Josh Francombe

🚨 EXCLUSIVE — Tucker Carlson claims that a sect of Judaism called Chabad is ultimately behind the military strikes on Iran. This might be Tucker's most absurd claim to date. And it's yet another shot at Trump. Why? Well, @jaredkushner & @IvankaTrump have belonged to Chabad in DC, and Kushner helped lead the U.S. negotiations before the strike began last week. As for Tucker's rant about Chabad — which he helpfully spelled for his viewers — it is beyond preposterous. It's also dangerous — Chabad buildings and events have repeatedly been targeted by terrorists. For example, the horrific massacre last December at Bondi Beach in Australia, where 15 were murdered, including Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was a Chabad event. Tucker explained in tonight's monologue that the "real" reason for the strikes on Iran — meaning why Israel, in his telling, is forcing the U.S. to help topple the Mullahs — is to launch a "holy war" for the purpose of destroying the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock in the Old City of Jerusalem, in order to rebuild the Third Temple at the same site. And who does Tucker claim is behind this insidious plot — and thus the military campaign he called "evil"? Chabad. As anyone active in Jewish life knows, Chabad focuses on outreach to its own local Jewish community, particularly to more secular Jews who don't feel connected to a standing synagogue. But because Chabad is not known to almost anyone outside of the Jewish community, it makes for an easy target of dark conspiracy theories. That's why Candace Owens has made Chabad into a villain in her increasingly unhinged rants. But here is why this theory is as crazy as it is dangerous. Chabad is a loosely-knit collection of synagogues (and related community/educational centers), each run by a Rabbi and his wife, who stay in a given community or neighborhood typically for life. Far from being structured like, say, the Catholic Church, each Chabad House raises its own funds. Tucker's "logic" for his outrageous allegations is that Chabad wants to bring about the building of the Third Temple, known in Hebrew as the beit hamikdash. But... how does Chabad actually to bring about the building of the beit hamikdash? Through acts of kindness. Truly by doing good deeds in order to "merit" God rebuilding the Jewish holy site. In fact, Jews have for prayed for the rebuilding of the beit hamikdash — every single day — since shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple almost two thousand years ago. It is literally part of Jews' daily prayers. But it has nothing to do with tearing down an Islamic holy site, let alone starting a holy war. It's a prayer asking God to return us to the elevated state of spirituality that existed during the time of the Temple, and more importantly, for Him to send "Moshiac," or the Messiah. That Tucker would turn ancient Jewish prayers into some kind of sinister plot that is responsible for a very real and ongoing military campaign should be shocking. Sadly, though, it's not. But that doesn't mean that it isn't dangerous. Real people and actual families go to Chabad synagogues, and little kids across the U.S. and in other countries attend Chabad schools and preschools. It takes just one person already on the fringes to use this kind of rhetoric as justification for violence. That's not speculation. It has happened again and again — just in recent years. Yet Tucker is so blinded by his desire to take a swipe at Jared and Ivanka — because he knows he can't attack Trump directly — that he simply doesn't care.