Huckabee tells Lubavitchers he favors the establishment of a Palestinian state — in Egypt or Saudi Arabia

1:46 pm Christian Right and GOP, Christian Zionism

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State Rep. Jason Bedrick, left, hosted a house party for presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, right, in October 2007. Rabbi Moshe Bleich of the Wellesley Chabad also attended the event. (Yeshiva World News)

Munson: Huckabee makes some seemingly sensible statements in his article in the January-February issue of Foreign Affairs. For example, he writes: “The Bush administration’s arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out.” He also writes that if the US “attempts to dominate others, it is despised.” These statements are reminiscent of the seemingly sensible things George W. Bush was saying when he ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000. But other parts of Huckabee’s Foreign Affairs article could have been written by a neoconservative. As for Huckabee’s advocacy of a Palestinian state in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, the Yeshiva World News notes that “when asked about a Palestinian state, Gov. Huckabee stated that he supports creating a Palestinian state, but believes that it should be formed outside of Israel. He named Egypt and Saudi Arabia as possible alternatives.” That one of the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination–according to recent polls –should spout such nonsense is disturbing. But the rhetoric of his main competitors is equally obtuse when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Huckabee’s rise puts focus on religious rhetoric - JTA, December 24, 2007

NEW YORK (JTA) — Mike Huckabee was a barely known former governor of Arkansas when he attended an October house party on his behalf at the home of Jason Bedrick, New Hampshire’s first Orthodox Jewish state representative.

Despite the candidate’s long odds, Bedrick was brimming with confidence in an interview he gave to an Orthodox news Web site.

“No one had ever heard of the last governor from Hope, Ark., Bill Clinton, the summer before he was elected,” Bedrick told Yeshiva World News. “Huckabee is polling well in all the early states. He’s a long shot, but he’s the best shot we’ve got.”…

To boot, the New Hampshire lawmaker added, Huckabee is pro-Israel: He has visited the Jewish state nine times, and told the crowd at the Bedrick house party that he favored the establishment of a Palestinian state — in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

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