(JNi.media) Whether or not the Iran nuclear deal is good or bad (most Jews appear to believe the latter) or even enforceable (most US lawmakers appear to believe it isn’t), until last Saturday it was discussed as a serious danger to Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, but a danger that should and could be handled. Then came presidential candidate, former governor Mike Huckabee, and turned on the WW2 imageries.
“This president’s foreign policy is the most feckless in American history” Huckabee told Breitbart News Saturday. “It is so naive that he would trust the Iranians. By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.”
He then said, “This is the most idiotic thing, this Iran deal. It should be rejected by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and by the American people. I read the whole deal. We gave away the whole store. It’s got to be stopped.”
None of the rest of his interview matched the force of his oven metaphor. In fact, much of what he said following the ovens statement was quite logical and benign, but the reverberating Auschwitz reference made it difficult to consider in unemotional terms.
The Democrats pounced on the former governor’s statement, obviously. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fl), chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said Huckabee’s imagery “has no place in American politics.”
“Cavalier analogies to the Holocaust are unacceptable. Mike Huckabee must apologize to the Jewish community and to the American people for this grossly irresponsible statement,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement.
The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) denounced Huckabee’s comments, saying in a statement:
“Far, far too often, this organization has found itself forced to denounce politicians for invoking the Holocaust in inappropriate and offensive ways. These comments by Governor Mike Huckabee, however, may be the most inexcusable we’ve encountered in recent memory.
“To state that President Obama is leading Israelis ‘to the door of the oven’ is not only disgustingly offensive to the president and the White House, but shows utter, callous disregard for the millions of lives lost in the Shoah and to the pain still felt by their descendants today.”
The NJDC added: “Republicans have fallen over themselves to speak out against Donald Trump’s outrageous rhetoric on immigration and veterans. Will they now do the same and speak out against this unacceptable attack against President Obama that smears the memory of Holocaust victims … or will they stand by in silence and implicit approval?”
In response, Huckabee tweeted a big meme with his ovens statement against the background of the Israeli and Iranian flags.
Finally, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz told Breitbart News, “There will be no ovens this time, as long as Israel has the right and might to defend its citizens from those who deny the Holocaust while calling for another one.”