{"id":491349,"date":"2026-02-22T04:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T04:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491349\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T04:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T04:40:07","slug":"huckabees-israel-land-remarks-condemned-as-dangerous-as-controversy-rumbles-on-mike-huckabee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491349\/","title":{"rendered":"Huckabee\u2019s Israel land remarks condemned as \u2018dangerous\u2019 as controversy rumbles on | Mike Huckabee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arab and Islamic countries jointly condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee<\/a>, who suggested Israel had a biblical right to a vast swath of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Huckabee, a former Baptist minister and a fervent Israel supporter, was speaking on the podcast of Tucker Carlson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an episode released on Friday, Carlson pushed Huckabee on the meaning of a biblical verse sometimes interpreted as saying that Israel<\/a> is entitled to the land between the Nile River in Egypt and the Euphrates in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

In response, Huckabee said: \u201cIt would be fine if they took it all.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

When pressed, however, he continued that Israel was \u201cnot asking to take all of that\u201d, adding: \u201cIt was somewhat of a hyperbolic statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The backlash widened sharply on Sunday as more than a dozen Arab and Islamic governments \u2013 alongside three major regional organisations \u2013 issued a joint statement denouncing the US diplomat\u2019s comments as \u201cdangerous and inflammatory\u201d.<\/p>\n

The statement, released by the United Arab Emirates\u2019 foreign ministry, was signed by the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia<\/a>, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and the State of Palestine, as well as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council.<\/p>\n

They said the comments contravene the UN Charter and efforts to de-escalate the Gaza war and advance a political horizon for a comprehensive settlement.<\/p>\n

Earlier, several Arab states had issued unilateral condemnations.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia described the ambassador\u2019s words as \u201creckless\u201d and \u201cirresponsible\u201d, while Jordan said it was \u201can assault on the sovereignty of the countries of the region\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kuwait decried what it called a \u201cflagrant violation of the principles of international law\u201d, while Oman said the comments \u201cthreatened the prospects for peace\u201d and stability in the region.<\/p>\n

Egypt\u2019s foreign ministry reaffirmed \u201cthat Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory or any other Arab lands\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian Authority said on X that Huckabee\u2019s words \u201ccontradict US President Donald Trump\u2019s rejection of (Israel) annexing the West Bank<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Huckabee published two posts on X further clarifying his position on other topics touched upon in the interview, but did not address his remark about the biblical verse.<\/p>\n

The speaker of the Israeli parliament, Amir Ohana, praised Huckabee on X for his general pro-Israel stance in the interview, and accused Carlson of \u201cfalsehoods and manipulations\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arab and Islamic countries jointly condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who suggested Israel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-491349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}