Democrats: Tell Mike Huckabee to Go to Hell

Today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a nomination hearing for far-right, ultraconservative former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to become US ambassador to Israel. Any senator who believes US foreign policy should be rooted in human rights and international law—and who doesn’t want extremist Christian fundamentalism governing our politics—should fight back against this nomination with everything they have.  

If Huckabee simply agreed with the Trump administration’s dangerous and inhumane Israel policies, that would be reason enough to oppose his selection. But that’s just part of the problem. Huckabee also believes in a strain of Christian fundamentalism called Christian Zionism, in which people quite literally pray for war in Palestine/Israel as a sign of Christ’s impending return. For Christian Zionists, US policy should be rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible that suggests Jewish conquest over the entirety of historic Palestine is a necessary precondition for the rapture and the return of Christ. Christian Zionists believe that when this happens, non-Christians will either convert to Christianity or burn in eternal hell.

While Christian Zionist groups pretend that their support for the State of Israel is rooted in a care for Jewish safety, this is a ruse. As journalist Shane Burley explains, “While Christian Zionists may be the most fervent supporters of Israel and will often perform affinity for Jews in as public a way as possible, their attitudes towards Jews are more in line with traditional antisemitism than almost any other modern perspective.”

In other words, Huckabee wants to keep arming and fueling the Israeli government’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians because he believes it will help usher in the end times. For Huckabee, cataclysmic violence like the Israeli military’s destruction of Gaza is not a violation of international law or a stain on our collective humanity, but a sign of the pending return of Christ. And Jews are nothing but a tool to fulfill his messianic vision. As for Palestinians, they don’t count as people at all—something Huckabee made explicit when he declared, “There is no such thing as a Palestinian.”

When you’re trying to bring about the apocalypse, international law and human rights tend to take a back seat. Huckabee is an outspoken supporter of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise and theft of Palestinian land, even refusing to use the term “West Bank,” insisting instead on referring to the biblical “Judea and Samaria”. He has even helped literally lay the bricks of an illegal Israeli settlement on Palestinian land, adding that he might want to buy a house in an illegal settlement himself one day.

Of course, you don’t have to be a Christian Zionist to ignore international law. (As the Biden administration showed, you don’t have to be a Republican either.) There are already signs that Huckabee will join forces with Representative Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick for United Nations ambassador; when he learned of her nomination, Huckabee shared his hope that she would “jackhammer” the institution. But his particular strain of extremism has been gaining traction for decades in the US government. Christian Zionists are an ascendant force in American politics and have formed an unholy alliance with Donald Trump. Trump’s secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, is also a Christian Zionist. He has close ties with Christian nationalist groups and celebrates the Crusades as an admirable example of European Christian might. Christians United for Israel (CUFI) is the largest pro-Israel organization in the US. It boasts over 8 million members, more than the total population of American Jews. CUFI’s founder, pastor John Hagee, called Huckabee’s nomination an “inspiring choice.” Hagee regularly expresses his supposed love for Israel under the guise of caring about Jewish people, but he has a history of heinous antisemitism, including saying that God sent Hitler as a hunter to push the Jewish people to Israel.

The Trump regime and its allies in the Christian Zionist movement are racists and antisemites posing as protectors of the Jewish people in a game of misdirection and lies. They applaud and cheer as the Israeli government massacres Palestinians in Gaza with scorched-earth bombing campaigns, cuts off humanitarian aid and electricity to 2 million people, uses starvation as a weapon of war, and drives tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank. And back in the United States, they attack activists who are working to end Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, such as the recent targeting of students and academics for abduction and deportation, including Mahmoud Khalil and Badar Khan Suri.

We are witnessing the unfolding of an authoritarian and fascist regime that cloaks itself under the guise of protecting Jews, while actually platforming Christian Nationalists, white nationalists, and Nazi sympathizers, dismantling our social justice movements, crushing free speech, and punishing anti-war activists.

The Democratic Party has shamefully collaborated, enabled, and fueled the Israeli government’s violence and atrocities against Palestinians, including over the last 17 months of genocide. But millions of people of conscience, including the majority of Democratic voters, are clear in their demand for the US government to stop arming Israel, and are steadfast in their defense of civil liberties here at home. Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have an opportunity this week to stand against yet another dangerous Trump nominee who is dead set on mass violence and destruction. They need to wake up and act now before it is too late.