Huckabee: West Bank Forever

The Christian Zionist influence on American — and, I suppose, Israeli — policy continues to be terrifying. Here, for example, Tim McGirk reports for Time on Mike Huckabee:

A trip to Israel does no harm to his standing with American Jews; they are traditionally wary of the Christian right, but might overlook Huckabee’s Bible Belt beliefs on education and abortion because of his backing for Israel. A guest of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, which aims to move thousands of Jewish families deep into the Arab neighborhoods of this divided city, the ex-Arkansas governor told reporters that he supported Israel’s control over all Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a beacon to the Judaism, Christianity and Islam, he said, “but you can’t have two governments overseeing the same real estate.”

The guitar-playing ex-governor went far beyond the White House view on the conflict, which calls for separate Israeli and Palestinian states. “From the security standpoint, the Israeli state should include the West Bank,” Huckabee said, referring to the territory that is a cornerstone of an eventual Palestinian nation. Huckabee claimed that his views supporting an Israel that expands beyond its pre-1967 borders, were based on “common sense” rather than his own religious beliefs.”Would I tolerate this in my own neighborhood? No,” he said. Many Christian evangelicals believe that it is part of Biblical prophecy that Jews should return to occupy all of their ancient homeland.

Now clearly a certain number of American Jews are already conservative Republicans. But the majority are liberal Democrats who are unlikely to support any aspect of Huckabee’s Christianity-fueled approach to domestic politics. But what’s more, I dare say that few Jews who actually care about Israel’s future are going to embrace this vision. To achieve long-term security, Israel needs a viable peace deal with its neighbors, and that’s never going to happen if Huckabee’s proposals are adopted. And that’s to say nothing of the appalling human rights implications for the Palestinians. Meanwhile, the McCain campaign is now slamming Barack Obama over the fact that one of his informal advisers went to Syria and told the Syrians they should make some concessions now if they want to be able to secure a durable deal under the next administration. And, yes, if you go wildly out of your way to portray what happened, you can spin this as an attack on Obama.