Politics
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March 25, 2025
Trump’s nominee for Israel ambassador believes that we’d like bloodshed within the Center East to deliver in regards to the finish occasions. No one could possibly be a worse alternative.
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Mike Huckabee speaks with Donald Trump in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, October 29, 2024.
(Jabin Botsford / The Washington Submit through Getty Photos)
At the moment, the Senate International Relations Committee will maintain a nomination listening to for far-right, ultraconservative former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to develop into US ambassador to Israel. Any senator who believes US overseas coverage must be rooted in human rights and worldwide legislation—and who doesn’t need extremist Christian fundamentalism governing our politics—ought to combat again in opposition to this nomination with the whole lot they’ve.
If Huckabee merely agreed with the Trump administration’s harmful and inhumane Israel insurance policies, that will be purpose sufficient to oppose his choice. However that’s simply a part of the issue. Huckabee additionally believes in a pressure of Christian fundamentalism known as Christian Zionism, by which individuals fairly actually pray for struggle in Palestine/Israel as an indication of Christ’s impending return. For Christian Zionists, US coverage must be rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible that implies Jewish conquest over the whole lot of historic Palestine is a essential precondition for the rapture and the return of Christ. Christian Zionists consider that when this occurs, non-Christians will both convert to Christianity or burn in everlasting hell.
Whereas Christian Zionist teams fake that their help for the State of Israel is rooted in a look after Jewish security, it is a ruse. As journalist Shane Burley explains“Whereas Christian Zionists stands out as the most fervent supporters of Israel and can typically carry out affinity for Jews in as public a manner as attainable, their attitudes in direction of Jews are extra consistent with conventional antisemitism than nearly every other trendy perspective.”
In different phrases, Huckabee needs to maintain arming and fueling the Israeli authorities’s genocide and apartheid in opposition to Palestinians as a result of he believes it is going to assist usher ultimately occasions. For Huckabee, cataclysmic violence just like the Israeli navy’s destruction of Gaza is just not a violation of worldwide legislation or a stain on our collective humanity, however an indication of the pending return of Christ. And Jews are nothing however a instrument to satisfy his messianic imaginative and prescient. As for Palestinians, they don’t rely as individuals in any respect—one thing Huckabee made express when he declared“There isn’t a such factor as a Palestinian.”
Once you’re making an attempt to deliver in regards to the apocalypse, worldwide legislation and human rights are inclined to take a again seat. Huckabee is an outspoken supporter of Israel’s unlawful settlement enterprise and theft of Palestinian land, even refusing to make use of the time period “West Financial institution,” insisting as an alternative on referring to the biblical “Judea and Samaria”. He has even helped actually lay the bricks of an unlawful Israeli settlement on Palestinian land, including that he may wish to purchase a home in an unlawful settlement himself sooner or later.
After all, you don’t need to be a Christian Zionist to disregard worldwide legislation. (Because the Biden administration confirmed, you don’t need to be a Republican both.) There are already indicators that Huckabee will be a part of forces with Consultant Elise Stefanik, Trump’s decide for United Nations ambassador; when he realized of her nomination, Huckabee shared his hope that she would “jackhammer” the establishment. However his explicit pressure of extremism has been gaining traction for many years within the US authorities. Christian Zionists are an ascendant pressure in American politics and have fashioned an unholy alliance with Donald Trump. Trump’s secretary of protection, Pete Hegseth, can also be a Christian Zionist. He has shut ties with Christian nationalist teams and celebrates the Crusades as an admirable instance of European Christian may. Christians United for Israel (CUFI) is the biggest pro-Israel group within the US. It boasts over 8 million membersgreater than the full inhabitants of American Jews. CUFI’s founder, pastor John Hagee, known as Huckabee’s nomination an “inspiring alternative.” Hagee frequently expresses his supposed love for Israel below the guise of caring about Jewish individuals, however he has a historical past of heinous antisemitism, together with saying that God despatched Hitler as a hunter to push the Jewish individuals to Israel.
Present Difficulty
The Trump regime and its allies within the Christian Zionist motion are racists and antisemites posing as protectors of the Jewish individuals in a recreation of misdirection and lies. They applaud and cheer because the Israeli authorities massacres Palestinians in Gaza with scorched-earth bombing campaigns, cuts off humanitarian help and electrical energy to 2 million individuals, makes use of hunger as a weapon of struggle, and drives tens of hundreds of Palestinians from their properties within the occupied West Financial institution. And again in the US, they assault activists who’re working to finish Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, such because the current concentrating on of scholars and lecturers for abduction and deportation, together with Mahmoud Khalil and Badar Khan Suri.
We’re witnessing the unfolding of an authoritarian and fascist regime that cloaks itself below the guise of defending Jews, whereas truly platforming Christian Nationalistswhite nationalists, and Nazi sympathizersdismantling our social justice actions, crushing free speech, and punishing anti-war activists.
The Democratic Celebration has shamefully collaborated, enabled, and fueled the Israeli authorities’s violence and atrocities in opposition to Palestinians, together with over the past 17 months of genocide. However tens of millions of individuals of conscience, together with the vast majority of Democratic votersare clear of their demand for the US authorities to cease arming Israel, and are steadfast of their protection of civil liberties right here at dwelling. Democrats on the Senate International Relations Committee have a possibility this week to face in opposition to yet one more harmful Trump nominee who’s useless set on mass violence and destruction. They should get up and act now earlier than it’s too late.
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Onward,
Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Writer, The Nation
Beth Miller
Beth Miller is the political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Motion.
