Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) recently warned that a "second Holocaust" could break out in Israel if the United States didn't take sufficient action to protect the nation against the supposed threats posed by Iran.
"You’re looking at a second Holocaust" if Israel doesn't "know they can trust and depend upon the stars and stripes ... to provide them support," West told attendees of a town hall meeting last week at First Baptist Church in West Palm Beach, Fla., according to the Palm Beach Post.
"There will be no spiritual homeland for Christians to return back to," West said. "There will be no homeland for the Jewish people in the United States of America for their birthright. This is a dangerous situation and we have to take the Iranians for their word."
The Florida Republican also weighed in on conflict in other Middle East nations, suggesting that some of the unrest could eventually lead to increased hostility toward Israel.
"What happens if all of a sudden Syria [doesn't] focus on fighting each other, but focus on fighting Israel?” West said. He also cautioned of the potential effects of growing “radical Islamism” in Egypt.
West often urges ardent defense of Israel, sometimes employing severe rhetoric. Last year, West claimed that Obama's support for the recognition of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders -- laid out before the Six Day War during which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza -- would be the "beginning of the end" of the Jewish nation.
"Today's endorsement by President Barack Obama of the creation of a Hamas-led Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, signals the most egregious foreign policy decision his administration has made to date, and could be the beginning of the end as we know it for the Jewish state," West said in May 2011.
"President Obama has not stood for Israel or the Jewish people and has made it clear where the United States will stand when Palestine attempts to gain recognition of statehood by the United Nations," he continued. "The President should focus on the real obstacle to security -- the Palestinian leadership and its ultimate goal to eliminate Israel and the Jewish people."