Former Fox News host and current podcaster Tucker Carlson let loose his latest and most preposterous libel last week, claiming that the State of Israel—in fact, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally—“demanded” that U.S. President Donald Trump attack Iran. Carlson asserted that “this happened because Israel wanted it to happen. This is Israel’s war … not the United States’ war.”
Typical for Carlson, his fictions on the U.S.’s Iran attacks offered no factual evidence that Netanyahu pressured or persuaded Trump in any way. No wonder that several days later, the president disavowed Carlson, noting that “Tucker has lost his way” and “is really not smart enough to understand” MAGA goals.
U.S. Secretary of State Maria Rubio addressed Carlson’s claims specifically, asserting that the president’s analysis of the Iran threat was his own. According to Rubio, Trump decided that “we were going to go first. He was not going to run the risk that they could attack us before we could [attack them].”
Likewise, in a subsequent press conference, Trump denied Carlson’s accusation that Israel demanded he act urgently on Iran. “It was my opinion that they [the Iranians] were going to attack first. … If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready, and we were ready.”
Rubio’s and Trump’s repudiations soundly quashed Carlson’s assertion that Netanyahu was puppet master to the president, but Carlson’s larger point—that the Iran conflict “belongs” to Israel, not the United States—is equally vacuous.
A short review of U.S.-Iran relations over nearly a half-century makes it clear that the U.S. hostility to and from Iran runs far deeper than Israel’s.
Iranian Revolution (1979) destroys decades-old U.S. allyship
Before the Islamist revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran, America had been Iran’s strongest ally. After it, the revolutionaries rightly saw the United States as their greatest enemy and labeled it the “Great Satan.”
U.S. Embassy Hostage Crisis (1979) sets a pattern of violent hostility
In November 1979, Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 American hostages and holding them for 444 days. Washington froze Iranian assets, imposed major sanctions and cut diplomatic relations. A daring U.S. military attempt to rescue the hostages by then-President Jimmy Carter in 1980 failed embarrassingly. The hostages were finally released in January 1981 on Ronald Reagan’s presidential inauguration day.
Beirut Marine Barracks Bombing (1983) kills 241 Americans
In October 1983, a suicide bomber supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps blew up the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 American forces. The terrorist was part of a group that later became Hezbollah, still a powerful Iranian proxy today.
Iran’s nuclear-weapons development leads to JCPOA (2018)
From the turn of the century, the United States and other world powers increasingly feared Iran’s belligerent actions and build-up of nuclear weapons capability. Then-President Barack Obama negotiated a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) designed to limit, but not stop, Iran’s nuclear-weapons progress. In 2018, Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, calling it a “bad deal,” and increased pressure on Iran to dial back its expansionism.
Assassination of Qassem Soleimani (2020) skyrockets tensions
In January 2020, under the first Trump administration, the U.S. killed Qassem Soleimani, the IRGC commander of Iran’s terrorist proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. As a result, Iran launched missile and militia attacks on U.S. forces.
U.S. destroys Iran’s nuclear assets, capping Israel’s 12-day war (2025)
Besieged by the Hamas-led massacre of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 others into the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, and later by Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen—all terrorist proxies of Iran—Israel retaliated alone, attacking and decimating much of Iran’s military and nuclear-development capabilities. During the last few days of the war, Trump joined Israel, ordering massive U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Hostilities explode with U.S.-Israel attack on Iran (February 2026)
After months of failed U.S. attempts to convince Iran’s leaders to abandon their nuclear ambitions, mothball their ballistic missiles and cease funding to terror proxies, Trump reached the end of his patience. When he gave the order to attack Iran, he asked Israel to join the effort, to which Israel quickly agreed.
History proves that Trump needed no prodding to strike arch-enemy Iran. For decades, Washington has chafed at Iran’s belligerence, and for years, Trump himself has focused intensely on—and outright attacked—the Islamic Republic numerous times. Carlson’s claim that the leader of the world’s most powerful military needed Netanyahu’s encouragement is as amateurish as it is ludicrous.
Washington and Jerusalem agree unanimously: Iran is the world’s greatest threat. The reason Iran calls the United States and Israel “Great Satan” and “Little Satan,” respectively, is no mystery. The Islamic Republic realizes that no two nations oppose its jihadi imperialism and its nuclear threat with greater urgency.
Perhaps even more important, their respective stakes in limiting Iran’s aggression are equally high. Indeed, in the world today, no geopolitical alliance is as solidly aligned. Little surprise then, that the U.S.-Israel collaboration in the current conflict against Iran has produced what some analysts call the world’s most powerful military partnership ever.
Carlson’s rookie theories about America’s subservient relationship to the Jewish state are baseless. His accusations have no foundation in fact or in historical reality. The fact is that the extraordinary U.S.-Israel collaboration over Iran has helped both nations achieve new levels of global influence.
Originally published by Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).
