlson also bought in to the narrative that Israel wantonly killed thousands of children.
“Israel has murdered all these children, thousands of children in Gaza,” he said. “But the real criminal is me, because I describe that as genocide. Okay, it’s not genocide; it’s killing innocents. It’s wrong. You can call it genocide or ethnic cleansing. You can call it a crime, a sin, an atrocity. I don’t really care.”
Further bearing false witness, Carlson accused US President Donald Trump, whom he once admired but now excoriates, of “giving in to pressure from [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”
“On February 28, the US followed Israel into this war, and the US secretary of state said that there was no choice, and that Israel chose the timing,” he said. “This is the definition of control.”
Carlson’s lies and distortions were bad enough, but they appeared on the screen effectively unchallenged, allowing an Israel hater to spew his venom on a national soapbox.
Lessons of Shavuot: the willingness to say 'I don’t know.'
On Shavuot, we received laws designed to be our moral guidelines. Law requires a progression of specificity, evidence, and the willingness to say: “I don’t know.”
Carlson abandoned that progression – from questions to declarations, from inquiry to assertion, all without proof. In doing so, he abandoned the covenant to tell the truth.
A quick perusal of any recent homepage of The Jerusalem Post or print paper will sadly reveal that he is not the only one who is violating one of the commandments.
On this Shavuot, let’s strive to remember that words – and deeds – can inflict unlimited damage. Sometimes you have to go back to the basics and reinforce the simple truths and guidelines that we should all be striving to live by.
We wish all the people of Israel a Chag Sameach.