Huckabee Campaigns For McCain In Israel

JERUSALEM -- In the wake of the evangelical Saddleback presidential faith forum and just as the veepstakes heat up for the Republican campaign, 2008 presidential candidate ex-Arkansas governor and Baptist minister with a grin Mike Huckabee turned up for his tenth trip to the Holy Land. The timely invitation came from the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, a rightwing New York foundation that urges Jews to settle in the Muslim quarter of the Old City in "undivided Jerusalem." Huckabee's visit here lasted 48 hours, 25 percent longer than Barack Obama's whirlwind trip last month. Huckabee used the extra time to visit Jewish settlements near the controversial security barrier.

Fresh faced at a power breakfast, despite having had only his usual four hours sleep in a suite at the King David hotel, Huckabee chose to ignore the local English language paper, which had hailed the politician as "Huckabee the Maccabee." This is an Israeli compliment, as the Maccabees were an ancient Jewish national liberation movement that founded a kingdom that held fast for a century, from 164 - 63 BC.

Mike Huckabee took time to stress Israel's right to defend itself against a potential strike by Iran, then championed the evangelical vision of a greater Israel with his observation that the "State of Israel, from the standpoint of security, should include West Bank." He added: "to tell Jewish people they can't live in a Jewish state is like telling the Boston Red Sox that they can't play in Fenway Park." This odd remark might be considered too 'inside baseball' for many Jerusalemites, and Huckabee assured the press that "my position on Jerusalem does not stem from religious beliefs but is based on common sense. It's unrealistic to have two governments on the same street." As the capital of both Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Jerusalem is considered an international city. "But you need a single government to protect it." Huckabee said. "You can't have multiple jurisdictions on top of each other. "

Huckabee urges America to relocate its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to acknowledge the nation's true capital, and believes that McCain will change the Jerusalem consulate to an embassy if elected. (In 1980, most countries shifted their envoys from Jerusalem under the perceived threat of an Arab oil embargo.) James Cunningham, the United States' new lame duck ambassador to Israel, arrived only this week to assume his duties in Tel Aviv. If Huckabee is bucking for an ambassadorship under a newly elected president, he's way too outspoken.

"It's impractical and irrational to have two governments overseeing the same real estate, and with Hamas terrorists, it complicates it even more," Huckabee remarked. When asked whether Arab citizens should have equal rights and votes in a Greater Israel, the former governor hedged, fell back on the obvious and wondered into odd territory. "It's a delicate issue, and we shouldn't forget that it took women and African Americans 150 years to get the vote [in the USA]." Straight from the mouth of a Dixie State-Rights Republican who doesn't remember that Israeli woman have had the right to vote from the inception of the nation. Whatever the status of Jerusalem, suffrage shouldn't suffer.

Huckabee's cringe-making cell phone schtick resurfaced at breakfast with five journalists. When his phone trilled, he quipped "That's McCain wanting to put me on the ticket!" But he took pains to clarify that there is "No indication that I'm on the list. I'd be very surprised if I were picked." It was a tad more tasteful than his joke at the National Rifle Association when noises offstage prompted him to crack: "That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair and someone pointed a gun at him and he dove for the floor." The good ol boys in Kentucky were not amused.

While Dr Joseph Frager, of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, has noted that "most Jews vote Democrat anyway," he was enthusiastic when Huckabee tipped John McCain as the "overwhelmingly better choice" for Israeli security in the United States' November presidential elections.

"John McCain understands this part of the world very clearly," Huckabee said, adding that candidate Obama doesn't "fully grasp" the politics of the region. A Democratic New York Congressman, Dov Hikind, who joined Huckabee on his tour of Israel, called the Republican a "real hero in the Jewish community."

An excursion by chopper to the rocket-riddled Negev town of Sderot was part of Huckabee's planned itinerary, as it is for nearly every American politician who has ventured to Israel since Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip were sent packing in 2005. (Both Barack Obama and John McCain visited earlier this year; a planned visit by Oprah following the Lebanon War in 2006 was canceled at the eleventh hour.)

Odds were against Huckabee experiencing a full-on " Red Dawn," the 15-second warning to dodge incoming Qassam rocket fire, because a lull in fighting was brokered between Hamas and Israeli leaders earlier this summer. Islamic Jihad still occasionally launches a homemade missile over the fence -- one slammed into empty fields on Monday -- so these visits are not for the faint of heart. Some 13 Israeli civilians have been killed by rockets in the Negev since 2000, and over one third of the school children in Sderot suffer from post-traumatic stress. In the adjacent Gaza Strip, everyday trauma has also become a way of life.

Comments

[darrick72]

This is proof of my theory. They are doing what I suspected they would?

I think that I have figured out John McCain's strategy to defeat Obama. John McCain has been touting the nation's Judeo-Christian values a lot lately. He's going to select Joe Lieberman in an effort to paint Obama as a Muslim v. the Jew and the Christian. This appeal will likely win Florida for McCain and it will also likely prop up the Christian right.

[willietherat]

The United States government has gone insane. The statement that Israel has any right to defend itself against attackers - and we are talking first and foremost about a people who saw their land stolen right out from under them, their people massacred, and their homes bulldozed and farms destroyed - is equivalent to the story, "The Emperor's New Clothes". It's a lie. Israel stole the land from the Palestinians, and, just as the little boy in the crowd shouted during the parade, "but the emperor is naked!" someone in the world is going to shout in the crowd, "God did not give Israel this right", and the whole house is going to crash down. God did not give Israel this right to take that land, and our government has been funding and supporting massacres, lies, atrocities, tortures, theft, and genocide, all over the Middle East, in the name of this lie that Israel has any right to defend itself in any manner against a people who are just trying to claim what is rightfully theirs and has been taken away from them, Iran is simply trying to stand up for the Muslim people.

[officewag]

I think the deal is that by campaigning in Jerusalem, the preacher Huckabee reaches out to the Bible Belt and also to Jewish voters. The underlying doubts about whether Barack is a secret Muslim and not committed are being touched on, if only subliminally.

[SouthPrairie]

Anyone who quips "Bomb, bomb Iran!" to a Beachboys' tune is NOT PRO LIFE AND NOT QUALIFIED TO BE POTUS!!

[flipbiscut24]

These fundies are dangerous to America.
They are undermining our nation.

This is America.
Do not vote for these men.

[Tasies]

The quack couldn't unequivocally declare basic suffrage and equal rights for Arabs, even under an agreement favorable to Israel. Folks, we are dealing with ignorant/racist men who believe history started with the Old Testament. A text which was partially based on Vedic traditions appropriated. The sense of entitlement that gushes out every pore of the American right wing zionist movement is beyond reason and sensibility. it is in fact based on an unequivocal sense of superiority. These are the folks determining our mid-east policy.

I met an Arab woman who was born in Ramalah, raised in Houston. She has zero right of return, she has family she hasn't seen in over twenty years. If these religious bigots have their way they're going to declare the Old Testament a legal document in which one can prove land ownership.

[ranscot]

I wasn't aware Israelis had the right to vote in our elections.

Seems odd to campaign in an another nation-state, instead of your basic goodwill tour.

Wonder how this would have flied if say he had gone to Mexico.

[CharlesJ]

Why would anyone need to court any particular person, religion, gender, age, or any segment of society to have to do so would indicate that you may need to change your message to suit that particular group of people. If they are being honest and truthful in their word and deed this would be completely unnecessary as everyone that was equally honest and truthful would see the speaker for who and what they are. Thus the courtship would be completely unnecessary.

[pastor123]

Yeah even the Jews want Huckabee to be VP, McCain needs to shore up this ticket if he wants to win., Put Huckabee on the ticket. The GOP is risking losing alot of voters if they dont. Some Huckabee supporters are so disillusioned by the GOP and the McCain camp they actually are asking Huckabee to leave the GOP. http://www.mccanes.com/newparty.html