 |
|
|
miJEWtiae
By WJW Staff , Rockville, Md
akredo@washingtonjewishweek.com
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Huckabee pulling from 'Dick Cheney's playbook'?
Adam Kredo
Mike Huckabee's travels throughout Israel seem to have taught him a lesson about the American Jewish community.
"Generally," Huckabee said to the Christian Broadcasting Network upon wrapping up his trip of the Holy Land last week, "Evangelicals are so much more supportive of Israel than the American Jewish community."
Being that he is a Christian Zionist, I'd question Huckabee's analysis of the overly nuanced and opinionated Jewish community in America. In particular, what does the former presidential hopeful define as "supportive?"
Could it mean supporting a two-state solution? Or, maybe it's just the opposite. (Huckabee, in a separate interview from Israel, called a Palestinian state in the West Bank "unrealistic.")
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of J Street, who deemed Huckabee's comments on the Middle East "dangerous," had this to say about the former Republican governor's analysis of the America Jewish community: "Mick Huckabee's playbook for supporting Israel seems about as sensible as Dick Cheney's playbook for supporting the Constitution."
Huckabee elaborated on his views during the CBN interview.
As opposed to the U.S. Jewish community - segments of which hotly debate the bounds of Israel's border, among other things - Huckabee said the Evangilical community is "pretty adamant: There ought to be one city [Jerusalem]. 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."
The National Jewish Democratic Council's David Harris wonders if homogeneity of opinion is tantamount to support.
"Mick Huckabee completely misread the American Jewish body politic," said Harris, the NJDC's president. "It may be that Evangilicals think alike or with one mind, but American Jews know full well that if we gather three Jews together in one room, you get five different opinions."
"Permit me to translate for Mike Huckabee," Harris requested. "When he says, 'So much more support,' he means, 'Utterly homogeneous ... one-mindedness support.' "
Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, declined to comment specifically on Huckabee's analysis, but had this to say: "Many polls show that there is a split in the American Jewish Community between Jews whose first priority is domestic issues and Jews whose first priority is the security of Israel. Generally speaking, the former vote Democratic and the latter vote Republican. I don't speak for Governor Huckabee so I really can't chime in on what he said, but I've seen polling data on the issue I mentioned."
The NJDC's Harris, however, requested to "see that polling data."
Looks like another RJC-NJDC poll is in the works...
|
Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Article comment by:
Plus 15
What Huckabee is all about starting at 2:02 what his and the Christian Zionists interest in supporting Israel is really about. His story is all hypocritical and nobody's more disgusting in the video then Joe Lieberman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjMRgT5o-Ig
You may not post or distribute my phone number.
|
Article Comment Submission Form
|
|
|
|
