Craziest Republican of the Day: Mike Huckabee

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Mike Huckabee, "a longtime Christian Zionist," on a trip to Israel. You know, you just know, that that's a recipe for some serious crazy. And he didn't disappoint. Take this, for example, as told to CBN:

One of the things I find most interesting is that generally Evangelicals are so much more supportive of Israel than the American Jewish community.

There's great division within the American Jewish Community about the level of support for Israel. I think they all support Israel, want to see it succeed. But you'll find people all over the board about whether they think ii ought to have... absolute control over its border and whether they should give up land for peace and just how many countries can oversee Jerusalem at one time.

I don't find that kind of dichotomy generally within the Evangelical community. It's pretty adamant: There ought to be one city. It ought to be a Jewish state. And it ought to be secure. So maybe one of the hard things is to convince some of our Jewish friends that Evangelicals are the best friends they've got — because I think generally, that's the case.

Shame on American Jews for not being an ideological, political, and theocratical monolith! How dare there be any differences of opinion among them! How dare they be a diverse, dynamic community! How dare they be like Israel itself!

Why can't they be more... Christian... evangelically speaking?

And, come on, are we really to believe that Huckabee and his fundamentalist friends care so much about Israel and the Jews? I mean, it wouldn't have anything to do with that whole Rapture nonsense, would it? (As in, Israel needs to be in the hands of the Jews -- and must be, according to prophecy -- prior to the Second Coming. It's all about Jesus, you see, not the Jews, and it's what "premillennial dispensationalism" is all about. Israel is just an actor, so to speak, in the premillenial historical narrative of the Christian Zionists and their fundamentalist friends. It's a cog, a stage, a necessary precursor. This is why Huckabee and "the Evangelical community" support Israel. This is why they promote and encourage endless war in the region, notably between Israel and the Palestinians. If some Jews/Israelis find themselves on the side of these Christian Zionists, it's only because they share a common political cause -- although certainly not for the same reasons.

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For more on Christian Zionism, see here.

For more on Huckabee's views on Israel and the Palestinians, see the AJC's Jay Bookman.

For more on Huckabee's "alternate reality of the Arab-Israeli conflict," see Shmuel Rosner at TNR: "