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The popular conservative pundit Tucker Carlson recently interviewed U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.<\/p>\n
Carlson pressed the former Arkansas Governor on the country and the U.S. relationship with it, repeatedly leaving Huckabee flummoxed. Huckabee made many perplexing claims, but his most controversial statement came when Carlson asked him whether Israel has a biblical right to the land.<\/p>\n
Carlson asked Huckabee, who is a Baptist minister and a Christian Zionist, about a Bible verse in which God promises Abraham that his descendants will receive land \u201cfrom the wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates \u2013 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlson said this basically amounted to the entire Middle East.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael is a land that God gave, through Abraham, to a people that he chose,\u201d responded Huckabee. \u201cIt was a people, a place and a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether Israel had a right to it, he responded, \u201cIt would be fine if they took it all.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time I am typing this, the Carlson\/Huckabee interview has been watched over 3 million times and is already causing something of an international scandal.<\/p>\n The governments of more than a dozen countries, including allies such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, issued a joint statement condemning Huckabee\u2019s comments and expressing \u201cstrong concern,\u201d as his position directly contradicts official U.S. policy on annexation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ministries reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty whatsoever over the Occupied Palestinian Territory or any other occupied Arab lands,\u201d explains the\u00a0statement<\/a>. \u201cThey reiterated their firm rejection of any attempts to annex the West Bank or separate it from the Gaza Strip, their strong opposition to the expansion of settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and their categorical rejection of any threat to the sovereignty of Arab states.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey further warned that the continuation of Israel\u2019s expansionist policies and unlawful measures will only inflame violence and conflict in the region and undermine the prospects for peace and called for an end to these incendiary statements,\u201d it continues. \u201cThe Ministries underscored their countries\u2019 steadfast commitment to the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to the establishment of their independent state along the lines of 4 June 1967, and the end of the occupation of all Arab lands.\u201d<\/p>\n The incident has\u00a0forced<\/a>\u00a0Trump officials, such as Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker, to call Arab leaders and assure them that Huckabee was expressing his personal views and that the administration\u2019s policies have not shifted.<\/p>\n In addition to the international fallout, the interview is reverberating domestically, as it further symbolizes the growing rift over Israel within the Republican Party. A\u00a0Times of Israel<\/em>\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0on the situation refers to the wider fight as \u201cbattle for the GOP\u2019s soul.\u201d<\/p>\n The new controversy comes just two weeks after right-wing activist Carrie Prejean Boller was\u00a0ousted<\/a>\u00a0from Trump\u2019s Religious Liberty Commission after criticizing Israel during a hearing.<\/p>\n