Did Mike Huckabee just defend ethnic cleansing?

This from the man who used to belong to the relatively sane wing of the Republican party:

“there is no doubt but that many forces acted against the Jewish people in returning to their homeland, being able to live in the place that God gave them. It is inconceivable in many ways that we would have to even argue and debate whether or not Israelis could live in Israel, not just in parts of Israel but anywhere in Israel they wished to live”

And where should the Palestinians go?

“There are vast amounts of territory that are in the hands of Muslims, in the hands of Arabs. Maybe the international community can come together and accommodate.”

This is shocking in so many ways – that a prominent politician would say it, and that it is not seen as beyond-the-pale fringe extremist speech, up there with the anti-Muslim rants of so many upstart politicians all across Europe. This is wicked stuff, a fruit of the appalling theology I talked about yesterday.