There are moments when the edifice of propaganda collapses, when the images of emaciated children, pulverised neighbourhoods, and mass graves pierce the armour of denial. For Tucker Carlson and Piers Morgan, two men once counted among Israel’s most ardent defenders, Gaza became that moment. Their transformations—Carlson from a “rabid Zionist” to a relentless critic of Israel, Morgan from a staunch defender of its military campaign to a voice of outrage—are not anomalies. They are the inevitable consequence of witnessing a genocide in real time.

Carlson’s metamorphosis was as startling as it was consequential. For years, he echoed the talking points of the Israeli lobby, portraying Israel as America’s indispensable ally. But in a viral interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Carlson stripped bare the fiction.

“We are told Israel is our greatest ally,” he said, “but what kind of ally demands we violate our own laws, our own values, to serve its interests?”

“We are told Israel is our greatest ally,” he said, “but what kind of ally demands we violate our own laws, our own values, to serve its interests?”

His words reverberated across the United States, challenging millions to reconsider the uncritical support Washington extends to Tel Aviv.

Carlson did not stop there. He called Benjamin Netanyahu a “genocidal maniac,” accused Israel of committing war crimes, and described the US relationship with Israel as one of servitude. The backlash was immediate. AIPAC and the donor class mobilized. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett dismissed him as “a chickenshit and a phony.” Carlson was smeared with the familiar charge of antisemitism, the blunt instrument wielded against anyone who dares to question Israel’s impunity.

Piers Morgan’s trajectory mirrored Carlson’s. In the immediate aftermath of 7th October 2023, Morgan declared, “I support Israel’s right to defend itself after the terror attacks.” He was, at that moment, a reliable voice for the Zionist narrative. But as the bombs fell on Gaza, as hospitals were reduced to rubble and children starved under siege, Morgan’s tone shifted. In a heated exchange with Israeli officials, he snapped: “Don’t treat us like idiots. Your government has something to hide in Gaza.” Like Carlson, Morgan was accused of antisemitism and subjected to the same slings and arrows of the Zionist juggernaut.

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What drives such transformations? It is not career calculation—both men risked reputations and lucrative platforms. It is not an ideological vision. It is conscience. It is the unbearable weight of watching Gaza obliterated, of seeing 160,000 Palestinians dead or maimed, of hearing Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declare: “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.” Such words, such policies, strip away the last veneer of moral justification.

The defenders of Israel, however, remain unrepentant. Senator Ted Cruz lashed out at Carlson, accusing him of antisemitism and insisting that AIPAC is not a foreign agent but a patriotic organization. “AIPAC is not foreign influence,” Cruz declared. “It represents the values of millions of Americans who stand with Israel.” Other US politicians echoed the same refrain. When asked about a ceasefire, the overwhelming majority of senators refused, with one remarking that “Israel has the right to finish the job in Gaza.” These statements reveal the iron grip of the lobby, the refusal to acknowledge the graveyard Gaza has become.

Pulitzer-Prize winner Chris Hedges has long warned of the moral collapse that accompanies silence in the face of atrocity.

“The systematic annihilation of a trapped population—bombed, starved, and dehumanized—while the world watches in silence—is not only a crime against humanity but a moral collapse of the global order.”

“The systematic annihilation of a trapped population—bombed, starved, and dehumanized—while the world watches in silence—is not only a crime against humanity but a moral collapse of the global order.”

Carlson and Morgan, whatever their flaws, refused to remain silent. They saw the grotesque spectacle of Gaza’s destruction and the indignity of American servitude to Israeli interests, and they spoke.

The cost of truth is high. To defy the Israeli lobby in the United States is to invite political exile. To question the narrative is to be branded a bigot. Yet Carlson and Morgan understood that the greater cost is complicity. The justice of the Palestinian cause, the images of starving children, the humiliation of watching the most powerful nation on earth dictated to by a foreign lobby—these became intolerable. They risked it all because the truth became unbearable to ignore.

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Their transformations are not merely personal. They signal a broader rupture in the Western discourse on Israel. The propaganda machine is faltering. The images from Gaza are too raw, the statistics too staggering, the suffering too visible. The old defenses—terrorism, self-defense, antisemitism—ring hollow against the backdrop of mass graves and skeletal children.

Carlson and Morgan are harbingers of a shift that terrifies Israel and its defenders: the erosion of unconditional support, the emergence of dissent in places once thought impregnable.

Carlson and Morgan are harbingers of a shift that terrifies Israel and its defenders: the erosion of unconditional support, the emergence of dissent in places once thought impregnable.

The dyke is gushing and no one can predict when it will collapse. 

In the face of Gaza’s annihilation, Carlson and Morgan chose conscience. The political class chose cowardice. Senators thundered about Israel’s “right to finish the job,” while AIPAC assured donors that America’s loyalty was unshakable. They mouthed platitudes as children starved, as hospitals collapsed, as the Strip was reduced to rubble. The contrast is devastating: two media figures, risking careers to speak truth, against a chorus of politicians too craven to defy the lobby. 

In the end, the question is not why Carlson and Morgan changed. The question is why so many remain silent. The obliteration of Gaza is not a policy debate. It is a moral test. And in that test, Carlson and Morgan, however belatedly, chose truth over complicity. They chose conscience over career. They chose to stand, however imperfectly, with the oppressed rather than the oppressor. For that, they will be vilified. For that, they will be attacked. But for that, they will also be remembered. History will not remember the cowards. It will remember those who, when silence was complicity, dared to speak.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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