Huckabee’s Israel land remarks condemned as ‘dangerous and inflammatory’ | Mike Huckabee
Governments from across the Islamic world have condemned remarks by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who suggested it would be “good” for Israel to lay claim to a large area of the Middle East.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former governor of Arkansas, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. In an interview with US conservative commentator Tucker Carlson published on Friday, the ambassador pointed to verses in the Bible that some Jews and evangelical Christians say point to the divine right of Jews to lay claim to lands from the Nile to the Euphrates.
“It would be nice if they took it all. But I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here today,” Huckabee said, suggesting that Israel’s restriction is what prevents the Jewish state from fulfilling its biblical claim.
“We are talking about these lands where the state of Israel currently lives and wants to ensure peace.” the ambassador said. “They’re not trying to take over Jordan, they’re not trying to take over Syria, they’re not trying to take over Iraq or anywhere else. They want to protect their people.”
Huckabee later admitted that his words were “kind of an overstatement.” But the claim that Jews have divine right over much of the Middle East has drawn an angry response from Muslim governments around the world.
In a joint statement signed by a list including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan, it was stated that the ambassador’s comments were “dangerous and provocative statements, constitute a clear violation of the principles of international law and the United Nations Charter, and pose a serious threat to the security and stability of the region.”
The US embassy in Israel insisted the comments were taken out of context by the complaining states.
In the statement made by the embassy, it was said: “US policy has not changed.” “The narrative was based on an edited portion of the response. If you listen to the full context, Ambassador Huckabee clearly says that Israel has no desire to change its current borders. Any characterization otherwise is a misrepresentation of the full, unedited response.”
In other comments on an apparently unedited video of the interview with Huckabee that Carlson posted online, the ambassador appeared to claim that about 60% of the West Bank is under direct Israeli control (Known as Area C) was an integral part of Israel and was clearly at odds with Washington’s official position against the annexation of any or all of the occupied territories.
“Area C is Israel,” Huckabee said.
The ambassador also gave a comprehensive interpretation of biblical regions such as Judea and Samaria, ancient geographical terms that Israel uses to refer to the West Bank. Huckabee appeared to have gone even further.
“Basically, you take the Jordan River, and it runs from west of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, all the way to the Lebanon border,” Huckabee said, once again suggesting that Israel had been generous in giving up territory. “Israel had control of Sinai. They gave it to Egypt. They had control. They gave it to others in the 1979 peace agreement.
“Israel reduced the size of the land. They made this decision,” he said. “That’s why they gave Gaza. They gave away so many things.”
The interview, often tense and combative, revealed a rift within the United States over how far the United States should go in its support for Israel. Carlson repeatedly challenged Huckabee on whether his assertion of the biblical right of all Jews to settle the region between the sea and the Jordan River was defined as ethnic or religious. Huckabee seemed to argue that it was both, meaning that someone born Jewish but renounced their faith and someone who converted to Judaism had the right to settle there.
