Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel, has long called himself a Zionist

Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel, has long called himself a Zionist
Mike Huckabee in the West Bank in August 2018. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 14 November 2024
Follow

Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel, has long called himself a Zionist

Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel, has long called himself a Zionist
  • Huckabee has never supported a two-state compromise even when Netanyahu endorsed the idea in 2009

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be ambassador to Israel, has long rejected a Palestinian state in territory previously seized by Israel and has repeatedly signaled his staunch support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Huckabee, a former TV host and Baptist preacher, frequently visits Israel and once said he wanted to buy a holiday home there. He has maintained throughout the years that the West Bank belongs to Israel, and recently said “the title deed was given by God to Abraham and to his heirs.”

His argument for a so-called “one-state solution” contradicts longstanding official US support for the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state.

He has described the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas as “horrific” and ” beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime” and argued that the US needs to stand firmly behind Israel.

Here are some things Huckabee has said over the years about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He is decisively against a two-state solution

Huckabee has never supported a two-state compromise even when Netanyahu endorsed the idea in 2009.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians want those territories for a future state and view them as parts of a single country now under military occupation.

The US, along with most of the international community, has supported the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines as the cornerstone of a peace agreement. Even Israel’s hard-line prime minister once endorsed a two-state solution while rejecting a return to Israel’s pre-1967 lines. Netanyahu now rejects the creation of a Palestinian state.

Huckabee has never supported any solution that would require Israeli settlers to be uprooted.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2015, Huckabee, then running for the GOP presidential nomination, said recognizing the West Bank as Israeli would be the “formal position” of his administration. He criticized Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and described settlers evacuated by Israeli forces as having been “marched at gunpoint.”

“I feel that we have a responsibility to respect that this is land that has historically belonged to the Jews,” he said.

He once compared the Iran nuclear deal to the Holocaust

In 2015, Huckabee likened the Iran nuclear deal to marching Israelis “to the door of the oven,” a reference to the crematorium in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust.

Huckabee was criticizing then-President Barack Obama for his role in the agreement the US and other world powers reached with Tehran. Republicans back then were united in their opposition to the deal, arguing it didn’t address Iran’s support for terrorism. Trump during his first administration withdrew from the deal, in which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The comment was denounced by Democrats, but Huckabee stood by it.

He doesn’t accept Palestinians as a term and criticizes ‘radical Muslims’

In a recent interview with a podcaster, Huckabee said he did not believe in referring to the Arab descendants of people who lived in British-controlled Palestine as “Palestinians.”

“There really isn’t such a thing,” he said earlier this year on “Think Twice” with Jonathan Tobin. “It’s a term that was co-opted by Yasser Arafat in 1962,” referring to one of the early leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

During the same podcast, Huckabee described himself as an “unapologetic, unreformed Zionist.”

In defending Israel, Huckabee said he wished people understood that “this is an extraordinary oasis in a land of totalitarianism surrounded by tyranny.”

The former governor also said many “radical Muslims want to take us back to the seventh century.”

“I don’t want to go back there,” he said. “I like modernity.”

He expresses outrage over Oct. 7 attack by Hamas

Huckabee has described the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, as “horrific” and “beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.” He was outraged by how Hamas spread images of the killings on social media.

“As horrible as the Nazis were, they weren’t posting their atrocities on social media and trying to trumpet what they were doing to the world,” he said in an appearance with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. “Which is what makes this horrendous thing Hamas has done so much, to me, worse, because they want everyone to see what they’ve done.”

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage. Israel responded with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, killing more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say.


Spain’s deadly wildfires ignite political blame game

Spain’s deadly wildfires ignite political blame game
Updated 1 min 9 sec ago
Follow

Spain’s deadly wildfires ignite political blame game

Spain’s deadly wildfires ignite political blame game
  • As happened after last year’s deadly floods in the eastern region of Valencia, the fires have fueled accusations that politicians mishandled the crisis

MADRID: As helicopters dump water over burning ridges and smoke billows across the mountains of northern Spain, residents from wildfire-stricken areas say they feel abandoned by the politicians meant to protect them.

A blaze “swept through those mountains, across those fresh, green valleys, and they didn’t stop it?” said Jose Fernandez, 85.

He was speaking from an emergency shelter in Benavente, where he took refuge after fleeing his nearby village, Vigo de Sanabria.

While praising the care he received at the shelter, run by the Red Cross, he gave the authorities “a zero” for their handling of the disaster.

Blazes that swept across Spain this month have killed four people and ravaged over 350,000 hectares over two weeks, according to the European Forest Fire Information System or EFFIS.

Three of those deaths were in the region of Castile and Leon, where Vigo de Sanabria is located, as well as a large part of the land consumed by the fires.

As happened after last year’s deadly floods in the eastern region of Valencia, the fires have fueled accusations that politicians mishandled the crisis.

“They committed a huge negligence,” said 65-year-old Jose Puente, forced to flee his home in the village of San Ciprian de Sanabria.

The authorities were “a bit careless, a bit arrogant,” and underestimated how quickly the fire could shift, he added. He, too, had taken refuge at the Benavente shelter.

“They thought it was solved, and suddenly it turned into hell,” said Puente.

Both men are from villages in the Sanabria lake area, a popular summer destination known for its greenery and traditional stone houses, now marred by scorched vegetation from wildfires.

Spain’s decentralized system leaves regional governments in charge of disaster response, although they can request assistance from the central government.

The regions hit hard by the wildfires — Castile and Leon, Extremadura, and Galicia — are all governed by the conservative Popular Party or PP, which also ruled Valencia.

The PP, Spain’s main opposition party, accuses Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of having withheld aid to damage regions run by conservatives.

The government has hit back, accusing the PP of having underfunded public services needed to face such emergencies. They argue that these regions refused to take climate change seriously, which fueled the wildfires.

The wildfires have also highlighted long-term trends that have left the countryside vulnerable.

Castile and Leon suffer from decades of rural depopulation, an aging population, and the decline of farming and livestock grazing, both of which once helped keep forests clear of tinder.

Spending on fire prevention — by the state and the regions — has dropped by half since 2009, according to a study by the daily newspaper ABC, with the steepest reductions in the regions hit hardest by the flames this year.

“Everything has been left in God’s hands,” said Fernandez, expressing a widely held view by locals hit by the fires.

Spain’s environmental prosecutor has ordered officials to check whether municipalities affected by wildfires complied with their legal obligation to adopt prevention plans.

In both Castile and Leon and Galicia, protesters — some holding signs reading “Never Again” and “More prevention” — have taken to the streets in recent days calling for stronger action from local officials.

The head of the regional government of Castile and Leon, the Popular Party’s Alfonso Fernandez Manueco, has come under the most scrutiny.

Under his watch in 2022, the region suffered devastating wildfires in Sierra de la Culebra that ravaged over 65,000 hectares.

He has defended the response this year, citing “exceptional” conditions, including an intense heatwave. He has denied reports that inexperienced, last-minute hires were sent to fight the fires.

Jorge de Dios, spokesman for the region’s union for environmental agents APAMCYL, who has been on the front line fighting the fires in recent days, criticized working conditions.

Most of the region’s firefighting force “only works four months a year,” during the summer, he said.

Many are students or seasonal workers who participate in “two, three, four campaigns” before leaving.

“We are never going to have veterans,” he said, adding that what was needed were experienced firefighters capable of handling “situations that are clearly life or death.”

 


UN says 89 killed in 10 days in Darfur

Displaced Sudanese families take shelter in a football stadium in South Kordofan province. (AP)
Displaced Sudanese families take shelter in a football stadium in South Kordofan province. (AP)
Updated 8 min 28 sec ago
Follow

UN says 89 killed in 10 days in Darfur

Displaced Sudanese families take shelter in a football stadium in South Kordofan province. (AP)
  • The RSF repeatedly attacked Abu Shouk and another displacement camp, Zamzam, which was once Sudan’s largest, with over 500,000 people

CAIRO: The UN High Commission for Human Rights on Friday said it was appalled by “brutal” attacks by Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, which killed at least 89 civilians, including 16 who were summarily executed, in a span of 10 days this month.

The attacks occurred between Aug. 11 and 20 in the city of El-Fasher and the nearby Abu Shouk displacement camp, Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for commissioner Volker Turk, said in a Geneva briefing. 

He said the death toll is likely higher. The dead include at least 57 who were killed in attacks on Aug. 11, he said. 

Another 32 were killed between Aug. 16-20, Laurence said. 

Among the dead were 16 civilians, mostly from the African Zaghawa tribe, who were summarily executed in the Abu Shouk camp, he said. 

Another one was killed in El-Fasher by RSF fighters when he said he belonged to the African Berti tribe, Laurence said.

“This pattern of attacks on civilians and willful killings, which are serious violations of international humanitarian law, deepens our concerns about ethnically motivated violence,” he said.

El-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, is the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling region of Darfur. 

The RSF has bombed the city for more than a year, and last month it imposed a total blockade on its hundreds of thousands of people.

The RSF also repeatedly attacked Abu Shouk and another displacement camp, Zamzam, which was once Sudan’s largest, with over 500,000 people. 

The two camps are located outside El-Fasher and were largely emptied after a major RSF attack in April. They have been hit by famine.

The RSF, which has been at war with the Sudanese military, grew out of the Janjaweed militias, mobilized two decades ago by former President Omar Bashir against populations that identify as Central or East African in Darfur in the early 2000s.

The Janjaweed militias, who were accused of mass killings, rapes, and other atrocities in the Darfur conflict, still aid the RSF in its ongoing war against the military.

The current war began in April 2023, when simmering tensions between the military leaders and the RSF erupted into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and other cities across the sprawling northeastern African country.

The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, forced more than 14 million to flee their homes, and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine swept parts of the country.

It has been marked by gross atrocities, including ethnically motivated killing and rape, according to the United Nations and rights groups. 

The International Criminal Court said it was investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

 


Israel says missile from Yemen fragmented mid-air

Israel says missile from Yemen fragmented mid-air
Updated 6 min 35 sec ago
Follow

Israel says missile from Yemen fragmented mid-air

Israel says missile from Yemen fragmented mid-air
  • Yemen’s militant Houthi group claimed responsibility for the attack

The Israeli military said on Friday that a missile launched from Yemen most likely fragmented in mid-air after air raid sirens sounded in several areas across Israel.

Yemen’s militant Houthi group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it carried out three operations against Israel including firing a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement on Friday.

During the incident, the aerial defense systems made several attempts to intercept the missile, the military added in a statement. No injuries were reported, Israeli police said.

The Iran-aligned group, which controls the most populous parts of Yemen, has been firing at Israel and attacking shipping lanes.

Houthis have repeatedly said their attacks are an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.


Hegseth fires general whose Iran strikes assessment angered Trump

Hegseth fires general whose Iran strikes assessment angered Trump
Updated 52 min 26 sec ago
Follow

Hegseth fires general whose Iran strikes assessment angered Trump

Hegseth fires general whose Iran strikes assessment angered Trump
  • Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse served as head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency
  • The agency's preliminary assessment after US strikes on Iran found that its nuclear program had been set back only a few months

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired a general on Friday whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of damage to Iranian nuclear sites from US strikes angered President Donald Trump, according to two people familiar with the decision and a White House official.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The firing comes a few months after details of the preliminary assessment leaked to the media. It found that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months by the US strikes, contradicting assertions from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a news conference following the June strikes, Hegseth lambasted the press for what he claimed was an anti-military bias but did not offer any direct evidence of the destruction of Iranian nuclear production facilities.


Iran confers with European nations on its nuclear program as sanctions deadline nears

Iran confers with European nations on its nuclear program as sanctions deadline nears
Updated 45 min 7 sec ago
Follow

Iran confers with European nations on its nuclear program as sanctions deadline nears

Iran confers with European nations on its nuclear program as sanctions deadline nears
  • French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot confirmed on the social platform X that the talks took place
  • In a letter Aug. 8, the three European nations warned Iran it would proceed with “snapback” if Tehran didn’t reach a “satisfactory solution”

DUBAI: Iran said Friday its foreign minister spoke by phone with his French, German and British counterparts to avoid the reimposition of UN sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program, just days ahead of a European deadline.

The call by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came as the three countries threatened to invoke the “snapback” provision of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by month’s end, allowing any party to reimpose sanctions if they find Iran out of compliance with requirements such as international monitoring of its nuclear program.

The Europeans’ concern over the Iranian program, which had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels before the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June saw its atomic sites bombed, has only grown since Tehran cut off all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in the conflict’s wake. That has left the international community further blinded to Iran’s program — as well as the status of its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, a short, technical step to weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.

Iran has long insisted its program is peaceful, though it is the only non-nuclear-armed nation enriching uranium at that level. The US, the IAEA and others say Iran had a nuclear weapons program up until 2003.

After the call, a statement released on Araghchi’s behalf via Telegram said he criticized the countries’ “legal and moral qualifications” to threaten to reinstate the sanctions, but insisted talks would continue.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, just as it acts authoritatively in self defense, has never abandoned the path of diplomacy and is ready for any diplomatic solution that guarantees the rights and interests of the Iranian people,” the statement said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot confirmed on the social platform X that the talks took place, and said another round of discussions would happen next week.

“We have just made an important call to our Iranian counterpart regarding the nuclear program and the sanctions against Iran that we are preparing to reapply,” he said. “Time is running out.”

That was echoed by Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who said “time is very short.”

“Iran needs to engage substantively in order to avoid the activation of snapback,” he wrote on X. “We have been clear that we will not let the snapback of sanctions expire unless there is a verifiable and durable deal.”

European letter set deadline

In a letter Aug. 8, the three European nations warned Iran it would proceed with “snapback” if Tehran didn’t reach a “satisfactory solution” to the nuclear issues. That deadline would be Aug. 31, in nine days, leaving little time for Iran to likely reach any agreement with the Europeans, who have grown increasingly skeptical of Iran over years of inconclusive negotiations over its nuclear program.

Restoring the IAEA’s access is a key part of the talks. Iran has blamed the war with Israel in part on the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, without offering any evidence. The IAEA issues quarterly reports on Iran’s program and the 2015 deal gave the agency greater access to keep track of it. Its Board of Governors voted to find Iran out of compliance with its obligations to the agency the day before the Iran-Israel war began.

Iran has also threatened its director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, with arrest if he comes to Iran, further complicating talks. Grossi is considering running to become the UN’s secretary-general, something Tehran has seized on as well in its criticisms of the Argentine diplomat.

Alongside the European call with Iran, IAEA officials in Vienna were to meet with Iranian officials, a diplomat close to the agency told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting. Those talks would be a continuation of a discussion held during an Aug. 11 visit to Tehran by Massimo Aparo, a deputy to Grossi, the diplomat added. Iranian state television also acknowledged the meeting would happen.

Iran tries to downplay ‘snapback’ threat

Araghchi has sought to downplay the threat that “snapback” poses. In his statement after the call, he said Iran would discuss the “snapback” threat with its friends, likely meaning China and Russia.

The “snapback” power in the nuclear accord expires in October, also putting pressure on the Europeans to potentially use it as leverage with Iran before losing that ability.

Under “snapback,” any party to the deal can find Iran in noncompliance, reimposing the sanctions. After it expires, any sanctions effort could face a veto from UN Security Council members China and Russia, two nations that have provided some support to Iran in the past but stayed out of the June war.