Tucker Carlson’s latest broadside against evangelical support for Israel has triggered a public clash with Dr. Mike Evans, sharpening a dispute that has been building since the start of the war against the Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Carlson’s appearance on comedian Theo Von’s podcast, released Wednesday, was the most aggressive articulation yet of his argument that American pastors are giving “theological cover” to Israel’s military campaign. Evans’s response—accusing Carlson of using rhetoric “worse than the Nazi Party’s 1920 platform”—pushed the controversy to a new level.

Carlson launched his critique with a sweeping indictment of evangelical leadership. “From my perspective as an American Christian, Protestant American Christian, it is like, yeah, of course I think what Israel is doing is disgusting. It is indefensible,” he said. But he insisted that Israel is not the focus of his anger. “My real rage, what I am actually upset about, I never rage about the Israelis or the Jews at my house. My rage is directed toward my people… evangelical pastors who have made deals with the Israeli government, or have theology so deranged that they think their Christian faith requires them to support the murder of children, including Christian children.”

He said he personally knows some of the pastors he was referencing. “Those people, I really feel hostility toward,” he said. “Israel is acting in its own interest. Those people—what is their excuse?”

Carlson accused the evangelical establishment of falling for what he called “a great deception.” “Their leadership in general has not only refused to condemn it, they have defended it. If this is not the great deception you read about, then what is?” He added that pastors defending Israeli actions in Gaza are “false prophets,” saying, “Jesus’s message is not to kill children, okay? If you are telling me that it is, I do not need a theology degree to say you are a false prophet, and you are going to have to pay for that.”

He also criticized pastors for devoting sermons to attacking conservative commentator Candace Owens rather than addressing the war. “If you are giving sermons against Candace Owens,” Carlson said, “then you are betraying your people, because you are misrepresenting your faith.”

Evans, who founded the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem, responded forcefully. In the Jerusalem Post he said Carlson was “saying worse things presently than the Nazi Party said at their platform in 1920.” Carlson read the quote on air and rejected it immediately. “I am saying worse things than the Nazi Party said? I am totally anti-Nazi,” Carlson said. “I am totally anti-hate, and above all, I am anti-blood guilt and collective punishment.”

He said Christian ministers calling him a Nazi bother him more than attacks from political opponents. “I ask a simple question, and the answer is, ‘Shut up, Nazi.’ Including from Christian ministers calling me a Nazi because I asked a question.”

Evans then escalated during an interview with The Media Line. “Tucker, you go on your show and accuse Israel of murdering Christians,” he said. “You mock me because you don’t believe all the antisemitic things you’ve said about Israel are worse than what the Nazis said in their party platform. Hitler would’ve loved you, Tucker, and so do your bankers in Qatar. If you really believe your cause is righteous as a Christian, then debate me.”

Evans also warned that Carlson’s message is empowering Israel’s enemies. “Your rhetoric fuels antisemitism,” he said. “Silence in the face of this gets Jews killed.” In a Ynet interview earlier in November, Evans said Carlson’s comments about Christian Zionism being a “dangerous heresy” show a fundamental misunderstanding of Christian support for Israel. “Christian Zionism is inseparable from Christian identity,” Evans said, adding that “750 million Christians worldwide identify as Zionists.”

He credited evangelicals with securing President Trump’s strongest pro-Israel actions. “Evangelicals delivered Trump’s policies. They delivered the embassy move. They delivered the Abraham Accords,” Evans said. “You weaken evangelical support, you weaken Israel.”

Carlson continued using Gaza’s Christian population as a centerpiece of his argument. “Many Christians have been killed in this. Israel has murdered [them],” he said. “They have blown up two churches in Gaza and killed people in the churches. What do the churches have to do with this?” He added that he is “probably the only person in American media” consistently raising the issue of Christian casualties.

The debate revived earlier moments in which Carlson questioned Christian Zionism’s theology. In previous broadcasts, he has said that some pastors “have replaced Christianity with politics” and that “biblical Israel is not the same thing as the modern state created in 1948,” drawing immediate pushback from Christian Zionist leaders.

Those leaders frequently cite the Hebrew Bible to defend Israel’s legitimacy. Isaiah 49:22 remains central to their advocacy: “Thus said the Lord God: I will raise My hand to nations and lift up My banner to peoples, and they shall bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders” (Isaiah 49:22). They argue that this verse describes a clear moral obligation to support Am Yisrael (the nation of Israel) returning to its land. Pastor Dumisani Washington recently said support for Israel is rooted in the covenant itself. “It is not political,” Washington said. “It is biblical.” He said Israel’s fight against Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis is a fight against terrorist movements that openly seek genocide, and that abandoning Israel in such a moment contradicts the moral framework of the Hebrew Bible.

Carlson’s interview also touched on a clip of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich discussing relocating civilians in Gaza. Carlson responded sharply. “What separates the savage from the civilized person is the civilized person will never accept the murder of innocents,” he said. “We can’t kill you because of how you were born. We don’t accept that because we are Christians.” He pointed to Smotrich in the clip and concluded: “That’s the enemy of civilization right there.”

The confrontation between Carlson and Evans exposes a widening fracture inside the American Christian right. Carlson claims he is defending Christian ethics against political manipulation. Evans says Carlson is legitimizing antisemitism at a moment when Israelis are fighting an existential war against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s regional network.

The conflict revolves around a verse that has guided Christian-Jewish relations for generations: “I will bless those who bless you, and him that curses you I will curse; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). Its meaning continues to define the divide between those who believe supporting Israel is a biblical command and those, like Carlson, who now reject that obligation.

The outcome of this argument matters. It shapes whether evangelical support for Israel remains strong at a moment when Israel is fighting for its survival, and it defines the boundaries of a coalition that has shaped Middle East policy for decades.