Jerusalem – U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee drew rare criticism from Israel on Tuesday for comments in which he accused President Barack Obama of marching Israelis “to the door of the oven” in a nuclear deal with Iran.
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Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz said on Facebook the former Arkansas governor was “genuinely concerned” about Israel’s future but was wrong to refer to Nazi gas chambers that killed millions of Jews in voicing alarm over the July 14 accord between world powers and Iran.
Israel has called the agreement a threat to its survival and has urged U.S. lawmakers to reject the deal, saying it would give Iran a “sure path” to nuclear weapons.
“Dear Mr Huckabee, no one is marching Jews to the ovens anymore,” Katz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, wrote.
“That is why we established the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces, and if necessary, we will know how to defend ourselves by ourselves,” Katz said.
Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, said in an interview with USA Today’s Capital Download program that while Israel had a “very serious disagreement” with the Obama administration over the Iranian issue, Huckabee’s remarks were inappropriate.
Huckabee, one of more than a dozen candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination, made the comments in an interview with a conservative website on Saturday. He has been a regular visitor to Israel, where he has been embraced by right-wing politicians as one their country’s staunchest supporters.
Speaking to reporters in Ethiopia on Monday, Obama said Huckabee’s remarks were emblematic of a slide in public discourse coming from the Republicans.
“The particular comments of Mr. Huckabee are, I think, part of just a general pattern that we’ve seen that … would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad,” he said.
Huckabee responded to Obama’s criticism with a critique of the Iran nuclear deal.
“What’s ‘ridiculous and sad’ is that President Obama does not take Iran’s repeated threats seriously,” he said in a written statement. “For decades, Iranian leaders have pledged to ‘destroy,’ ‘annihilate,’ and ‘wipe Israel off the map’ with a ‘big Holocaust.”
Iran has made it clear that the reason it wants a nuclear weapon is to destroy Israel. As such, Mike Huckabee’s statement is correct.
He’s 100% right. And what’s more I commend him for standing up to our enemies in the Whitehouse and saying it to them. I have a problem with anyone who has a proproblem with what he said.
Poor Reuters. Every time they need to cover for that decaying rot in the white house, they find some nonentities in israel who are so desparate for a little fame, they’ll say anything. And the same tired old trick every time – they never tire. We should learn a mussar haskel from these odious anti-Semites and employ the same persistence in ovadas hashem. And may hashem spill his wrath on them and their ilk speedily, in our days.
Dear mr. Apikores Yisrael Katz nobody requsted your
Opinion on this issue as Transport Minister your job is to make sure buses are running on time
I like Mike H. He is a religious man and has a good record as governor of Arkansas.
What kind of idiot would think that Israel needs to be protected from “being led to the door of the ovens?” Does he so misunderstand what the Israeli State is? Does he honestly think Jews need people like him to protect them?
I do not like Huckabee so much any more.
Dermer and Katz don’t see the handwriting on the wall
There’s little to say if you people don’t see the material differences between what we faced with Hitler’s Germany and the situation today with Iran.
BTW, The fear of a nuclear exchange between the USA and the USSR in the early 1960s was real, but the specter of “mutual assured destruction” was an effective check on both sides. If Iran ever launched a nuclear strike, against Israel, Saudi Arabia or any other country, they would risk instant and massive retaliation from Israeli and the U.S.
And all you guys (and gals) can ever say in reply to this is that the Iranian government would not be deterred, because the entire Iranian power structure would be willing to throw away their country like a suicide bomber. Really.
I understand the pride and everything but Huckabee is one of the best friends of Israel. He said what he said to give a boost to Congress to decline Obamas stupid deal with Iran. His statement is right cuz Iranians want to build the bomb for the reason he mentioned Chas ve Sholom.
….and that ridiculous Paul Revere yelling about ” the Red Coats are coming.” Who did he think he was?
Well, in truth, Huck does not want to kill Jews. He wants to convert them.
Listen to Huckabee!
He is trying to stand for Jewish people!
Huckabbee was a hundred percent correct. Nuclear attack will incinerate hundreds of thousands! Netnayahu had compared Iran to Nazi Germany and it is attempting another holocaust!! Yisrael Katz Israeli Minister of Transportation can not control what goes in his mouth(so very very obese)and can not control what goes out of his mouth! Watch EXPOSE of anti Semitism on Judaism go to bcat.tv every Wednesday 10:00AM & 6:00PM New York time. Scroll down to Community Media then click on Brooklyn Public Network then click on arrow in channel 2