Muslim States Condemn Huckabee's Israel Land Remark as Dangerous
Muslim States Condemn Huckabee's Israel Land Remark as Dangerous
Arab and Islamic governments condemn Huckabee's remarks about Israel's biblical claim to land as dangerous and destabilizing.
Governments across the Islamic world have condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, suggesting it would "be fine" for Israel to claim a broad swath of the Middle East. Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former Arkansas governor, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. In an interview with the conservative US commentator Tucker Carlson published on Friday, the ambassador pointed to verses in the Bible that some Jews and evangelical Christians interpret as signifying the divine right of Jews to claim the land from the Nile to the Euphrates. "It would be fine if they took it all. But I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here today," Huckabee said, suggesting that it was Israeli restraint that prevented the Jewish state from exercising its biblical claim. He added: "We’re talking about this land that the state of Israel now lives in and wants to have peace in. They’re not trying to take over Jordan, they’re not trying to take over Syria, they’re not trying to take over Iraq or anywhere else. They want to protect their people." Huckabee later admitted his remark had been "somewhat of a hyperbolic statement". But the suggestion that Jews had a divine right to a large part of the Middle East drew a furious response from Muslim governments around the world. A joint statement signed by a list of countries including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan, said the ambassador’s comments were "dangerous and inflammatory remarks, which constitute a flagrant violation of the principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and pose a grave threat to the security and stability of the region." The US embassy in Israel insisted the comments had been taken out of context by the states making the complaint. "US policy has not changed," the embassy said in a statement. "The narrative was based on an edited portion"
