Mike Huckabee Likens Israel to the “Wife” of the United States
At the 50 States, One Israel conference, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told a delegation of more than 200 U.S. lawmakers that Israel is akin to the “wife” of the United States.
“It may sound a little bit this afternoon as if I’m almost speaking on behalf of Israel rather than the U.S.,” Huckabee said in his comments last week, and then went on to explain the unique relationship between Israel and the United States.
“If you came to my house tonight for dinner and you came in and you said, ‘Oh, Mike, we like you. We really think the world of you. We just enjoy being with you. So excited to be here with you and have dinner with you,” he said. “‘But your wife, we can’t stand her. We don’t like her a bit. I hope she’s not going to be at the table.’ I would say, ‘Well, she will be. You won’t be. Get out.’ Because if you were to insult my partner, you have insulted me.”
He continued: “The United States across the world has a lot of friends. We have a lot of allies. But we only have one partner.”
“The one partner we have, which is Israel, is a relationship like no other,” he said.
According to news reports, the conference, hosted by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, featured remarks from Israeli prime minister and accused war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, tours of Israel, and a performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” as well as pleas to outlaw the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the United States. Truthout was unable to obtain a full list of attendees, but reports say that the conference was attended by legislators from all 50 states.
Approximately 250 lawmakers attended the conference, making it the largest delegation of U.S. legislators in Israel, according to Middle East Eye.
During his remarks, Huckabee denied that Israel is committing genocide, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Numerous scholars and human rights organizations have declared that Israel is, in fact, committing genocide in Gaza, including the United Nations Commission of Inquiry and the International Association of Genocide Scholars. The United States has funded and enabled the genocide, providing Israel billions of dollars in military aid to slaughter and starve Palestinians.
“If Israel is genocidal, they are really, really bad at it,” Huckabee told attendees. “All of Gaza is the size of Las Vegas. If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they could have done it in three hours on the 8th of October, 2023, and it would have been over.”
The ambassador spoke of the close relationship between Israel and the United States, specifically when it comes to the exchange of “intelligence.”
“Most Americans don’t really fully appreciate or understand it, but the level that we share with the Israelis on intelligence is seamless,” he said. “It would scare some of you to know just how close the relationship is. What we share in military hardware and understanding, mutual defense interest is astounding, unlike any relationship we have with any other nation on the planet.”
“But what they create, what they innovate, when we import it into the United States, they have spent the billions of dollars in the research and development to create things like the Iron Dome and the Arrow system and David’s Sling,” he said. “But it benefits us because it protects not only Israel, but it protects the United States because that military hardware we can deploy as well. And we do.”
Huckabee told the lawmakers that 700,000 Americans live in Israel, making its population equivalent to that of a congressional district.
“Every time we have members of Congress come over here, I always say to them, ‘Guys, welcome to the 436th Congressional District of the United States,’” he said.