The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Does Not Need Mike Huckabee

The 1973 Oil Embargo

The traditional two-state solution for the now sixty-year old Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been a non-starter. I decided this fifty years ago, right after I became an interested observer of this conflict due to the 1973 oil embargo that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries foisted upon all nations that traded with Israel. That greatly affected the U.S. because it was Israel’s #1 ally and trading partner. The result of this oil embargo, which was greatly unexpected by everyone, including OPEC, was that the price of a 55-gallon barrel of oil quadrupled worldwide in only six months. It resulted in a lack of gasoline in the U.S. and thus long lines of cars waiting at gas stations to pay much more money than before to fill up gas tanks.

In late 1973, OPEC cut its oil production and ended its oil exports to the U.S. because it had supported Israel months earlier in the Arab-Israel War which Israel won. So, this oil embargo was sort of an extension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which had been going on especially since the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had drafted and announced it Palestine Charter. It was a declaration to support violence toward Israel for the purpose of achieving a Palestine state in The Levant. These Palestinian leaders had tried non-violence for over fifteen years, and that had not worked. So, they were convinced they had to try violence to achieve their rights.

Palestinians had wanted their own state after Jews had attained their own state in 1949. It was actually a reestablishment of the Jewish nation of antiquity in The Levant. On May 15, 1948, Jewish leaders in Tel Aviv had issued a two-page document entitled Proclamation of Independence. It was rather reminiscent of the American Declaration of Independence. It declared the State of Israel in “Eretz Yisrael” (Land of Israel), which it designated as its “ancestral land.” War therefore ensued immediately. The Jews won. The armistice line was called the Green Line. Inside that line was the territory Jews did not posses, and it was named the West Bank.

Interestingly, the Jews did not get their state in their “ancestral land.” The West Bank amazingly approximated ancient Samaria and Judea (=Judah), which was the very heartland of the ancient nation of Israel.

Early in my study of this conflict, I began to realize that Palestinians demanding their own state in the two separated territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which lies along the Mediterranean coast and where most Palestinians lived, was a non-starter. And I suspected that such a state of Palestine would never happen.

Jews Settling in the Land of Israel

Why? Religion—plain and simple! Religious Jews in Israel and not quite the same as those in the U.S. Israel has mostly Orthodox, and its sub-group Hassidic, Jews whereas the U.S. has mostly Reformed and Conservative religious Jews, thus comprising the three main sects of Judaism. Only the Orthodox are committed to Mitzvat Yishuv Eretz Yisrael—the command that God gave to Moses for the Israelites to capture and settle in the land of Canaan, transforming it into Eretz Yisrael—Land of Israel. These Orthodox Jews cite especially from Numbers 33 in their Tanakh (Jewish Bible). It reads, “When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured stones, destroy all their cast images, and demolish all their high place,” where they worshipped their gods signified by their idols (Numbers 33:52 NRSV). This quotation from Moses, given to him by God, further declares, “You shall take possession of the land and settle ion it, for I have given you the land to possess” (v. 53).

Many Democrats turned against Kamala Harris in the November 5th presidential election that Donald Trump won. An important reason was that Democratic President Joe Biden had sided so strongly with Israel in the current Israel-Hamas War in the Gaza Strip that he seemed to have a unbalanced position since Israel has now killed about 44,000 Palestinians therein, which many are now calling genocide. And Vice President Harris approved of her boss’ position. But these Democrat voters who turned against Harris for this reason were foolish, since Trump has shown clearly in the past that he will favor Israel in its dispute with Palestinians more than Biden has. He has now proved it by naming Mike Huckabee as his future ambassador to Israel.

Trump Selects Christian Zionist Mike Huckabee as the Next U.S. Ambassador to Israel

Mike Huckabee is a long time savant of Trump and a former governor of Arkansas. Before all that, he was a church pastor. Mike Huckabee is a strong Christian Zionist. They advocate for so-called “Greater Israel,” which means Jews are now divinely entitled to all of the so-called “Promised Land.” It signifies the promise of land that God made to Abraham and his descendants. The Bible records that God said to him, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt,” referring to the Wadi El Arish, not the Nile River, “to the great river, the river Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18), which is in Syria and Iraq. This is the Promised Land, which is not the same as the Jews’ “ancestral land,” meaning the land where Jews lived during antiquity.

My Book Palestine Is Coming

I eventually wrote a book about this Israeli-Palestinian conflict, entitled Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia, that was published in 1990. It has a chapter entitled “Zionism” and one entitled “The Church and Christian Zionism.” In the latter, I show mistakes that Christian Zionists like Mike Huckabee make in interpreting this subject in the Bible. They do not understand that God’s covenant with Israel through their patriarch Abraham is conditional, thus requiring obedience to Torah (Law in Bible) for God to give Jews all of the Promised Land. Yet even though the Bible indicates this promise of land to Jews is conditional upon obedience, it will eventually happen according to Bible prophecy, that is, God will give them all of the Promised Land.

What Does the Bible Say About This?

This is very clear in the Bible’s book of Judges. It says that because the Israelites did not drive out all of the Canaanites, but allowed some to remain as forced labor (thus making money off of them), God said of them in Judges 2:21-23; 3:1-4):

“‘Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their ancestors, and have not observed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.’ In order to test Israel, whether or not they would take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their ancestors did, the LORD had left those nations, not driving them out at once, and had not handed them over to Joshua.

“Now these are the nations that the LORD left to test all those in Israel who had no experience of any war in Canaan … the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites,… They were for testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their ancestors by Moses.”

So, according to the Jewish Bible, which is the Old Testament in the Christian Bible, Jews are never divinely entitled to the entire Promised Land until they seek to keep the Torah. Many religious Jews recognize this and it is stated multiple times in their Talmud—the ancient collection of writings of rabbis, much of which are interpretations of the Tanakh, thus including Torah. Zionists like Mike Huckabee ignore these important injunctions about the Promised Land.

Mike Huckabee’s Christian Zionism makes him so biased favoring Israel and disfavoring the rights of Palestinians that he refuses to even recognize them, saying, “There are no Palestinians.” So, President-elect Donald Trump selecting Mike Huckabee as the U.S. ambassador to Israel appears to bode much more ill for Palestinians in the four years ahead—beginning when Trump takes office on January 20th next year—than Joe Biden or Kamala Harris ever did.

My “New Philistia,” Two-State Solution

Thus, Huckabee will not approve of the thesis of my book, which advocates an alternative two-state solution shown vividly in the form of a map on the front cover. It is a Palestinian state to be established as a very expanded Gaza Strip in the coastal plain, with Israel annexing all of the West Bank. This, of course, will require a transfer of peoples. It will approximate the location of ancient Philistia, where the ancient Philistines lived and from whom the modern Palestinians derive their name.

And folks, what I am saying has gradually been happening ever since my book was published, nearly 35 years ago. Religious Jews in Israel have gained increasing political clout and are now calling for unilateral annexation of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank to Israel. I think that movement will grow and likely happen, which coincides with my proposal. And just yesterday, authorities from Egypt and the Palestinian Authority that governs Palestinians in the West Bank are forming a committee of mostly Palestinians and intending to call for it to govern the Gaza Strip. That could be the beginning of my proposal for a Palestinian state as a very expanded Gaza Strip. Watch this space!