JTA — Tucker Carlson, the far-right personality who has repeatedly drawn criticism for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, recounted the plot to murder Jesus during his speech at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk.

Both supporters and critics said they believed Carlson was implying that Jews or Israelis had been behind Kirk’s assassination earlier this month — amplifying a prominent conspiracy theory that Israel killed Kirk because his longstanding support was eroding.

The theory advanced by far-right influencers gained so much traction last week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly denied the allegations twice, first while being questioned on NewsMax, a far-right TV network, and again in a video address that he posted online.

Carlson has flirted openly with the theory but did not mention Netanyahu, Israel or the Jews explicitly during his speech at Kirk’s memorial, which included a who’s who of contemporary conservatism and married the stylings of a political rally and a religious revival.

Instead, Carlson likened Kirk to Jesus — and his assassin to those who killed the man worshipped by billions of Christians. Recounting what he said was “my favorite story ever,” Carlson said:

“So it’s about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, and Jesus shows up and he starts talking about the people in power, and he starts doing the worst thing that you can do, which is telling the truth about people, and they hate it, and they just go bonkers. They hate it, and they become obsessed with making him stop: ‘This guy’s got to stop talking. We’ve got to shut this guy up.’

And I can just sort of picture the scene in a lamp-lit room with a bunch of guys........

© The Times of Israel