LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KATV) — Three years after Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee returned to his home state Wednesday to mark an anniversary he says continues to shape Israel, the United States and the Middle East.

The former Arkansas governor joined Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Arkansas State Capitol for a commemoration of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks before attending an “Arkansas Remembers” reception at the Governor’s Mansion.

For Huckabee, the anniversary is about making sure the events of that day are not forgotten or rewritten.

“They forget that 1,200 people weren’t just murdered; they were massacred, butchered, in the most unspeakable of ways,” Huckabee said. “Hamas is a terror organization. They killed civilians. They intentionally tried to inflict as much suffering as humanly possible on men, women, children, elderly people.”

He described the attack as “one of the most horrendous acts of savagery in human history,” and said the brutality of Oct. 7 has to be considered when looking at everything that followed.

“There are people who act like Israel overreacted when they went into Gaza to try to get 251 hostages out,” Huckabee said.

Among those killed were 46 Americans, something Huckabee said he believes gets overlooked in the American conversation about the war.

“Too many Americans forget that there were 46 Americans murdered that day,” he said.

He said the hostages were subjected to brutal treatment after being taken from Israel.

“They forget that those people who were taken hostage were starved, beaten, tortured, raped, both men and women, and left, in many cases, killed because they were no longer of use to Hamas,” Huckabee said.

“Israel had no choice but to try to get those hostages out,” he added.

Huckabee said the scale of the attack can be difficult for Americans to fully grasp, comparing the number killed and taken hostage to what the same proportion would mean in the United States.

“If it had happened in America, the equivalent of 1,200 people murdered and 250 hostages would be the equivalent of 40,000 Americans murdered in one day and 10,000 people taken hostage,” he said.

Three years later, the anniversary is also unfolding against the backdrop of new tragedy for one of Israel’s top diplomats.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter had been expected to join Huckabee for Wednesday’s events in Arkansas. Instead, he remains with his son, Neria, who was seriously injured in a September car-ramming attack in the West Bank.

“The reason that Ambassador Leiter is not here is because his son was brutally attacked by Palestinian terrorists who rammed a vehicle into him,” Huckabee said. “He’s in very critical condition, and so Ambassador Leiter obviously is at his bedside.”

Neria Leiter, an IDF reservist and American citizen, suffered a severe head injury in the attack and remains in serious condition.

“Ambassador Leiter lost an older son in Gaza in combat against Hamas,” Huckabee said.

His father has also lost another son since the Oct. 7 attacks: Maj. Moshe Yedidya Leiter was killed fighting in Gaza in November 2023.

“People need to recognize the tremendous price that Israelis across the entire spectrum have paid for what happened three years ago,” he said, pointing to the Israeli soldiers killed and wounded during the fighting and the broader impact on the country.

While Huckabee reflected on the human cost of the war, Arkansas was also marking its increasingly direct role in the U.S.-Israel defense relationship.

Earlier Wednesday, Sanders, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton and U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman toured the R2S facility in East Camden, where the company marked the delivery of its first Tamir interceptor missiles produced in Arkansas for Israel’s Iron Dome system.

The facility represents a $63 million investment and is expected to create up to 60 jobs. R2S will also produce the SkyHunter variant of the Tamir missile for the U.S. Marine Corps.

But the anniversary conversation in Arkansas quickly expanded beyond Oct. 7 and toward the ongoing conflict with Iran.

Asked when he believes that war will end, Huckabee pointed to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its control over a major international shipping route.

“It will end when Iran finally realizes that the president means business when he says Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” Huckabee said. “They’re not going to enrich uranium, and they’re not going to close the Strait of Hormuz.”

Huckabee said Iran is in “the weakest condition it’s been in in 47 and a half years,” arguing that military and economic pressure has left the country facing significant internal challenges.

He said the administration has taken a two-pronged approach.

“The president ordered, first of all, military action that weakened them substantially in their ability to fight, and then he’s weakened them economically,” Huckabee said.

And while the conflict is playing out thousands of miles from Arkansas, Huckabee said he believes Americans should see a direct connection between what happens in the Middle East and what happens at home.

“If everybody thinks this is about Israel, they’re not paying attention,” Huckabee said. “It was never just about Israel. It was always about the United States.”

He pointed to Iran and its regional proxies as a threat to Americans, saying, “Iran and its proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, have killed thousands of Americans.”

That threat, Huckabee argued, is also part of the reason the war has economic consequences for people in Arkansas.

With the prolonged conflict affecting energy markets and putting pressure on gas and food prices, Huckabee was asked what he would say to Arkansans who are frustrated and simply want the war to end.

“So it’s okay to be upset,” he said. “We’re all upset with prices that we don’t want.”

But Huckabee said he believes that frustration should be weighed against what he considers the larger security risk.

“As long as they understand who they need to be mad at, they don’t need to be mad at the president or our allies across the region and world,” he said.

He argued that the threat posed by Iran extends to American security itself.

“We pay a price right now,” Huckabee said, “but it’s not the price we would pay if they ever were to, God forbid, have a nuclear weapon and aim it at the United States.”

That same argument shaped Huckabee’s response when asked whether the U.S. involvement in the conflict is consistent with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

“This is absolutely putting America first,” Huckabee said. “None of the actions are taken to benefit anybody other than America and the American people.”

He said the United States is working with Israel and other regional allies because they face what he described as a common threat.

“We do it in alliance with some of our partners because they are under the same threat,” Huckabee said. “But this isn’t about Israel or Qatar. It’s not about Saudi Arabia. It’s not about Bahrain.”

“This is about the United States of America and its 330 million citizens who are at risk if, God forbid, Iran ever gets a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Three years after Oct. 7, Huckabee’s return to Arkansas brought the anniversary home in a way that connected the attack’s history to the state’s present-day role in the region.

At the Capitol, Arkansas leaders gathered to remember the victims and the hostages. In Camden, Arkansas workers are now producing the interceptors used by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. And from the war with Iran to the price of gas at home, Huckabee argued that what happens in the Middle East is no longer something Americans can view from a distance.

He says the anniversary is ultimately a reminder that the consequences of Oct. 7 are still unfolding — for Israel, for the United States and for families whose lives were permanently changed three years ago.