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Republicans Attack Obama on Palestine Policy
WASHINGTON - Former Republican
presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has been in Israel and the occupied
West Bank this week, stridently criticising Pres. Barack Obama's
policies of pushing for an Israeli settlement freeze and the
establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. 
Huckabee, a former
two-term governor of Arkansas, is a leading contender to be the
Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. His
voicing of outspoken criticism of Obama while visiting a foreign
country has raised many questions here over whether the old U.S. saying
that "Partisan politics stops at the water's edge" still applies.
In
addition, the fact that he and House Minority (Republican) Whip Eric
Cantor have aligned themselves so closely on the key issue of
settlements with Israel's rightwing government, rather than with Obama,
is an indication of a deeper shift in U.S. politics.
It used
to be that Israeli governments got more support from the Democratic
Party than from Republicans. Now, this rightwing government in Israel
is getting deeper and more vocal support from many Republicans than it
is getting from most Democrats.
The shift has not been total.
Like Huckabee and Cantor, House Majority (Democratic) Leader Steny
Hoyer has also been in Israel in recent weeks. And like them, while
there he criticised Obama's policy on settlements.
All three men
have been among the numerous U.S. legislators and other politicians who
have visited Israel this summer as the guests of pro-Israeli
organisations.
However, Huckabee is the only one of these three
figures who expressed adamant opposition to the establishment of a
Palestinian stat - an outcome that Obama and before him President
George W. Bush both supported.
Huckabee is the only one of
these prominent visitors to Israel who was hosted there by the American
Friends of Ateret Cohanim, an organisation that actively funds the
implantation of additional Jewish settlers into occupied East
Jerusalem. Cantor and Hoyer had their trips paid for by an organisation
affiliated with the big - but much more mainstream – American Israel
Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC.
Huckabee is also the only
prominent U.S. visitor this summer who spent most of his time not in
Israel itself but in the settlements in East Jerusalem and the rest of
the West Bank. One of the places he visited, the settlement outpost
Givat Olam, is considered "unauthorised" even by Israel's very
pro-settler government.
He is planning to air two different
shows for Fox News this weekend from the settler-controlled Shepherd
Hotel in East Jerusalem.
Writing on his HuckPac blog Wednesday,
Huckabee described the cities of Nablus, Bethlehem and Ramallah,
located in the heart of the Palestinian West Bank, as parts of
Israelis' "own country". He added that he believed that Israelis
"should be able to live wherever they want in that country".
He
told an AP reporter that he had "no problem" with the idea of the
Palestinians getting a state of their own. But he added, "Should it be
in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That's what I think has to be
honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic." He told journalists there
were "a lot of places all over the planet" that could host the
Palestinian state, though he declined to specify which place he would
favour.
Herb Keinon reported in Israel's conservative Jerusalem
Post that Huckabee told Israeli journalists about his religious
commitment as an evangelical Baptist pastor.
Huckabee then
reportedly said of his fellow-evangelicals, "We are very much of the
understanding that if there had not been Judaism, there would not be
Christianity... We have no organic connection, for example, to Islam,
Hinduism, Buddhism and atheism. But we have absolute, total genetic DNA
ties to Judaism."
Keinon wrote that one Israeli journalist
wondered aloud whether Huckabee was just "an American version of
[Israeli politician] Moshe Feiglin: a marginalised, out-of-office
politician on the far right with little national significance."
But, he noted, "Huckabee does have national significance, even if he is out of office."
Indeed,
on Thursday, Public Policy Polling (PPP) reported that Huckabee, who
came second only to John McCain in last year's Republican primary, now
looks like the strongest Republican candidate in 2012.
PPP's
Tom Jensen reported that if the election were held tomorrow and
Huckabee and Obama were the candidates, Huckabee would come within
three percentage points of Obama: 44 percent to 47 percent.
Many
things can change between now and 2012, of course. Right now, Obama is
being hammered hard on the health care question, and his national
popularity, though still strong, is starting to fall.
Many U.S.
progressives who worked hard to get Obama elected are starting to
express concern that, on the Palestinian-Israeli issue as on health
care, he and his administration seem to have lost the momentum.
On
health care, Obama missed a stated deadline of getting Congress to pass
reform legislation before the August recess. And when Democratic
lawmakers went back to their districts for the recess and tried to
discuss health care reform with constituents, many faced virulent
opposition from loosely organised networks of rightwing opponents.
But
at least, on health care, Obama and his fellow Democrats in the House
and Senate have been working hard to formulate and then push for an
actual plan. And Obama and his cabinet members have been proactively
making their pro-reform arguments heard as widely as possible - even
during the recess.
On the Palestine question they have been much quieter.
Obama
and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have continued to issue
periodic, largely pro forma restatements of the policies Obama
articulated several months ago about the need for a settlement freeze
and an eventual Palestinian state.
But so far neither Obama,
nor Clinton, nor special envoy George Mitchell has done anything to
operationalise either of these stated goals.
And thus far, no
one in the administration has done anything to tackle head-on the
arguments that Huckabee and other influential U.S. figures have been
making so loudly about the supposed dangers to Israelis and the U.S. of
the president's Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy.
That has allowed
Huckabee and the other critics to dominate the airwaves on these issues
and to frame the debate just about however they want in the important
court of U.S. public opinion.
42 Comments so far
Show AllSCHMUCKABEE---will he ever just go away and stop spreading his right-wingnut hate and one-sided "solutions"? Not as long as FOX puts a dollar bill in it for him
jack7: they say that, for religious people, if the devil didn't exist they would have to invent him: he's just so USEFUL! Similarly, from your comment, the content of this article and much else, it seems that Democrats would need to invent the like of Dick Cheney and Mike Schmuckabee whose extremism makes the conservatism of Democrats look liberal by comparison. Thus the article distinguishes between the Huckabee trip being sponsored by a group of settler-fanatics, as opposed to Stony Heyer's sponsorship by AIPAC which we all know (?)is virtually indistinguishable from Jews For Peace.
Excuse my dyslexia: that's Steny Hoyer.
Obviously, Huckabee believes that AIPAC will put him in the White House.
Another day, another political whore. *YAWN*
q
If there had not been "God" there would not have been Islam, Judaism, or Christianity, Mike! Both Islam, and Judaism trace their roots to Abraham. And, the Jews don't particularly applaud your Christianity, as they consider it a false religion. How can, in the 21st century, a(I almost called him a representative of the US, but, he isn't anything but a Baptist preacher, so why is this being reported?) previous Presidential candidate is touting religious connections as a basis for accepting inhumane behavior? WTF? How much pandering can one country do toward another country. I think the time for ass kissing is over; I think it's time for our officials to go over there and give blow jobs to the Israelis, and I think that if Huckabee wants media attention, he should be the first to give one. Give it up, Mike! Seriously, how long will our country officially stand by and allow Israel to continue to dehumanize the Palestinians by keeping them prisoner in their own shrinking land while continuing to grab up more land for their illegal settlements?
[ And, the Jews don't particularly applaud your Christianity, as they consider it a false religion.]
Neither do the Muslims, they believe that the Christians have committed blasphemy by worshiping a human being who was a prophet; Jesus.
Personally I think all three cults are blasphemous idolators as they worship their books and their religious laws more than they respect/worship the true 'god'.
Where are the victims in the Inter Press Service story?
What happens to the families having their houses demolished? The Palestinian villages being imprisoned by walls? The Palestinians who have their farmland taken away? The loss of ability to travel freely on their own land?... IPS treats the settlements like a victimless activity when it is a crime against humanity.
Progressive101: I don't really fault the IPS piece for failing to describe the victims of Israeli aggression in Palestine. I think this is assumed as common knowledge and the article focusses on the actions---and more so the inactions when you consider the reference at the end about the lack of Obama administration actions--to deal with these conditions. On this point I think the piece is strong although it does, as I noted in my post above, help enable the delusion that the Democrats are more liberal (albeitly timidly so) than the Republicans on this issue.
Rose, I respect your opinion. To expand my point: Most people I know in my daily life, have little awareness of the daily horror inflicted upon the Palestinians as a result the settlement because MSM does little reporting (and fails to put a human face on) the hardships of villages being imprisoned, the consequences to the families who have lived all their lives in East Jerusalem and have their houses demolished and are thrown into the streets, the burning of Palestinian groves, and settler shooting and stoning of Palestinians when they harvest their crops. I get better news on these from human rights web-sites and the Israel's Haaretz newspaper than ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Yahoo, and the New York Times.
MSM does this on other reporting also. MSM reports on the health care debate but very little on the victims of not passing real reform. Of the 45 million or so without health care insurance, I've seen very few stories of the people who have gone bankrupt as a consequence, who have lost loved ones... Therefore, if legislation does not pass, MSM can forgot about the people they never reported on in the first place.
Progressive101: I'm in total synch with you on this. MSM does a better (but not much better) job of bringing the suffering of Americans with a non-health care system into focus than it does with the suffering of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. But the health care sufferers are "us" after all and the Palestinians are "them" and what do self-absorbed Americans really care about "them?" Of course progressives (of whatever number) have to stay informed about matters that the general public doesn't care about and/or that the MSM doesn't choose to tell them. Where Palestine is concerned, I find Electronic Intifada a good source for daily perusal, along with all those who mention.
He told journalists there were "a lot of places all over the planet" that could host the Palestinian state, though he declined to specify which place he would favour.
He establishes himself as advocting the displacement of a people indigenous to the region and preceeding the state of Israel. This is an issue central to transnational deisplacement polices all over the world. it is the method of setting the agenda for humanity according to priorities of industrial expansion at a time when the most important matter on the agenda is how to step back from expansionism (economy of constant growth)
[He told journalists there were "a lot of places all over the planet" that could host the Palestinian state, though he declined to specify which place he would favour.]
How's about the state he was governor of? Why doesn't anyone ask him if that would be a godd idea???
Course, I'm not sure anyone would really want to move from the middle east to Ark... They might be able to live longer and better lives outside of that little state...
I find it incredible that someone like the Huckster gets so much press notice when everybody already knows that the Israelis are the invaders of Palestine. The Palestinians were ther first and probably, since they are also Semitic, were originally jewis until the Saracens conquered the Middle East and they converted to Islam.
The only reason they sent the Jews to Palestine is that nobody else wanted to take them in, and the powers that be decided that the Palestinians were weak and couldn't object. Well, they are certainly objecting now. I suppose that a deal was made with Audi Arabia in exchange for oil and our building them a secret spy organization alla the CIA and building them an air force.
The entire thing stinks to high heaven.
Maybe Huck can get taken away in what they call the rapture.
Is that a photo of Huckabee or is it Nixon? Is Nixon still alive? Did that MoFo not really die?
Could be a zombie, I always thought Nixon would become one of the undead.
huckabee....AIPAC's super whore
For those who might wish to ignore this man as a potential US President take a look at his political positions in Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Huckabee
In short summary he is against abortion, same sex marriage and civil unions, homosexuals in the military and gun control.
He is for the Iraq war, Guantanamo, the death penalty, concealed guns and he supports Creationism.
He considers homosexuality aberrant, unnatural, and sinful.
Quite the charmer but perhaps no surprise for someone with a harsh discipline upbringing in Arkansas.
I forgot to mention that Huckabee does have some good points in his personality description e.g. he is described as "warm, charming and engaging".
However his bad points are "petty, thin-skinned, self-righteous" and "somewhat vindictive".
Just what you need in a person on the nuke button. I wonder what the theocracy under him might be like and what his stance is towards end times?
Would that the Rapture were coming--to take Huckabee and all the rest of 'em away!
It's already happened, those who were raptured went unnoticed as there were so few of them...
An Obama/ Huckabee race in 2012 will tear this nation apart.
I think many on the left would advocate defeating Huckabee by whatever means necessary.
The right feels the same way about a 2nd term for Obama.
I would expect street conflicts, riots, maybe shootings and bombings.
Huckabee is an extremely dangerous man.
dreamjoehill: just keep repeating to yourself "Huckabee is an extremely dangerous man" and like "many on the left" who are disillusioned with him you will use "whatever means necessary" to stop him, the obvious means being to vote for Obama despite his shortcomings. Demonizing H. Clinton, McCain and Palin worked in 08 and the same treatment of Huckabee in 12 will accomplish the same result: 4 more years of the "lesser evil."--and we get all that without "street conflicts, riots, shooting and bombings!" American two-party politics in action.
I would beg to differ.
First off, I voted Green in '08.
Secondly, by 2012 the militia movement will be back in full swing. I think more widespread than in the nineties. Huckabee will be their man. I would expect the shootings and bombing to come from Huckabees corner.
For the left, "any means necessary" amounts to street protests, civil disobedience, and I suppose voting for Obama. General strikes are pretty much ruled out.
Fighting in the streets in 2012 is a pretty safe bet. Both sides will be fully mobilized. Especially as the American economy is likely to be in terrible shape by then, and it's also likely that we'll still be losing a war or two at that point.
Of course, Obama is an ivy covered corporatist but there is a difference between him and Huckabee. At least as much as there was between, say, von Hindenburg and Hitler.
dreamjoehill: Ah yes, von Hindenburg: this from Wikipedia on him:
"Though 84 years old and in poor health, Hindenburg was persuaded to run for re-election in 1932 as he was considered the only candidate who could defeat Adolf Hitler. Hindenburg was re-elected in a runoff but nonetheless played an important role in the Nazi Party's rise to power, dissolving parliament twice in 1932 and eventually appointing Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933. In February, he issued the Reichstag Fire Decree which suspended various civil liberties, and in March he signed the Enabling Act, in which parliament gave Hitler's government legislative powers."
Does some of this sound 21st century-ish? Will von Obamburg be the "only candidate" who can defeat Huckabee or some other Republi-thug? Will "I suppose voting for Obama" be a "necessary means?" Lesser evilism dies hard, but I have a new mantra for you to repeat: "I voted Green in 08." (Said with pride, not as in "I voted for 00 and 04, but that damned Huckabee is just so dangerous.")
Obviously, Christianity cannot be based in Islam because it preceded Islam, but Islam has many connections to Judaisem and Chirstianity: Muslims worship the same god, the god of Abraham, and revere both Jesus and Moses. Some people intentionally insist on calling the God of Islam Allah, the word in Arabic simply means God; it does not mean a different god named Allah. This is like saying that the Spanish and the South American peoples worship a god whose name is Dios. The virgin Mary is mentioned - and with praise and reverence- in the Koran more times than she is metioned in the new Testament.
Hucabee should brush up on his readings about Islam and realize the Islam, Christanity and Judaism are decendants of the Abrahamic tradition.
Islam is hell bent on the destruction of Judaism - making consistant genocidal demands on a 4000 year nation which gave Monotheism to the world, and predates both Islam and the Arab race. Islam is also poised on the destruction of Christianity - by desecrating the Jerusalem Temple site by robbery, false teachings to its peoples, and deeming those who came before it as illegitimate infidels. Islam is the new kid on the block, and cannot teach anything to Jews and Christians. Islam has been diminished to the least productive peoples after the Jews left the Arab states, and can only be judged how it now acts with the Jews, Israel and the Zionists. The Balfour must be restored, and the Mosque elevated to Islamic soil - Jerusalem is a wholly Hebrew city and sacred before Islam emerged. Unlike the Muslims, the Jews have never stolen anyone's lands in all their 4000 year history.
MOSES WAS THE FIRST ZIONIST.
Fine IamJoseph, but let Israel fight it's own battles. Cut off all US aid to Isreal!
He has the hate monger vote alright, however many that amounts to.
I laugh at the fact, that Huckabee is the best they got! Now that's funny! I guess our only hope is he also gets caught with a hooker!
I had thought there was a difference between Huckabee and the radical Christian Zionists and Armageddonists who want Israel to completely occupy, and expel Palestinians from, what was Israel at the height of David's and Solomon's kingdoms. (And bomb Iran along the way.)
Time to put that foolish notion to rest.
What do AIPAC critters Biden and Hillary have to say about this?
Anyone can fire back at this AIPAC goon by logging on to Huckaby babies website and educating him. Try to be nice.
http://www.huckpac.com/
huckabee wants to be israeli president in the white house. he know that the only way to achieve this is to appease IPAC and the rest of the israeli fifth column in the us. and those slop americans voters will help him do just that.
India must be a single state - Pakistan and Bangladesh must be returned back to her. The Coptics must be given Egypt back. The Jordan dwarf must be packed to Saudi Arabia where he came from. The Saudi Regime must compensate the world for 9/11. The so called 'good muslim majority' must issue a Fatwah for Bin Laden and their mass murderers.
Anyone who feels unclear about what's going on in Palestine should read Joe Sacco's _Palestine_. It should be required reading in all schools in the US and Europe.
Huckabee is a psychopath. If we weren't living in a kleptocracy, he'd be diagnosed and in locked-ward care.
The only thing that will save Israel and Judism is a single state with right of return for the millions of DPs. These Zionist thugs are going to take the US down with them.
"Republicans Attack Obama on Palestine Policy"
Well, duh! At this point the sore looser, cry baby, psychotic, obstructionist GOP will criticize Obama for getting out of bed in the morning.
The truth will never set free those who call a deathly 3-state as a 2-state. These are shrouded Nazi demands against the Jews. Israel is now *OCCUPYING* 12% of the land allocated her in the Balfour [80% went to Jordan - illegally], and 8% is occupied by Pretend Palestinians in the west bank [historical Samaria, 60 years ago].
The Balfour must be restored, and all Arab states created by Briton must be re-examined with the world's nations voting for them - as was done with Israel. The truth is a 2-state is an open lie before the world of nations and before God:
'IT WILL BE A HISTORIC COMPROMISE TO GRANT TWO STATES IN PALESTINE - ONE FOR THE JEWS AND ONE FOR THE ARABS' - Churchill.
That first 2-state corruption was what eliminated the prefix of GREAT from Briton, and Heaven has reversed the genocidal plan by creating Britonistan instead. Briton must be saved saved by reversing this crime aganst the Jews. Those who call a deathly 3-state as a 2-state are commiting a crime.
There is no god, but there is coffee.
As for the rest of your 'rant', what the heck are you smoking?
Ok. Israel has the upper hand. Israel will set the terms, not its opponents.
Sure they will, after all it's not like the israelis are outnumbered by the Palistinians is it?
Just like during the times of the Christian Crusades, if it wasn't for the support from the western nations that colonial outpost called Israel wouldn't exist.
If/when the support from western countries stops, what options are left for the israelis? Make peace or nuke their neighbours. If they make a real peace, they might avoid the fate of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. If they nuke their neighbours, the consequences would be devastating.
Yeah, fine guess who , but then Israel cannot continue to claim the moral high ground and there is no reason for the US to continue sending billions to Israel.
That's my major demand. Cut off aid to Israel. Let them sink or swim on their own.
Hmmm...
Someone mentioned the Balfour Declaration. He did however make some erroneous statements regarding that declaration. The notion that Jorden somehow "stole" land from Israel is false. But most important to this dicussion is the following
taken from that declaration:
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."
Clearly Israel has violated that portion beyond all reason and comprehension. Driving Palastinians from their homes, violating their civil and human rights, destroying their businesses, rounding them up and putting them in an open air prison camp (Gaza)murdering their women and children, the list goes on and on. Israel's actions against the Palastinian people are true acts of terrorism by virtually any rational definition.
First step to run for President of the USA; go to Israel and bend over in reverence to the almighty Lords of Zion and learn to repeat the Israeli mantras.