Mike Huckabee, former Christian Pastor, Governor of Arkansas, TV Host and current Republican Presidential candidate recently referenced the Holocaust by likening the Iran nuclear deal to “marching the Israelis to the door of the oven”. Huckabee’s comments drew an immediate tsunami of unmitigated condemnation from the majority of the press. In addition, a plethora of individuals and organizations professing their moral rectitude jumped into the fray registering their utter shock and indignation whilst purportedly protecting the honor of the Jewish people, and the millions of lives lost in the Holocaust. These stalwart defenders include the Democratic National Committee, the National Jewish Democratic Council, the Anti-Defamation League, Hillary Clinton and even the Iran- treaty architect himself, Barack Obama.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, and former Special Assistant to President Obama called Huckabee’s comments “completely out of line and unacceptable”. Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Schultz Wasserman said “Cavalier analogies to the Holocaust are unacceptable. Mike Huckabee must apologize to the Jewish community and to the American people for this grossly irresponsible statement.”
The National Jewish Democratic Council in lock step with the DNC denounced Huckabee’s comments “in the strongest terms possible”, saying “To state that President Obama is leading Israelis ‘to the door of the oven’ is not only disgustingly offensive to the president and the White House, but shows utter, callous disregard for the millions of lives lost in the Shoah and to the pain still felt by their descendants today.” To top it off Democratic Presidential front-runner candidate, Hillary Clinton, found his comments “offensive” and “totally unacceptable.” Barack Obama deemed Huckabee’s attack on him “outrageous” and “ridiculous, if it weren’t so sad”. He further accused Mr. Huckabee of trying to “get attention”.
Mr. Huckabee must have really struck a raw nerve with these Iran- deal designers, defenders and apologists because what he said, as painful and as offensive his Holocaust analogy is to the President and to the White House, it is essentially accurate.
Of all the Holocaust analogies uttered during the past half- century by innumerable politicians, pundits and fools, roughly 99.99% of them are outrageously inappropriate. In fact one of these analogies was uttered by Mike Huckabee in 2011 when he compared the United States’ fiscal future to the Nazi genocide. That analogy was as inaccurate as it was blatantly preposterous.
However, when Mike Huckabee now compares the effect of the Iran deal to “marching the Israelis to the door of the oven”, he can certainly be criticized for being literally incorrect, but he should be applauded for being conceptually accurate. Meaning that as a result of this deal, the Iranians may not purchase crematoria and lead 6 million Israelis into them, but they will be flush with $1.5 billion dollars which they will use to fund Hamas and Hezbollah to rain missiles upon Israel, and they will certainly acquire nuclear weapons in a decade or less which they will immediately point directly at Israel attempting to turn their genocidal rhetoric into reality. If left unhindered, in the event of such a cataclysm, the Israelis will not be incinerated in ovens but by nuclear bombs and/or other conventional weapons (Heaven forbid). Thus, although Huckabee’s analogy may not literally be true, the invoked visual apocalyptic imagery of fiery ashes is conceptually accurate, and thus he is sounding the appropriate alarm.
Whereas Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama might find these words “offensive”, “totally unacceptable”, “outrageous” and “ridiculous if it weren’t so sad”, it is Israel that justifiably believes that this Iran deal is offensive, unacceptable, and ridiculously sad. The deal’s lifting of sanctions, its succor and support for global terrorism, its weak to non-existent inspections, and the ultimate nuclear capability which it bestows upon Iran, adds up to the greatest existential threat facing both Israel and the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
As noted by many historians and casual observers, President Obamas total capitulation to Iran is not unlike the capitulation of the Western powers to Adolph Hitler who also spelled out his desire to annihilate the Jewish people. That is why 78% of Jewish Israelis say that the Iran deal endangers their country and why 74% of Israelis say that the deal won’t stop a nuclear Iran. That is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls the deal a “stunning historic mistake”, and is ready to “go all the way” in protesting the Iran nuclear deal in the US, despite the low prospects of Congress derailing it, and even risking further U.S. alienation.
Therefore to Chairwoman Schultz Wasserman, I say that Huckabee made an “accurate”, not a “cavalier” analogy to the Holocaust. To Hillary Clinton and President Obama I say that what Huckabee said was not “offensive, inflammatory, unacceptable, outrageous or ridiculous if it weren’t so sad”. These adjectives are far more applicable to the deal that Mike Huckabee is criticizing.
I say to the Jewish National Democratic Council that Huckabee’s statement did not show “utter, callous disregard for the millions of lives lost in the Shoah and to the pain still felt by their descendants today. “As a child of Holocaust survivors I say that Huckabee honored the millions of lives lost to the Shoah, and that he respects the pain still felt by their descendants today, by having the guts to speak up for the defense of the Jewish people and for Israel, and in so doing hoping to prevent another Holocaust.
No! Ms. Schultz Wasserman. Mike Huckabee need not apologize to the Jewish community and to the American people for his statements. The Jewish community should embrace and thank him for his moral clarity, and for alerting the United States Legislature to the potential horrors of the Iranian deal with the Herculean hope of preventing its passage.
It is ironic that it is a courageous Christian pastor who has the fortitude and vision to speak up in order to protect Israel, while cowardly Jewish dyed- in- the- wool progressive democrats defy their basic survival instincts choosing to malign Huckabee, while aligning themselves with the President and his misguided Iran-deal which threatens the existence of Israel.
Huckabee by speaking truth to power is following in the footsteps of another evangelical Christian, Arthur James Balfour (1848-1930), who pioneered his eponymous Declaration in 1917 which averred that “His Majesty’s Government accepts the principle that Palestine should be reconstituted as the National Home of the Jewish people.”
Nathan Moskowitz is author of “Kuzmino Chronicles: Memoirs of Teenage Holocaust Survival”, and “The Color of Prophecy: Visualizing the Bible in a New Light”.
