Huckabee A Red Tory

The real conservative, Canadian style, in the Republican Presidential race is Mike Huckabee. He is actually a Red Tory, and has potential to come from behind and be the American 'Everyman' the Republicans say they want to lead them.

He is folksy being called Mike not Michael, and not afraid to lay down some mean riffs. The common man of the party of Abraham Lincoln, not Reagan. And heck he is from Arkansas so even Clinton gives him the thumbs up him, Bill, not Hillary.

It also appears that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee did receive a bounce from his second place finish in Ames. After garnering only 4 percent in the May poll, Huckabee scored 12 percent support in the latest survey, putting him in a race for third place with Giuliani.

Yesterday in the CNBC/MSNBC debate he said something that most pundits missed, while most of the other candidates promoted 'Free Trade' he called for 'Fair Trade'. It passed over all their heads, without a response from them or the pundit questioners.

Fair trade has been actively discussed by exactly two of the GOP Presidential candidates: Huckabee and Hunter*. The other candidates have expressed only free-trade sentiment, with varying degrees of clarity and stridency. Could this issue also be a part of Huck's climb in the polls? Perhaps.

It didn't even come up on Kudlow's show after the debate interview with him. Though Huckabee got support from an unlikely source Kudlow's guest Democrat Robert Reich.

Aside from a few exceptions last night, there really wasn’t much beef.

Sam Brownback did propose an optional flat tax. And Gov. Huckabee is staying with his fair tax/national sales tax. But none of the big four are touting these ideas.

You see Huckabee supports a Fair Tax and Fair Trade, not Free Trade.

• I believe in free trade, but it has to be fair trade.
• Globalization, done right, done fairly, can be the equivalent of a big pay raise by allowing us to buy things more cheaply.

His fair tax is a consumption tax, all other taxes would be eliminated. Thus leveling the playing field for workers with the rich. A plan similar to one I have discussed here. Reich supports Huckabee's Fair Tax idea as well.

Kudlow took him to task over unions as did right wing bloggers. Though Huckabee was not alone, it appeared last night like all the candidates had suddenly discovered Sam Gompers was a libertarian. They were in Michigan, union country on the eve of a pending strike at Chrysler.

Huckabee predicted unions would gain strength in the coming years because of the growing disparity between executive pay and the working class. When people have their pay dramatically cut, they will turn to unions, he said. “That’s when unions are going to come back in roaring form,” Huckabee said.

Later when questioned about this by Kudlow, Huckabee hit back with the line that if the Republicans and CEO's continue to enjoy the spoils of the capitalist boom without sharing it with the rest of America then they will face the largest unionization drive ever. Wow. From a Republican yet.

Huckabee said that ‘unions will become more powerful’ because of wage deflation. Huckabee also promoted the ‘Fair Tax’ because it ‘untaxes productivity’ and ‘levels the playing field” he emphasized that the “The Fair Tax lifts everybody.”

The Fair Tax is a 23% consumption tax proposed to replace the income tax. Huckabee said it would ‘end the underground economy”.


The real problem, Huckabee said, is that American companies have to pay more in taxes on their products than their foreign competitors. That’s why people in the U.S. and Michigan are losing jobs, he said. “This party is going to have to start addressing it or we’re going to get our britches beat next year,” Huckabee said.

Of course he redeemed himself as a Republican by saying he would not tax CEO salary increases, but instead eliminate taxes, especially payroll taxes on the working class. Failure to share the wealth he said, sounding like John Edwards, will lead to further working class unrest and assure the success of unions.

Here’s what the Machinists say:

“Mike Huckabee was the only Republican candidate with the guts to meet with our members and the only one willing to figure out where and how we might work together,” said Buffenbarger. “He is entitled to serious consideration from our members voting in the upcoming Republican primaries.”

Mike Huckbee’s campaign fills out a little what they talked about:

Huckabee spoke before over 700 members of the IAM in Orlando, Florida on Monday about jobs, globalization, health care, and other 21st century domestic issues.

What does that mean? Specifically, on trade, or "fair trade" as Huckabee calls it:

Huckabee also said he believes in fair trade. “Free trade has to be fair trade. We are losing jobs because of an unlevel, unfair trading arena that has to be fixed. Behind the statistics, there are real families, real lives, and real pain. I’m running for President because I don’t want people who have worked loyally for a company for 20 or 30 years to walk in one morning and be handed a pink slip and be told, ‘I’m sorry, but everything you spent your life working for is no longer here.’"

And while Fred Thompson did get chuckles for his zingers last night, given the softballs tossed at him by the Hardball crowd, Huckabee was no slouch in the off the cuff humour department.

Funniest Man: Once again, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was the most fluid and humorous communicator. He worked in references to the "Jetsons," the "Flintstones," Gomer Pyle and Goober -- excellent stuff for Baby Boom voters.
HUCKABEE – He really is an enjoyable presence up there, a very able politician. If Fred’s not the nominee, Huckabee may have earned himself a spot on the ticket.

Wouldn't the American presidential race be interesting if it was a showdown between a Republican and Democrat from Arkansas.

So far of all the candidates who stand a chance of coming from behind, to take on the four front runners it appears that Huckabee stands the best chance. And as a conservative Christian, he can appeal to the evangelical right as well as to the social progressive compassionate Christians at Sojourners. He is not only pro life, unlike Romney, Giuliani and Thompson, but he is Anti-Poverty. Which is unusual for a Republican.

Huckabee says one of his priorities is to address poverty because it's "consistent with me being pro-life." He calls his desire to fight poverty a "faith position" rather than a political position. He says that it is impossible to address poverty without prioritizing stable homes and families, which he sees as "critical economic issues."

Huckabee is the only Republican politician with substance amongst the leading contenders in this race. The others are hacks.

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A Christian Zionist will be US new ambassador to Israel

(RNS) — Mike Huckabee’s theology about the end times may be unclear, but his views on today’s Israel aren’t.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee takes questions from the media, prior to laying a brick at a new housing complex in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Aug. 1, 2018. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Trump said Tuesday that Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Mark Silk
November 13, 2024
(RNS) — You’ve got to hand it to President-elect Donald Trump.

After cuddling up to Muslims and winning more of their votes than his Democratic rival a week ago, he’s thrown them under the bus with an alacrity remarkable even for him. In a dream come true for Israel’s annexationist right wing, he announced Tuesday (Nov. 12) that his ambassador to Israel will be former Arkansas Gov. and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee.

From the Israeli right: “He’s a great friend to Israel,” said Yishai Fleisher, spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Hebron, on the West Bank. “We’re thrilled to have him.”

From America’s Arab American community: crickets.

It should surprise no one that Trump would send a pro-Israel evangelical Christian to the Jewish state. At the ceremony marking the opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, the clergy speakers comprised one American rabbi and two prominent evangelical ministers: the Rev. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, and the Rev. John Hagee, pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio and founder of Christians United for Israel.

Huckabee has connections to this crowd. He made an appearance at Hagee’s church in December 2007, when Huckabee was seeking the Republican presidential nomination. That year, Hagee was dealing with the controversy he had stirred up in the evangelical world with “In Defense of Israel,” a book that rejected what’s known as supersessionism, the idea that “Israel has been rejected and replaced by the church to carry out the work once entrusted to Israel,” as Hagee explained in the book.

But Hagee called this notion that “the Jewish people have ceased to be God’s people, and the church is now spiritual Israel” a “misconception … rooted in the theological anti-Semitism that began in the first century.” It was time, he wrote, “for Christians everywhere to recognize that the nation of Israel will never convert to Christianity.”

So much, evidently, for the widespread evangelical belief that come the end times, Jews will return to Israel and many will convert and be saved.


Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee prays for political leaders at an American Renewal Project pastor luncheon in Henderson, N.C., Sept. 24, 2024. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron)

What Huckabee himself believes about Judaism is not so easy to determine. Reporters covering his impressive 2008 presidential run — which included a victory in the Iowa caucuses — were able to come up with a tape of just one of the innumerable sermons he recorded during his 12 years as a Baptist pastor. In a 2010 New Yorker piece, he hedged on the question of end times Jewish conversion.

In 2008, he did say that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian” and that the notion of a Palestinian state is used as a “political tool to try and force land away from Israel.” Visiting the West Bank seven years ago, he said, “There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria,” adding that “there’s no such thing as an occupation.”

He’s long been an advocate of a one-state solution (i.e., Israel) and, according to the AP, he recently said, “the title deed was given by God to Abraham and to his heirs.” That would be a reference to the 12th chapter of Genesis, where God says to Abraham, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” Huckabee calls himself a Zionist.

“President-elect Trump has made an inspiring choice,” Hagee said in a statement from CUFI after Huckabee’s appointment was announced.

Speaking on Israeli Army Radio on Wednesday, Huckabee was asked whether Israeli annexation of the West Bank would be a possibility after Trump takes office in January. “Well, of course,” he answered. “I won’t make the policy, I will carry out the policy of the president.”

That policy is best characterized as Christian Zionist.

In Mike Huckabee, Israel will have a longtime friend and true believer as ambassador

(RNS)—The former Arkansas governor and pastor-turned-Fox News host has been a supporter of Israel since his first visit in the 1970s. He sees the growth of Israel as a sign that biblical prophecies are true.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee takes questions from the media, prior to laying a brick at a new housing complex in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Aug. 1, 2018. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Trump said Tuesday that Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

Bob Smietana, Yonat Shimron, and Jack Jenkins
November 14, 2024

(RNS) — Mike Huckabee’s journey to becoming the U.S. ambassador to Israel began 50 years ago.

The former Arkansas governor, presidential candidate and Fox News host first visited Israel with a friend on a tour of the Middle East not long after graduating from high school. “This is a place I’d never been, but I felt at home,” Huckabee said in a podcast interview at the National Religious Broadcasters convention earlier this year, about his experience as a teen.

“I felt an overwhelming spiritual reality of understanding this is the land that God has given to the Jews,” he told Paul Lanier, board chair of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, for the “Nourish Your Biblical Roots” podcast.

Huckabee said he began hosting his own tours of Israel in the 1980s and has visited the country more than 100 times. He’s a longtime supporter of pro-Israel groups like IFCJ — a nonprofit that seeks to strengthen ties between Christians and Jews and does humanitarian work in Israel — and has helped raise money for the group.

Huckabee has also long articulated staunchly pro-Israel political views. As a candidate for president in 2008, Huckabee said he believed there is “no such thing as a Palestinian,” according to CNN. He argued that the very concept of Palestinian identity is “a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”

When he ran for president again in 2015, he held a fundraiser in one of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

In his conversation with Lanier, Huckabee compared the origin of Israel to the founding of the United States, saying both were started by people who moved to a new land to find peace and security. He also said the growth of Israel since 1948 is like biblical prophecies come true.

“I’ve seen Scripture come to life,” he said. “The desert has bloomed before my eyes.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Huckabee may be the first political appointee — as opposed to interim career foreign service officers — to come to the U.S. Embassy in Israel from a group known as Christian Zionists, who back Israel for theological as well as geopolitical reasons. (The current U.S. ambassador is Jack Lew, an American Jew who served as secretary of the Treasury under Barack Obama.)



Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee during a roundtable at the Drexelbrook Catering & Event Center, Oct. 29, 2024, in Drexel Hill, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Many Christian Zionists are millenarianists — they view the creation of the modern state of Israel as a necessary precondition for the second coming of Jesus and the apocalyptic purification of the world in the end times. Israel, along with the occupied territories it captured in 1967, is considered given by God to the biblical patriarch Abraham, who is told in the Book of Genesis, “God will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.”

Huckabee’s own biblical approach to Israel shows up in his habit of referring to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria” — a way of signaling a belief that the land has always belonged to the Jewish people.

That divine patrimony, believers say, should shape how nations, including the United States, treat Israel and how individual Christians should view the nation. Over the past 30 years, evangelicals, including Southern Baptists like Huckabee, but also growing groups of charismatic nondenominational Christians, have duly formed strong alliances with Israeli leaders and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular.

They give more to Israeli causes than Jewish Americans do and have formed strong support groups. With 5 million members, Christians United for Israel, led by San Antonio pastor John Hagee, is thought to be the largest pro-Israel nonprofit in the United States. In 2017, when then-President Donald Trump moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the move was applauded by Christian Zionist supporters, and Hagee spoke at the dedication of the new embassy.

RELATED: What evangelicals say they want from a second Trump term

Mordechai Inbari, a professor of religion at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, said Huckabee’s appointment as U.S. ambassador to Israel would be greeted “with open arms” by the Netanyahu government. “Huckabee belongs to the network of supporters of Netanyahu and his government among evangelicals and is considered to be a strong supporter of Israel,” said Inbari.

Huckabee was pressed by Israeli radio Wednesday (Nov. 13) on whether he believed the Trump administration would support annexation by Israel of the occupied territories, principally the West Bank, but also Gaza. He demurred but made it clear that he sees his job as following the decisions made by the president.

“There’s never been an American president,” he added, “that has been more helpful in securing an understanding of the sovereignty of Israel — from the moving of the embassy, recognition of the Golan Heights, and Jerusalem as the capital, no one has done more than president Trump and I fully expect that will continue,” Huckabee said.

Inbari, for one, didn’t think the new Trump administration would rush to see Israel annex the territories. Trump has shown a desire to expand the Mideast peace deal known as the Abraham Accords, inked in his first administration, to include Saudi Arabia. The accords, signed in 2020, normalized Israeli relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and later Sudan and Morocco.

Israel and Saudi Arabia appeared close to a deal in 2023, but the negotiations were derailed by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Saudi Arabia now insists it will only normalize ties with Israel if there is a pathway for a Palestinian state, which the Israeli government currently rejects.

“I think Trump would want peace with Saudi Arabia rather than Israel annexing the West Bank,” said Inbari. “And so I don’t think that this is something that’s going to happen.”

Yael Eckstein, president of the IFCJ, who traveled to Israel with Huckabee earlier this year to deliver humanitarian aid there, said the former governor has the best interests of the United States and Israel at heart and she views his new role as ambassador as a good thing.

“I think it’s wonderful news, not just for Israel, but for America and the entire world,” she said. “Because I think the stronger Israel and America are in their bond and relationship, the stronger the entire world is.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee prays for political leaders at an American Renewal Project pastor luncheon in Henderson, N.C., Sept. 24, 2024. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron)

Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project, a pro-Israel group, likewise called Huckabee a good choice. Moon cited Huckabee’s past support for Israel and the fact that as an evangelical, he’s not involved in the internal politics of the American Jewish community.

Moon also said that the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the war in Gaza — and the campus protests in the U.S. against that war — likely played a role in the 2024 election.

Whether people were voting for Israel or they were opposed to pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, said Moon, “either way I’ll take it.”

Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said he was encouraged that Huckabee was one of the first ambassadors to be named by Trump.

“That shows that Israel is top of mind for President-elect Trump,” he said. “I think that is a good thing.”

Mike Huckabee’s Faith-Based Diplomacy

Charles Pierson

 August 29, 2025

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Ireland is considering legislation, the Occupied Territories Bill (“OTB”), which would ban the import of goods from Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. CNN notes that “If passed, the Irish bill would make Ireland the first EU member state to prohibit the import of goods produced in Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.”

Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, was not going to take this affront lying down. On July 15, Huckabee took to X, formerly Twitter, with some undiplomatic words for the Irish:

Heaven’s Ambassador

President Donald Trump selected Huckabee to be US ambassador to Israel shortly after his re-election. The 70-year-old Huckabee has worn many hats during his long career: among them, governor of Arkansas, talk show host, and failed Republican presidential aspirant.

Huckabee is also an ordained Southern Baptist preacher. In a sense, Huckabee has never left the pulpit. Huckabee’s diplomacy rests on a fundamentalist reading of the Bible. This explains Huckabee’s unstinting support for the State of Israel.

On the December 6, 2024 “Truth and Liberty Show,” Huckabee declared that God has blessed Israel; it follows that people who protest against Israel “hate God.” Huckabee says that “If one is Satan, his goal is to destroy that which God loves. So that’s why we’re seeing it and to try to explain it any other way will never make sense.”

It is safe to say that Huckabee’s appointment is President Trump’s reward to the staggering 80% of White Evangelicals who gave Trump their votes in 2024. “Huck” describes himself as “an unapologetic, unreformed Zionist”: a Christian Zionist. Christian Zionists—of which there are some 20 to 50 million in the US—believe that God gave the Holy Land to the Jews—and only the Jews.

Christian Zionists are set for the Second Coming of Christ, which they expect any day now. The countdown to Christ’s return began when the state of Israel was created in 1948. Zionists, whether Christian or Jewish, now await the construction of the “Third Temple” on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This cannot happen without Israel’s demolishing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites. Destruction of the Mosque will likely trigger a thermonuclear Armageddon, a prospect Christian Zionists welcome. 

And the Palestinians? The Palestinians have no place in the divine scheme. But don’t worry: according to “Huck,” “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” (Vladimir Putin says the same thing about Ukrainians.) Huckabee said in 2017 that “There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”

Huckabee said in 2015 that if a Palestinian state is created, it should be in a neighboring Muslim nation such as Egypt, Syria, or Jordan. Or France. On July 25 of this year, Huckabee sarcastically added France to the list. That was after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country will recognize Palestinian statehood in September. 

It will take a miracle to create a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dead set against Palestinian statehood. Netanyahu says that a Palestinian state would “be a platform to destroy Israel.”

Other highly positioned officials in the Israeli government are just as adamant in their opposition to a Palestinian state. On August 14, Israeli Finance Minister Beelzebub Bezalel Smotrich, announced that within a few months, work would begin on a massive settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank which will consist of roughly 3,400 housing units. The new settlement, designated “E1,” will bisect the West Bank, rendering a contiguous Palestinian state practically impossible. Smotrich says that the new settlement “buries the idea of a Palestinian state” and called E1 “Zionism at its best.” The US has given its tacit assent to the project. 

Helpful Huck says that the new settlement “does not violate international law” (the International Court of Justice disagrees). Ambassador Huckabee has said that the decision whether to build the E1 settlement will be left to Israel.

God, Grits, and Genocide

Huckabee refuses to say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Huckabee tweeted on August 2 that “If Israel is committing a genocide, they’re really bad at it .. just like they’re bad at apartheid.”

Oh, I don’t know, Mike. Israel hasn’t killed or forcibly displaced everyone in Gaza (yet), but it has killed 60,000 so far with no end in sight.

Amnesty International declares that “Israel is carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip.” An August 18 report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declares for the first time that there is famine in some parts of Gaza, affecting half a million people—about one quarter of Gaza’s population at the end of 2024.

The Israeli government disagrees. In an August 22 post on X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the IPC report as “an outright lie,” adding that “Israel does not have a policy of starvation. Israel has a policy of preventing starvation.” 

There are several steps that must be taken for there to be a hope of ending the genocide in Gaza. There must be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza; the US must end its weapons shipments to Israel; and Israel must stop blocking humanitarian agencies’ access to Gaza. There must be a return to the UN food distribution system. At present, UN agencies in Gaza have been supplanted by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was created by the US and Israel and is their tool. The GHF operates a mere four food distributions centers; the UN agencies operated 400. 

And, for the love of God, could the US please recall Mike Huckabee?

Charles Pierson is a lawyer and a member of the Pittsburgh Anti-Drone Warfare Coalition. E-mail him at Chapierson@yahoo.com.

Huckabee: Paul is Dead.

Republican candidate Mike Huckabee seems to have slammed Ron Paul yesterday when he defended his Christian Christmas TV Ad.

"I will confess this: If you play the spot backwards it says, 'Paul is dead. Paul is dead,'"

Was that a subliminal smear against Ron Paul? Since the National Journal Poll found Ron Paul was dead last in national polling for Republican candidates.

"Merry Christmas," Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said simply Tuesday in Houston in response to criticism that his latest campaign commercial mixes too much religion with politics.

Huckabee, here to raise campaign money, said the nation is in serious trouble if it is politically incorrect for him to use his TV spot to remind voters about the religious meaning of this holiday season.

Departing from the standard pitches for the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary two weeks from now, the former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister appears on television screens in some states with the shape of a cross behind him and Silent Night playing in the background.

"Are you about worn out by all the television commercials you've been seeing, mostly about politics? Well, I don't blame you," he says in the commercial. "At this time of year, sometimes it's nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and friends."

Subliminal message?

Some political observers see the ad as appealing directly to evangelical voters and tapping into the religious differences between Huckabee and one of his chief rivals for the GOP presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, a Mormon. Others such as candidate Ron Paul, the Republican congressman from Lake Jackson, said the ad goes overboard.

"It reminds me of what Sinclair Lewis once said. He says, 'when fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross,' " Paul, a Protestant, told Fox News. "Now I don't know whether that's a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross, like he is the only Christian or implying that subtly. So, I don't think I would ever use anything like that."

Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights President Bill Donohue said images of a cross in the commercial are an attempt to send a subliminal message.

"What he's trying to say to the evangelicals in western Iowa (is): 'I'm the real thing,' " Donohue said on the same news network. "You know what? Sell yourself on your issues, not on what your religion is."

Play it backward

Huckabee said Tuesday that he mentioned Jesus Christ in his unscripted commercial because, considering the meaning of the holiday, "I don't know what else to say about Christmas."

Some people are drawing such wild inferences from the commercial, Huckabee joked, that they might believe the ad says "Paul is dead" when played backward. It was a reference to the myth that the hidden news of Beatle Paul McCartney's "death" was revealed in the backward playing of one of the band's songs.

Really I heard Huckabee's quote and he said Paul is Dead, three times with no reference to McCartney. Now he is claiming he was referring to Paul McCartney but was he really?

After all Huckabee has no money and Ron Paul again broke a record for one day fund raising this week; when he raised over $6 million on internet donations. The previous record had been $4 million, raised by Paul a couple of months ago. And Paul was the first Republican candidate to criticize Huckabee's ad. And both are contenders in New Hampshire as I have pointed out.

Both these guys were once the so called second tier candidates in the Republican race. Huckabee now has the support of the evangelical conservative base in the party and Paul has become the most successful fund raiser, beating out all the front runners.

Huckabee is hated by the Republican establishment, who have abandoned their Moral Majority evangelical base that is the Reagan Republicans that Huckabee is shamelessly appealing to. He has little money or organizational staff with which to beat his opponents so he is doing the next best thing, talking to the folks, the base of the party who are alienated by the the current crop of 'liberals' running as Republicans; in this case the two front runners Mitt and Rudy.

This ad will come back to haunt him of course because he forgot that Hanukkah is also being celebrated this time of the year, and that Jesus was a Jew not a Republican.

In both races, Democrats and Republicans, this is not politics as usual, it is about the politics of change. Making this one of the most interesting U.S. Presidential elections in decades.




SEE:

Lieberman Endorses McCain

Huckabee A Red Tory

Republican Presidential Paul-itics

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Mike Huckabee on the Israel-Hamas war and humanitarian situation in Gaza

Jun 11, 2025 
NPR/PBS NEWS HOUR
By —Amna Nawaz
By —Zeba Warsi


The bodies of two more Israeli hostages were recovered in Gaza. It serves as a grim reminder of the human cost of the war, now 600-plus days into the carnage. How will it end? 

And what is the future for Palestinians, who've borne the brunt of the death and destruction from Israel's campaign?

 To discuss those questions and more, Amna Nawaz spoke with Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Read the Full Transcript


Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Amna Nawaz:

The bodies of two more Israeli hostages were recovered today in Gaza.

One was Yair Yaakov, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border on October 7 of 2023. His two children and partner were released earlier. The other hostage remains anonymous, at their family's request. It's believed 53 hostages remain held by Hamas; 33 are thought to be dead.

The recovery serves as a grim reminder of the human cost of the Gaza war now 600-plus days into the carnage. How will it end? And what is the future for Palestinians, who have borne the brunt of the death and destruction from Israel's campaign?

For answers to those questions and more, I spoke earlier with Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Ambassador Huckabee, welcome back to the "News Hour." Thank you for joining us.

Mike Huckabee, U.S. Ambassador to Israel: It is my pleasure. Thank you. And great to be here from Jerusalem.


Amna Nawaz:

Well, let me begin by asking you about a recent interview you gave. You were asked about the U.S. policy and if the U.S. is no longer pursuing the goal of an independent Palestinian state.

And you said: "I don't think so."

It's worth pointing out that a two-state solution has been a cornerstone of U.S. policy and diplomatic efforts in the Middle East for at least the last three decades. Is this a new U.S. policy that you're articulating here?


Mike Huckabee:

It's not so much a new policy. It's simply the pragmatic reality that right now there's just no appetite for it. There's no plans for it. Nobody's come up with a workable plan.

One of the things that I admire most about President Trump, he is the ultimate pragmatist, that he has two questions that he poses for every decision, will it work and will it make things better?

So, the question is, if you created and imposed a two-state solution in the midst of a post-October 7 world, would it work and would it make things better? I'm not hearing anybody who can explain how it would work and how it would make things better.

So I'm not saying it'll never happen. I'm not saying it aspirationally is not something that maybe people would love to see. But I'm simply saying that, for the immediate future, for the time being, I don't hear anyone really going out there and saying it, that it ought to happen.


Amna Nawaz:

Well, whether it's in the near future or the distant future, I think the question is whether it's something the U.S. wants to work towards. In saying "I don't think so," you articulated a change to what's been the longstanding U.S. policy.

Is that something you spoke to President Trump about and does he agree with you?


Mike Huckabee:

It's not something we have had a conversation about.

But, if you go back to his first term, he never brought it up. It was simply not something that he was focused upon, because what he was really focused upon was a much bigger realignment of the Middle East. So he initiated the Abraham Accords, which I think were incredibly historic, and he invited the Palestinians to be part of that process. They refused. They walked away. They wanted no part of it.

I think the president is poised to do something incredibly significant in his second term, and that would be a dramatic expansion of the Abraham Accords.


Amna Nawaz:

Well, sir, as you know, the Abraham Accords were meant to be a precursor towards normalization between the two largest economies in the region. That would be Saudi Arabia and Israel.

And we have seen the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, say that there will be no normalization without an independent Palestinian state. So can there be normalization unless the U.S. is actively working towards a two-state solution?


Mike Huckabee:

Well, I think that there certainly can be.

And, once again, it doesn't always mean that the Palestinian state is going to be right in the middle of Judea and Samaria. There are many questions to be raised about, where would it be, how would it be formulated, how would it be governed?


Amna Nawaz:

Where else would you suggest it might be?


Mike Huckabee:

So, it's one thing to say we would — well, I said the French Riviera. France seems to really be just heavy on this whole idea.


Amna Nawaz:

Ambassador, all due respect, is that a real suggestion, that you would forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the French Riviera?

(Crosstalk)


Mike Huckabee:

I would say it's about as real as saying that, as long as the Palestinians are paying people to murder Jewish people, which they do, or to teach them from the time they're 6 years old that it is a wonderful thing to kill a Jewish person, and their families are rewarded with a pension or a park or a street named after them, you're probably not going to see this resolved. There has to be a cultural shift.

But here's what I would also mention. A lot of people don't think about this. Israel is a tiny little country. It's a sliver of land the size of New Jersey. Muslim-run countries have 644 times the amount of real estate than Israel does.

So when I hear people say Israel just needs to give up some of the land, well, they have given up quite a bit. They have given up Gaza. That was a Palestinian state. That was a 100 percent Palestinian state. And it could have been Singapore. But Hamas turned it into Haiti.

There has been such a disastrous economic problem that goes on in the Palestinian Authority.


Amna Nawaz:

Ambassador, setting aside the failures of the Palestinian leadership over the years, I want to get back to this question you raised about where a Palestinian independent state could reside.

You mentioned that Muslim countries have a good amount of land in neighboring states. I want to be clear about this. Are you suggesting that five million Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank be located — relocated from their lands and their homes to neighboring countries? Is that what you're suggesting here?


Mike Huckabee:

No, not at all. No, and I think that it would be very, very, probably disastrous to try to say, you have to leave, you can't stay. Nobody's suggesting that.

And, by the way, President Trump has been very clear in talking about Gaza and its future. Nobody's going to be forced to leave. I think there are going to be a lot of people that want to leave. Under Hamas, they can't leave. But give people the freedom of movement.

But the question is, tell us where this would work.


Amna Nawaz:

I want to ask you about the continued Israeli war effort in Gaza, which, as you know, is now over about a year-and-a-half old.

As you know, the numbers so far are horrifying. And we have seen some 55,000 Palestinians killed in more than a year-and-a-half of that war. And I know the Israeli military and government are obviously saying the aim here is to destroy Hamas after the horrific attacks of October the 7th.

I just wonder, when you look at that death toll, do you and the U.S. government, do you believe that that's justified in the pursuit of Hamas?


Mike Huckabee:

I would dispute that the numbers are accurate, because those are the numbers that are given by the same Hamas that has been very dishonest in virtually all of the so-called news that they have reported, including some of the reports that they put out, which were totally false, about the humanitarian feeding effort.


Amna Nawaz:

Well, to that point, Ambassador, what numbers are you working with?


Mike Huckabee:

I think a lot of people, I don't know if it's 20,000, 25,000, 30,000. Too many. Too many people have died.

But they have died because Hamas, who could have ended this on October the 8th of 2023, have dug in. They have held hostages. They have tortured them. They have murdered them. They already murdered 1,200 Jewish people and other people from many countries around the world, including a good number of Americans, and held Americans hostage, still holding two Americans hostage, who are deceased, but their remains are still held.

All of this time, this could have ended, but Hamas has to determine that it will not have a future in Gaza, it will not try to govern in the future. And that's a reasonable demand that the president of the United States has made very clear has to be met.


Amna Nawaz:

Ambassador, there is five million Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank who are looking to the U.S. and other places for leadership, who have told us repeatedly they do not want to leave the lands and the homes that their families trace back for generations and generations and are now faced with the impossible situation in Gaza having to put their lives at risk to get food for their families.

I wonder if you can speak directly to them and tell them what your message would be today about their future.


Mike Huckabee:

Their message should be tell Hamas they got to leave. Tell them they no longer will respect any authority from them. Don't allow them to continue to run your lives. You voted them into power back in 2005 when they took full control of Gaza.

And they turned what could have been Singapore into…


Amna Nawaz:

Ambassador, as you well know, more than half the population of Gaza is under the age of 18. They had nothing to do with that election. Surely you're not saying they should be held responsible for those actions.


Mike Huckabee:

No, they should be set free. That's why we're trying to get Hamas out, because Hamas has made it so that most of the population is young. The older ones didn't have much of a life there.

What did they do with the billions and billions and billions of dollars that were poured into Gaza to make it one of the most wonderful places on Earth? But what did they do? They built tunnels. They built a tunnel system that is larger than the London underground, and they did it for one purpose, to one day wake up and to murder Jews, slaughter them, massacre them, mutilate them on October the 7th, and then pledge they'd like to do it again.

That's why we're in the mess we're in.


Amna Nawaz:

That is the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, joining us from Jerusalem tonight.

Ambassador Huckabee, thank you for your time. We appreciate it.


Mike Huckabee:

It's been a pleasure. Thank you very much.