Tucker Carlson interviewed someone who lied about me—and did not push back

Setting the Record Straight on JD Hall’s Claims About Me and Israel

I was made aware today of comments from JD Hall to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Hall is a disgraced Baptist minister who has been implicated in prescription drug abuse, domestic violence involving a knife, and other serious scandals. This is from ChurchLeaders in 2022.

In the church’s statement, which was released on June 27, leadership cited “an incident” that occurred on June 5, after which they discovered Hall’s dependence on Xanax. Further details regarding that incident not mentioned in Fellowship Baptist Church’s statement have now been revealed in a police report. 

According to the police report, Hall was investigated on June 5 for assault with a weapon, specifically a “knife/cutting instrument,” as detailed in the report. He was also accused of strangulation of a partner or family member, which allegedly took place at his home and included “personal weapons.” 

Hall also settled a lawsuit against him for a false story that he published. That may have cost him $250,000. The plaintiff would’ve had to have made a claim in bankruptcy court since Hall filed for bankruptcy. He was also forced to repay his church $15,000 he had embezzled.

The fine is part of a deferred sentencing agreement filed Sept. 10 in a Richland County District Court, the Chronicle stated. For the next three years, Hall also must report to a probation officer, abstain from drugs and alcohol, refrain from owning any weapons, and not enter any casinos or bars.

This is Tucker’s expert on Israel.

The fact that he has been disqualified from ministry and had to settle a defamation case doesn’t necessarily mean he is lying here. It does mean that Tucker Carlson should have at least investigated his claims, which are vast.

In this instance, his goal appeared to be portraying Jewish believers in Jesus — Messianic Jews — as people who are simply trying to appease the Israeli government. I’ll be honest: I have not listened to the entire interview. But here is what he said about me specifically:

“Ron Cantor, I don’t know if you know that name or not. Ron Cantor is a Christian celebrity in Israel, and he was on X one day talking about how loving and kind Israel is to him as a Jew who believes in Jesus. And they will phrase it that way on purpose so as to not imply that they’re a Christian because if they say they’re a Christian, they might have to leave. So they’ll say Jew who believes in Jesus, they’re trying to work the system.

“So I look him up, Ron Cantor, and he has a television station, a Christian television station in Israel. And in 2020, they took his broadcast license because they said that he was telling Jews that they needed Jesus. And so he had to promise that he would not give the gospel to Jewish people, … so that they would give him his quote-unquote Christian station back.

“And there he is bragging about how great Israel treats Christians. They took away his broadcast license for sharing Christ. So there are these so-called Christian Jews in Israel … that again, they probably don’t call themselves Christian Jews. It’s Jews who believe in Jesus.”

Much of what JD Hall says is opinion. But what he presents as fact in bold is completely untrue — 100% fabricated. And if Tucker Carlson was acting as a journalist, and not a propagandist, he would have taken the time to seek a comment from me—or at least someone in the Israeli Messianic movement.

NOTE: Interestingly, this is not the first time that JD Hall has slandered me. He wrote an article a couple of months ago that was so ridiculous that I simply ignored it. In it, he implied that I was silent on the Dr. Michael Brown and Mike Bickle clergy sexual abuse scandals because I was friends with Dr. Brown and because of Tikkun’s association with Bickle.

Anyone who knows the work we have been involved in over the last few years knows how absurd that is. At the time, I assumed that Hall was just misinformed, but that was before I became aware that he had previously lied in his publications (see above). He said that I did not publicly address Dr. Michael Brown’s indiscretions when, in fact, one could make the claim that no one has pressed the issue, both personally in private and publicly, more than I did.

He also attacks Tikkun’s close relationship with IHOPKC. Again, I don’t know whether he is unaware or simply dishonest, but Tikkun sponsored a $160,000 investigation to determine exactly what happened at IHOPKC. The investigation uncovered 17 different allegations against Mike Bickle. He even cites our investigation without realizing that we sponsored it, as a testimony against us. It is crazy!

The Lie About a Promise Not to Share Yeshua

He claims I had to “promise that I would not give the gospel to Jewish people.” I made no such promise. Ever. Sharing the Good News with the Jewish people of Israel is the entire purpose of our channel.

In Hall’s May 2 article, he also falsely shared that I had agreed not to use Shelanu TV (not radio) to share Yeshua.

“The Israeli government stripped Cantor’s radio platform for sharing the gospel with Jews, and made clear it could not broadcast until Cantor agreed to stand down on reaching Jewish people with the gospel. He agreed. He bought his platform back by promising to muzzle himself.”

I would leave the country before making such a promise. He offers no proof whatsoever. No corroboration or footnotes. You would think someone who might have paid $250,000 for publishing false stories (I don’t know how that story ended) would be a bit more careful. Anyone who has followed our ministry for the past seven years, since we started Shelanu TV (the television ministry he is referring to) knows that we have uncompromisingly — with cultural sensitivity — sought to present Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah, in Hebrew, to the Jewish population of Israel. That has never not been our mission.

Opposition Is Not Persecution

I have never claimed there are no obstacles to being a Messianic Jew in Israel. I don’t know what he is referring to when he says that I was on X, speaking of how great the Israeli government is to me as a Jewish believer in Jesus. I would love to see that tweet. Normally, when someone makes a claim like that they will actually quote the person or at least give a link. But he provides nothing.

I found an earlier article by Hall in which he seems to allude to this tweet. In his article, he compares me to a Nazi sympathizer. “Some people betray Christ for money, like Judas did. Others do it under pressure to survive, like the famous account of Vidkun Quisling collaborating with the Nazis in Norway.” If survival was my primary goal, I would just move back to America. Here is the tweet, and I stand by it—because it is biblical.

“I am Israeli. I am Jewish. I believe that Jesus is the Messiah. And I am a Zionist.”

What I have said — repeatedly — is that I would not characterize what we experience as MJs as persecution. Persecution is what believers endure in Iran, Pakistan, China, or Saudi Arabia. Persecution is what Christians face across much of the Muslim world, where converting from Islam to Christianity can cost you your life. In Israel, there is no Jewish equivalent of Al-Qaeda or ISIS. No MJs are being beheaded for their faith or even thrown in jail. It is not illegal to become a believer.

I regularly have conversations with Jewish Israelis about my faith. They are almost never heated. The vast majority are genuinely curious about how I came to believe. Many have a lot of questions.

But we have experienced opposition.

My wife was physically assaulted by teenage Orthodox boys, egged on by irresponsible adults. But those individuals represent an extreme religious minority. Even within the religious community, the overwhelming majority would never approve of such behavior. Other believers have had their faces plastered on posters in their neighborhoods, warning people to stay away from them. But like anyone sent to a foreign country to reach people, we love the people around us. Speaking of Jewish people who don’t believe, Paul said that he would be willing to be “a cursed and cut off from Messiah for the sake of my people, …the people of Israel.” Would JD Hall criticize Paul? Would Tucker Carlson mock the rabbi/apostle for defending the Jewish people in unbelief? I would hope not.

I have also interviewed, as an Israeli and a follower of Yeshua, the nation’s then-Foreign Minister and Tourism Minister. That is not the profile of someone being silenced. These interviews were done without conditions. And once again, JD Hall is in Montana. He quotes no source for these accusations. No one has ever accused me of this before. It appears that he is making it up. But if he’s not, he should at least explain how he came to these conclusions.

What Actually Happened With Our Shelanu TV

JD Hall’s description of our broadcast situation is a massive distortion. Here is what actually happened.

In March 2019, as a representative of GOD TV, I met with the programming director of HOT Cable, Israel’s largest cable provider. He approached us — he wanted GOD TV on their platform. I told him I was only interested if the channel could broadcast in Hebrew, so we could share the message of the New Covenant with Israelis, both Jewish and Arab. He agreed.

In April 2020, our channel went live. Over the following weeks, fierce opposition arose from a small but vocal segment of the Orthodox community. The government, unable to ignore the pressure, accused us of manipulating our license application — claiming they had only granted it under the assumption we would be broadcasting to Christian Arabs. Our response was simple: if that were the case, the channel would be in Arabic, not Hebrew. The license itself is unambiguous — we were authorized to broadcast in Hebrew to the entire population of Israel.

It became clear they could not beat us in court. We were prepared to take the case to the Supreme Court, if necessary, because Israel is a free country with Rule of Law. We have freedom of speech, religion, and expression. You cannot allow Israeli Arab Muslims to have a channel, allow Orthodox Jews to have a channel, and then deny the same right to Messianic Jews. There was no legal basis to shut us down permanently.

My understanding is that, knowing they would lose in court, the government pressured the HOT cable corporation to simply pull us off the air. Thus, the license would no longer be an issue. Additionally, the accusation that we falsified our license application was unfounded — we never applied for a license directly. HOT did that on our behalf. We never saw it. If anything in the application was unclear, that rests with them. And again, the license itself is explicit. We did nothing that was not completely above board. Using tricks to obtain a license would be entirely contrary to who we are.

We moved the station to the Internet, where we have been ever since without interruption or interference from the government. It is an absolute lie that I committed not to share the gospel with Jewish people. I have no agreement with the government other than to obey the laws, along with every other Israeli. The only law that would apply to the situation is to not seek to cause a minor to change their religion—and we have always complied with that.

Why I Don’t Use the Word “Christian”

Hall also mocks the way I identify myself, suggesting that calling myself a “Jew who believes in Jesus” is some kind of deceptive strategy to avoid detection. This reveals a profound ignorance of both Jewish history and Messianic Jewish identity.

I have never referred to myself as a Christian, and neither did the apostles. I have always identified as a Jewish believer or a Messianic Jew. Theologically, I affirm everything the word “Christian” is meant to convey in its highest sense. But to Jewish people, that word does not carry the meaning it carries in the evangelical world. To many Jewish people, “Christian” simply means non-Jew. To others, it means something far darker — and history gives them every reason.

Consider what has been done to Jewish people under the banner of the cross:

The Crusaders massacred nearly a thousand Jews in Jerusalem, herded them into the great synagogue, and burned it to the ground while singing hymns. In the 1300s, Jews across Europe were blamed for the Black Plague — thousands were killed based on the lie that Jews were poisoning the wells. In reality, Jews were dying from the plague at the same rate as everyone else, and we now know it originated in Mongolia. “Around 2,000 Jews were burnt alive on 14 February 1349 in the ‘Valentine's Day’ Strasbourg massacre, where the plague had not yet affected the city.”

Jews were accused of torturing consecrated wafers — of “crucifying Jesus afresh” — and this led to the massacre of Jews by so-called “Christians.” Throughout the Middle Ages, Jewish communities were targeted by blood libels: fabricated accusations that Jews kidnapped and murdered Christian children for use in ritual sacrifice, such as Simon of Trent and William of Norwich. These libels were often economically motivated — a city that could claim a child-martyr could attract pilgrims and revenue. Not one of these accusations was ever substantiated. All have been historically refuted.

This is the weight that word carries. This is why I don’t use it.

Furthermore, in Hebrew, there is no word for “Christian.” Of course, JD Hall doesn’t know this. Since we’re talking about a country with a different language, what word would he like me to use? What would appease him? What would make him feel that I was sufficiently insensitive to my Jewish hearers? The most common word that Hebrew-speaking Jews use is ma’amin, “believer.” The very word that is used in the book of Acts. Is that good enough for JD and Tucker?

The term used for “Christian” is natzri — meaning “one from Nazareth” — which carries a resonance with the Hebrew word for “branch,” netzer, echoing Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah as the Branch of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1). And it is worth noting that the word “Christian” is itself derived from the Greek Christos, a translation of the Hebrew Mashiach — Messiah. In other words, “Christian” literally means “Messianic.” We are not abandoning the term; we are recovering its original meaning.

The earliest followers of Yeshua did not call themselves Christians. That label emerged in Antioch, among Greek-speaking Gentiles. The original community called themselves believers or followers of the Way. A word only has meaning in the context of those who hear it. If the word I use to describe my faith causes the people I am trying to reach to recoil before I have said anything about Yeshua, then I am obligated — as a communicator and as someone who loves my people — to use better language.

Another Lie

JD Hall also claimed that the reason I don’t use the term “Christian” — preferring instead “Jewish believer in Jesus” or “Messianic Jew” — is because the Israeli government prefers that language. Hall claims that if we call ourselves Christians, “they might have to leave.” But that is a lie. I am a citizen of the state of Israel and have been for 23 years. No matter what I believe or what I say about it, I will not lose my citizenship. I am the president of a Hebrew-speaking, digital gospel channel that preaches the gospel. And yet I come and go in and out of the country as I please, without any issues whatsoever. The owner of the largest tour company in the country is a Messianic Jewish pastor.

There are cases of Messianic Jews not getting citizenship because of their faith—but I’ve personally never heard of a Messianic Jewish citizen losing their citizenship.

The truth is exactly the opposite. The government would much rather I say that I am no longer Jewish and have converted to a new religion, Christianity. But I no more did that than Peter or Paul did. The Jewish apostles never spoke of converting to a new religion — they spoke of believing in the Jewish Messiah. That is how they understood their faith, and that is how I understand mine. They believed that the one whom the Hebrew prophets said would come had arrived. They put their faith in him. That is the essence of New Testament faith—not a specific moniker. I know many people who use the title Christian who are not. For a significant part of history, the term “Christian” was nothing more than a political identity, as during the Crusades and the Inquisition.

I do know Jewish believers in Israel who work with government officials and call themselves Christians. They do it because it makes their lives considerably easier. In their line of work, being able to have substantive conversations with government officials matters more than the label, so they’re comfortable with the name. And I respect that. Journalist Joel Rosenberg regularly interviews senior leaders in the Israeli government. He is a Jewish Christian Israeli, and he is not persecuted.

But as an evangelist trying to persuade Jewish people to consider Yeshua, I would never use a term that implies they must leave the faith of Abraham and Moses in order to embrace the faith of James and John. Once a Jewish person understands that Yeshua is the long-awaited Jewish Messiah — who died for our sins and rose from the dead — they can experience eternal life without rejecting their biblical heritage.

There is not a single instance in the New Testament of an early Jewish believer suggesting they had left Judaism. Paul is still an Israelite in Romans 11:1. James and the elders encourage Paul to make a sacrifice at the temple in Acts 21, specifically to prove that he continues to live as a Jew. When James was martyred in the early 60s, he was widely considered the most respected Jewish man in Jerusalem. Every sect of Judaism granted him access to the Temple to pray. He was nicknamed “Camel Knees” because of the hours he spent on his knees interceding for the people of Israel.

I am not a propagandist. I have nothing to hide. JD Hall has serious character issues that disqualified him from ministry. I would welcome the opportunity for Tucker Carlson to give me equal time — though I doubt he will, because his mission is not truth but to malign the people of Israel. He interviews people who will advance his case against the Jews. Even so, I would absolutely be willing to sit down with Tucker Carlson for an honest conversation about what his guest claimed.