It looks like Huckabee's offensive "oven door" remarks were just the start for ultra-extremist Huckabee when it comes to the Middle East.
Mike Huckabee Rewrites US-Israel Policy in Visit to West Bank
By MOLLY HUNTER
Speaking to reporters at the ritzy Waldorf Astoria residences here in Jerusalem, Huckabee challenged the international community’s frequent use of three words: “West Bank, illegal and occupation.”
“Occupation," he explained to reporters, "suggests someone is taking land illegally from someone else.”
And that’s not how he sees it. Huckabee said he considers all the West Bank part of Israel, which pits him against U.S. foreign policy.
Huckabee Vows to Shake up Mideast Policies
Huckabee, 59, held a fundraiser Tuesday in the West Bank settlement of Shilo, an area international law considers occupied territory. It’s not his first visit to the West Bank, he said, nor will it be his last.
The Obama administration considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law, and has frequently criticized Netanyahu’s right wing government’s support of the ongoing settlement expansion.
"It is interesting to me that our government has put more pressure on the Israeli government to stop building bedrooms in their own neighborhoods, than on Iran to stop building bombs,” he said.
Bedrooms, Huckabee added, never hurt anyone.
Asked what he suggested doing with the nearly 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank, Huckabee said that was for the Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate.
Mr. Huckabee, who is so far gaining less traction than in his 2008 presidential bid, is the latest in a series of Republican hopefuls to make the pilgrimage to Israel. It is, in a way, part of an invisible primary to win the heart – and wallet — of Sheldon Adelson, the megadonor who has questioned the existence of the Palestinian peoplehood.
No doubt Sheldon Adelson will approve of Huckabee's pandering performance. But the beneficence of Sheldon Adelson may not be enough, in the latest CNN poll, Huckabee's support has slipped to just 4% of Republican voters.
In Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee Calls West Bank Part of Israel
By Jodi Rudoren
Though Mr. Huckabee has previously said if Palestinians want a state of their own they should go elsewhere, on Wednesday he ducked the issue of what should become of the 2.5 million Palestinian residents of the West Bank, saying, “That’s a question for the Israelis and the Palestinians to negotiate.”
So Huckabee clearly doesn't give a damn what happens the three million Palestinian subjects of Israel on the West Bank. They're left on their own to negotiate with their oppressors who are led by thinly veiled racists like Netanyahu. I guess they don't fit into Huckabee's Biblical vision of Armageddon, so the prospect of Ethnic Cleansing or Genocide don't interfere with his fanatical religious beliefs about the Holy Land.
Mr. Huckabee, who is so far gaining less traction than in his 2008 presidential bid, is the latest in a series of Republican hopefuls to make the pilgrimage to Israel. It is, in a way, part of an invisible primary to win the heart – and wallet — of Sheldon Adelson, the megadonor who has questioned the existence of the Palestinian peoplehood.
Huckabee made a complete fool out himself at that press conference in Jerusalem, referring to Russia as the "Soviet Union" a state that hasn't existed in 23 years., and implying friendly pro-American Jordan posed a threat to Israel.
Mike Huckabee blunders his way through Israel press conference
Republican presidential candidate calls Russia ‘the Soviet Union’ and implies that the West Bank borders a hostile state rather than Jordan
By Peter Beaumont
US Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee condemns the Iranian nuclear deal during a visit to Israel.
Peter Beaumont
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee delivered a confused and garbled press conference in Jerusalem during a brief campaign stop, which included a controversial fundraising visit to a settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories.
At times taking positions to the right of Israel’s government, the former governor of Arkansas at one stage described Russia as the “Soviet Union” – when referring to its plans to supply Iran with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles – before correcting himself.
He also seemed to suggest that the West Bank bordered one of Israel’s enemies, as opposed to Jordan, which has long enjoyed a peace treaty with Israel.
Huckabee simplistic notions show he's way over his head without even a rudimentary understanding of the complex geopolitics of the Middle East.
Mike Huckabee has become even more of an international embarrassment than his Republican rivals. And that's really saying something.