Tucker Carlson depicts the Holy Land’s Christians as powerless and endangered—and casts himself as their self-appointed protector. Yet the evidence—from Jerusalem to Qatar, Egypt, and northern Cyprus—shows that his outrage is not about defending Christians at all, but about attacking the Jewish state.

In Carlson’s passion play, real places, churches, and histories are props that allow him to cast Israel as the villain. Christians are reduced to supporting roles so that Carlson can ride to their rescue. Their centuries-old institutions—exemplified by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—disappear. Their histories are flattened. And in Carlson’s tale, antisemitic tropes are repurposed to defend persecuted believers.

Carlson’s narrative collapses the moment one looks at the governance of Christianity’s holiest site—a place that embodies Christian agency in its purest form. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre operates under a rigid Status Quo. It grants primary custodianship to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, the Franciscan Custody, and the Armenian Apostolic Church, with smaller Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopian communities also represented. These churches—not the Israeli state—decide who may excavate, who may restore, and under what terms.

In 2016, the Israel Antiquities Authority sounded the alarm that the Edicule was on the brink of collapse, declaring it unsafe and prompting police to temporarily close the site. Yet when a response was required, it was the Christian custodians who determined how the problem would be addressed and who would be entrusted with the work. They commissioned a team of Greek conservators and engineers from the National Technical University of........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)