Israel Matzav

Huckabee: 'Two states in the Holy Land is unrealistic'

Former Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told foreign reporters on Tuesday that expecting to have two states in the Holy Land is 'unrealistic.'

Speaking to a small group of foreign reporters in Jerusalem, Huckabee, seen as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, said the international community should consider establishing a Palestinian state some place else.

"The question is should the Palestinians have a place to call their own? Yes, I have no problem with that. Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That's what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic," he said.

Now, some people might argue that Huckabee is grandstanding or trying to place distance between himself and President Obama. I don't buy that. Huckabee was here a year ago today, and he said many of the same things he said today. And Obama wasn't President at this time last year. Here's what he said a year ago:

"It is a historic reality that Jerusalem, and the entire land, was originally intended to be a homeland for the Jewish people," he said. "The Palestinians should in fact have a place and opportunity to settle but it doesn't have to be in Jerusalem."

Palestinians demand all of east Jerusalem including the city's holy sites as capital of their future state.

Huckabee said that US support of Israeli territorial compromise was misguided.

"Sometimes politicians get wrapped up in what we can achieve rather than what we should achieve," he said.

At an overlook of the Old City and east Jerusalem, the former presidential candidate also said that Israel needs to distance its enemies as much as possible.

"If someone has a bomb or a missile or a gun pointed within a few feet of me I would want them to be as far away as possible," he said. "You don't have to be a military genius or strategist to know this."

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, also had something to say today about Israel's granting access to Muslims to pray at the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount.

The politician, a Southern Baptist preacher and a two-time former governor of Arkansas, praised Israel for giving Muslims access to Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock - also the site of the ancient Jewish temples - even though the presence of a mosque there "could be considered an affront."

"Israel is a place where they're going to allow other cultures and religions, but don't ask the Jewish people whose homeland it is to completely yield over their ability to live within the context of their country," said Huckabee.

Hmmm.

A lot of American Jews won't consider voting for Mike Huckabee because he's a Republican and he's a Baptist Minister. Maybe we ought to rethink those kinds of barriers to giving people our votes.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:55 PM