Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee won’t say whether Israel has anything more to fear from the outgoing administration of U.S. President Barack Obama following the latest debacle at the United Nations Security Council; but he is absolutely certain that whatever happens, it can be fixed.
In the wake of last month’s American abstention on Resolution 2334(2016) allowing unanimous passage of a vote to condemn any Israeli presence in post ’67 territories, including numerous Jerusalem neighborhoods, the Western Wall and other holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israeli leaders are now waiting for the other shoe to drop.
In an exclusive interview in Jerusalem on Tuesday with Avi Abelow and the Israel Video Network, the Republican governor said in a philosophical tone, “Well, the good news is, Obama is gone in 17 days. But,” he added with a reassuring smile, “believe me, nothing that Obama can do, is permanent. Every bit of it can be undone. And I believe that most all of it will be undone.”
Gov. Huckabee called the move at the UN an ‘act of hate toward Israel on the part of the Obama administration,” but emphasized it was “not an act from the American people. Israelis need to know that,” he said, “because it was embarrassing to most Americans, and most Americans were outraged by the actions at the UN.”
An evangelical Christian, the governor is passionate about his faith, and about his love for Israel. He called the U.S. abstention “cowardly — underline — cowardly, because they did that without really advance notice, they did that really in spite of every action that we have historically taken with Israel, and we did that without any attempt to ameliorate the potential damage.
“It was,” he said, “disgusting.”
From the outset, the governor spoke of his intense dedication to the Holy Land, and his commitment to the State. This is the 44th year that Mike Huckabee is visiting Israel, and he noted that he has brought literally thousands of people to see this land over the years with him.
Evangelical Christians comprise the largest support base for Israel in the United States, he said, explaining, “It’s possible to be Jewish and have nothing to do with Christians. You cannot be Christian and not have everything to do with Judaism, because everything that’s in the Old Testament we embrace and believe.”
Gov. Huckabee first arrived in Israel at the age of 17, when Israel was still “a desert,” as he called it. But, “I grew up in the belief that Israel is not just another country, and the Land is not just another piece of real estate. God gave the title deed to Abraham 4,000 years ago. Yerushalayim is not just another city in the world. It’s a city that was uniquely the capital for the Jewish State.
“The only people for whom Yerushalayim has ever been a capital have been the Jews. And when I hear people use words like, “occupation” I think, ‘yeah, this has been occupied before – occupied by the Babylonians, the Assyrians, by the Turks, by the Brits… by the Romans,’ but when it relates to the Jews it’s not occupied, it’s owned. This is ownership,” he said.
“Not occupation.”