Mike Huckabee, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, added to his outrageous statements today about the Gaza War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by wrongly chastising British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s call for Israel to cease its war in Gaza. It has resulted in over 60,000 Palestinian fatalities in twenty months whereas the Israelis have only suffered 1,200 fatalities. And the international community widely endorses a ceasefire.
President Donald Trump made his friend Mike Huckabee U.S. Ambassador to Israel shortly after Trump took office in January. Huckabee is a former Baptist church pastor, Republican governor of Arkansas, and a 2016 candidate for U.S. president.
Huckabee Is an Anti-Palestinian Christian Zionist
Mike Huckabee should never have been chosen as ambassador to Israel because he is a Christian Zionist. Donald Trump and his administration are taking legal maneuvers against U.S. institutions with the allegation that they are anti-Semitic. But Christian Zionists like Huckabee are more anti-Palestinian than many people are anti-Semite. But there is no conversation in the media about this, which is a shame.
My 1990 book, Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia, has a chapter entitled “The Church and Christian Zionism.” In it I wrote (p. 137), “Most Christians probably see themselves as both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian, as does this author.”
But not so with Christian Zionists. They comprise a large portion of evangelicals today. They advocate what is called “Greater Israel.” For many, it means present Israel should unilaterally annex both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and eventually conquer militarily Lebanon and Syria so that Israel extends all the way to the Euphrates River.
The reason for this is that they are absolutely haywire in their interpretation of biblical prophecies. They think these indicate Israel is now divinely entitled to the so-called Promised Land. As a person who believes in God’s promised of land to Israel, I show in my book how wrong these Christians Zionists are in this interpretation. Some Orthodox Jews believe the same way. But the Bible is clear, that God will not give Israel all of the Promised Land until the messianic kingdom is inaugurated.
Huckabee Denies the Existence of Palestinians
I continue in my book (p. 143), “‘Christian Zionism’ identifies those Christians who give uncritical support to the State of Israel and who ignore the plight of the Palestinians.” Huckabee not only ignores Palestinians, he said publicly in 2008, “There really is no such thing as a Palestinian.” He also refuses to use the term “West Bank.”
Huckabee argues that Palestinians should be expelled from Gaza and the West Bank, and some Arab country should take them in and perhaps give them some territory.
When WWII ended, the UN was established immediately. It tried to solve the settlement problem between Jews who had immigrated there and Arabs, who later became known as Palestinians, who had lived there for centuries if not millennia. The Soviet Union told the U.S. that they, as the two burgeoning superpowers of the world, should pressure the two groups to form two states in the Levant—the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River-Dead Sea. But the U.S., coming out of WWII, adopted an isolationist position and thus wanted nothing to do with it. That brought about the Jews’ war against Arabs in 1948 that resulted in the State of Israel but no Arab state. Yet most UN members had agreed there should be two states.
Huckabee Opposes Israel Loving Neighbor as Self
This situation has continued for 80 years. Palestinians still don’t have their own state. Yet nearly the entire international community asserts that the only fair solution is two states, with Palestinians getting their own state. But Christian Zionists like Mike Huckabee are dead set against Palestinians getting their own state in The Levant. Mike Huckabee is therefore against Israel adhering to the Torah statement—which Jesus quoted and is under my book’s chapter title on Christian Zionism—”You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19.18; Matthew 5.44).
I then conclude this chapter in my book by saying of Christian Zionists, thus thirty-five years ago (pp. 149-150), “If they continue giving uncritical support to Israel, strengthening its intransigence toward Palestinians, they could unwittingly be paving the way for a resurgence of anti-Semitism.” And indeed, that has been happening.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In