The following article will appear in the upcoming weekly-edition of the 5 Towns Jewish Times:
He looks straight ahead without wincing or fidgeting and says, “I would be a mistake for Israel to surrender even an inch of territory.” This is not some unreasonable, radical opinion from some rightist website or personality. This is a face-to-face meeting and conversation with former Republican candidate and once frontrunner (for a while anyway) for his party’s nomination to be President of the United States—-Governor Mike Huckabee.
I met with Governor Huckabee in the King David Lounge of El Al Airlines at JFK Airport last Sunday afternoon about two hours prior to his leaving for a whirlwind two-day trip to Israel. The meeting and the trip to Israel were arranged by the office of Ateret Kohanim—The Jerusalem Reclamation Project and its director, Shani Hikind along with board members, Dr. Joe Frager of Queens and Paul Brody of Great Neck, N.Y. Outspoken activist New York State Assemblyman, Dov Hikind, also accompanied the four on the trip to Israel.
Huckabee is smooth and relaxed; he speaks in a matter of fact fashion and with conviction. Now as a private citizen—no longer the candidate and no longer Governor of Arkansas—he travels alone and without anyone even recognizing him despite the fact that he was touted as the possible future of America in countless publications and on TV screens around the world. That, of course, though, was months ago.
Now he was off to Israel partly because of his association with the Jerusalem Reclamation Project after appearing as guest speaker at the organizations annual dinner, which took place in Manhattan in June. Mr. Huckabee is hardly a novice when it comes to visiting Israel, as is the case with so many other political personalities professing closeness and support for the state of Israel. This weeks visit was the Governor’s tenth. His first was as an 18-year-old student, he says, in July, 1973, just a few months prior to the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. “I don’t know what my parents were thinking at the time,” Mr. Huckabee says, “but I spent the summer there with a friend from school and it was one of my most wonderful experiences.”
Frankly I was both intrigued and amazed at some of the Huckabee statements and I asked him whether or not he would have been able to maintain these position—primarily on the issue of Israeli withdrawal from territory which everyone involved (and the Israeli’s more than most) seem to agree upon. “I see the idea of Israel giving up land as Israel surrendering security and a sovereign country just does not do that today,” he said.
On the subject of last weeks proposal that Israel award 93% of Judea and Samaria to a new Palestinian state, Governor Huckabee said he was amazed at the proposal but also pleased that the deal was turned down by Palestinian President, Mohammad Abbas. Shifting to the subject of the Israeli idea that Abbas presents Israel with what might be a final opportunity for peace with a Palestinian leader for some time to come, Mr. Huckabee added that he thought the Abbas leadership left a great deal to be desired and through that there was indeed a great vacuum at the top in the Palestinian Authority leadership infrastructure.
Assemblyman Hikind who is chaperoning Governor Huckabbe along with his wife, Shani of JRP, Dr. Frager and Dr. Brody said that he was looking forward to “walking the streets of Jerusalem with a great friend like Mike Huckabee.” Indeed prior to getting involved in politics, becoming Governor of Arkansas and then a candidate for President, Mike Huckabee maintained an active career as a popular preacher and leader of a church community and motivational speaker in his home state. Like so many other Christians in the United States and their leaders, their support for the Jewish people, the State of Israel and things like an undivided Jerusalem are not just what sets them apart from so many other Americans, but the issue that makes political leaders take note.
Of course Christian support for Israel is based on their interpretation of the prophets that requires that the Jewish people experience a mass ingathering to the land of Israel prior to the re-appearance of their messiah. Still, some maintain the motivation for the support should not be the focus, particularly at a time and on issues that Israel can use all the support in can possibly find. Many in Israel and even here in the American Jewish community are split over the issue of specific Christian support for Israel. It was clear though that around the small table in the first class lounge at El Al the nuances or motivations of Mr. Huckabee’s support for Israel was not an issue.
Mike Huckabee states unequivocally that his interest and closeness to Israel transcends in a significant way any religious considerations. “Listen, ” he says, “Israel is the only true democratic state in the Middle East and a country whose citizens share the values and priorities of American citizens,” he said. “We can understand and relate to one another, we share many priorities and have many common interests,” he adds.
In the aftermath of his campaign for the Republican nomination Mr. Huckabee has signed on with the Fox News Network as a commentator cover the political convention that will get underway next week. Despite his move into journalism (Huckabee has written a number of books on various subjects), he is still mentioned as a possible selection to run along as the vice-presidential candidate with Senator John McCain.
However that scenario plays itself out in the coming weeks, there is definitely a very good chance that Mike Huckabee will end up serving in some capacity in a future McCain administration. And that’s an additional reason why contacts at this grass roots level is so very important. Of course it remains to be seen if that happens and how Mr. Huckabee’s warm feelings toward will impact on the decision making process of his administration if Mr. McCain wins the presidency in November.
Asked about why even the Bush administration has as its lynchpin in policy toward Israel the need to withdraw from territory, Mr. Huckabee looks straight at his interviewer and says: “foreign policy has been wrong before.” About his campaign for the presidency and how he was a frontrunner for a short time he says he feels that was because he was right on target on so many issues. Governor Huckabee says that he felt that the people in the heartland of America were able to relate to the themes that were sounded in his campaign. “I may have been the first of the candidates to talk forcefully about our need for energy independence and I was the first to say that the way things were going our economy was in trouble,” he said.
While Governor Huckabee was in Israel for only two days this week there’s no doubt that what he saw reiterated the way he felt previously and will also have a lasting impact on him and any influence he may have on the next Republican administration. Clearly he’s a close friend of Israel and the Jewish people as well as a rising star on the American political landscape. These days—as always, I suppose—-that’s an important combination.
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One Response
in the words of the great mark levin – huck-a-phonie. this man is a facker and a fraud, and has ruined the republican party by splitting the vote between him and romney, and now we are stuck with mccain. boo, huckabbe, boo!
(im not mitigating what he said on israel, but these words will come out of about every conservative in this country, so it is no big deal!)