As hostage talks stall, US calls for other issues to be resolved before IDF withdrawal
The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they happen.
Right-wing US pundit Tucker Carlson says that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was probably working for Israeli intelligence.
“It’s extremely obvious to anyone who watches that this guy had direct connections to a foreign government. Now, no one’s allowed to say that foreign government is Israel, because we’ve been somehow cowed into thinking that that’s naughty,” he says.
The comment draws cheers from the crowd at the right-wing Turning Points confab on Friday.
Carlson says this comment is neither hateful nor anti-Israel, adding by way of analogy that he objects to CIA actions but is still an American patriot.
But “as long as we’re sending you money,” he says of Jerusalem, “if you were committing crimes on our soil, we have the absolute right to know.”
In another video from the same conference, Carlson says Americans who serve in foreign militaries, including the Israeli and Ukrainian armies, should lose their US citizenship.
“I quote the New Testament, but I also refer to common sense when I say that no man can serve two masters, it’s not possible,” he says, in response to a question that ends before the start of the clip, which he indicates was about Israel. “I only have one wife for that reason.”
“You can only really pledge your loyalty to one person or one country, that’s just a fact.”
“There are a lot of Americans who’ve served in the IDF and they should lose their citizenship. There are a lot of Americans who serve in Ukraine, and they should lose their citizenship,” he says. “You can’t fight for another country and remain an American — period. Obviously!”
Americans have been “cowed into believing that’s hate speech,” Carlson continues; he says it’s not hate speech, adding: “You don’t hear hate in my voice, because there isn’t any.”
???? ???????? Tucker Carlson Demands Citizenship Revocation for Americans in Foreign Armies
At a Turning Point USA event on July 12, 2025, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson declared that American citizens who serve in foreign militaries—specifically Israel's IDF and Ukrainian… pic.twitter.com/fjE6acgHMD
— The Tradesman (@The_Tradesman1) July 12, 2025
Carlson has previously railed against US Rep. Brian Mast, of Florida, for wearing his Israel Defense Forces uniform to Congress in solidarity with Israel in the days after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
Mast, a veteran of the US military who lost both his legs fighting in Afghanistan, briefly volunteered with the IDF in January 2025, packing medical kits at an army base near Tel Aviv.
A 21-year-old from a Bedouin community near the southern Israeli city of Arad is taken to Soroka hospital in Beersheba, after being injured by an unspecified exploding object.
The object in question........
© The Times of Israel
